re: Ranking the SEC towns

I’ve never understood the hype for Oxford. Good campus but the town is lacking outside of the square. It’s pretty isolated.

Have been(not ranking just a list):
Columbia (MO) - Everyone loves their college town. I love the set up of the town. University bumps up against the downtown/bars scene. Located centrally in the state. Relatively cheap and nice place to live/visit(driving). Best alcohol laws in the country, bar none. Negative being a pretty small airport.
Fayetteville - Would be a Great place to live post-grad, but maybe not my favorite college town. NWA is a low-key cool area. Have friends who live here, and absolutely love it. Fayetteville was actually one of my Top 3 schools for undergrad before I choose Mizzou. Bit weird to have major university in a corner of the state, but that is minimal.

Oxford - Maybe it is just the weekend we visited (2013 football game), but I was pretty disappointed with The Grove and Oxford overall. It was rainy/chilly most of the day, which I'm sure dampers any college town. But, didn't see very many of the hyped sun dresses/tailgate scenes. It was obviously busy, just not what I was hyped up to believe. The town was a bit underwhelming to me, and the biggest thing was realizing that all you SEC states have crappy alcohol laws.

Gainesville - Didn't get to see near as much as I would have liked due to game/flight schedule. (2014) game was great, but the environment was kind of a let down. Saw little of the actual town, so I can't really judge there. I understand it was Muschamp firing time, but for being gassed up on how much games meant in the SEC, the weekend was a little shy on fulfilling that. Cool campus though.

Auburn - No games, just a work thing. I liked the smaller college town vibe that I got from the place. It was a fall, a bye week I think, but it was very beautiful.

Knoxville - The 4OT game in 2012 with, ironically, Derek Dooley. Another coach firing time, so the crowd wasn't nearly as excited as it could have been. Town was ok, but not an exciting trip to me.

Nashville - Not a college town, but a great city to visit. Everyone knows the deal with Nashville.

Lexington - Basketball game in 2014-15. Knew we were awful, but wanted to see the place cheap. One of the most fun times I had in a terrible season. Told Cats fans around us that we would lose by triple digits. Really fun environment once they figured out we were just there for fun and knew we were terrible. Lexington the town, meh. Better than expected, but not a place I need to visit again.

College Station - 2010 football game. Did not like it. Compared to Dallas/FW and Austin (which I love both), College Station just doesn't measure up. I went to Lubbock that year too, and would even put that above CS, despite the awful drive.

Baton Rouge - I just don't get the whole state of Louisiana. Not my cup of tea. I can see how some may like it, but its not for me. (Not a game, just visited)

Have not been: Columbia (SC), Tuscaloosa, Athens, Starkville.

So you’re from Missouri, you absolutely LOVE every northern-SEC place that’s geographically similar to Missouri, and you dislike Baton Rouge/Oxford and haven’t been to most of the “true” SEC towns.

Sounds about right

ETA: you’ve disliked literally everywhere you’ve been south of Fayetteville maybe you just don’t like the south?

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disliked literally everywhere you’ve been south of Fayetteville

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Not really. I liked Auburn, Nashville obviously. Liked what I saw of Gainesville/campus, but the game was a let down, and had limited time to explore. Really the only 3 I didn't like were BR, Oxford, and CS.

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maybe you just don’t like the south?

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I love Texas (Austin, Dallas/FW), just not CS. I've been to plenty of places in the South that I love, just not those particular college towns.

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haven’t been to most of the “true” SEC towns

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I'm really looking forward to Athens. I've heard many great things. Would like to visit the other Columbia too.

Obviously, the games I was at were at some low points for those respective programs, so that may have skewed my experience. But, I said as much on each town.

I visited Columbia, MO for business, not a game. And I have to say, I was impressed with how many good looking girls were around. I didnt' expect that.

OP has linked to this same site three times this month, whatever doing that is called.

It shocked me too. And I was just in town around the stadium for a couple of days. It was a small sample size, but still.

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is atlanta a college town, IYO?

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It could be argued that Atlanta is, indeed, a college town.

Atlanta's home to the College Football Hall of Fame, it's the home of Georgia Tech, UGA is 70 miles away, and all the SEC schools, including NATIONAL schools like USC, Notre Dame, Ohio State, etc., have some of their largest alumni bases in Atlanta. Both USC and UCLA from the West Coast have very large alumni bases there and viewing parties around Atlanta.

Within the 6 million+ population of the area, yeah, it could be said Atlanta's a college town.

I agree with you about Columbia, S.C. I like the town and its offerings, albeit the stadium location. I do like one of their traditions, the Caboose (train), near the stadium. That's one of the coolest things I've seen.