Keeping It Heel
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March Madness: Chapel Hill tops this college basketball list

By Zack Pearson

CHAPEL HILL, NC- APRIL 4: North Carolina Tar Heels fans react to the team arriving for their welcome-home reception for the NCAA men's basketball team on April 4, 2017 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 71-65 yesterday to win the national championship. (Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC- APRIL 4: North Carolina Tar Heels fans react to the team arriving for their welcome-home reception for the NCAA men's basketball team on April 4, 2017 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 71-65 yesterday to win the national championship. (Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images) /
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Chapel Hill topped this list as we head into the NCAA Tournament

The city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina knows good basketball. It’s home to the University of North Carolina which has won six national championships, with the latest one coming in 2017.

The Tar Heels are a college basketball blue blood with a long list of icons like Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Phil Ford, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Sean May and  Tyler Hansbrough to name a few.

It’s a basketball powerhouse.

With the calendar flipping to March, that means we are approaching the NCAA Tournament and March Madness. UNC will look to make it three-straight Final Fours and a back-to-back national championship when they take the court in the tournament next week.

To celebrate March Madness, Wallet Hub put together a study of the top cities for college basketball, releasing it on Tuesday morning.

There’s the usual suspects in the Top 10 including Durham, Lawrence, Lexington, Bloomington and East Lansing. But at the top, only one city remains.

And that city is Chapel Hill.

Yep, Chapel Hill took the top spot in the study beating out No. 2 Lawrence, No. 3 Los Angeles, No. 4 Durham and No. 5 Lexington. Go and tell that to any Duke or Kentucky fans that you know.

As for the methodology, the site used some key metrics to come up with the findings. They used a system of nine metrics:

  • Number of College Basketball (Division 1) Teams:  (~14.29 Points)
  • Performance Level of College Basketball (Division 1) Team(s): Full Weight (~14.29 Points)
    Note: This metric was calculated by dividing “Number of Wins” by “Total Games Played” and using the past three seasons’ averages.
  • Number of Basketball (Division 1) Championship Wins: Full Weight (~14.29 Points)
  • Number of College Basketball (Division 1) Regular Season Championship Wins: Half Weight (~7.14 Points)
  • Number of Hall of Fame Head Coaches: Full Weight (~14.29 Points)
  • Minimum College Basketball (Division 1) Season Ticket Price: Half Weight (~7.14 Points)
  • College-Basketball Fans Engagement: Sesqui-Weight (~21.43 Points)
    Note: This metric was calculated by adding “Number of Twitter Followers” and “Number of Facebook ‘Likes’ per Capita.”
  • Number of Coaches in Past 10 Seasons: Quarter Weight (~3.57 Points)
    Note: “Past 10 Seasons” include seasons 2007–2008 to 2016–2017.
  • College-Basketball Stadium Capacity: Quarter Weight (~3.57 Points)

The Tar Heels winning the 2017 National Championship did help, along with their recent success including number of college basketball regular season wins.

For the top five, the number of coaches in the past 10 seasons really didn’t matter outside of UCLA. UNC, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky haven’t made a coaching change in that span with John Calipari being the closest in 2009.

To see the entire study and other results including ticket prices, stadium accessibility and more, please visit Wallet Hub.

Next: Here's why Theo Pinson is UNC's X-Factor

North Carolina returns to action on Wednesday night in the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn. They will host the winner of Wake Forest and Syracuse.

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