NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – It’s that time of year when a country’s fancies turn to college basketball. A new study by WalletHub ranks nearly 300 U.S. cities with at least one college team on which are the best cities for fans of the sport. How did New Mexico cities like Albuquerque and Las Cruces stack up?
While Albuquerque came in at #252 overall, it came in at #48 when looking at college basketball among large cities. Las Cruces fared a little better overall, coming in at #213 and #55 among mid-size cities.
WalletHub measured each city using nine relevant metrics graded on a 100-point scale. Metrics include the number of college basketball teams in each city, their performance, the number of championship wins, and the number of hall-of-fame head coaches, among others. They used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, ESPN, Sports Reference, NCAA.org, and each team’s website and social media accounts.
