West Lafayette ranked worst college town by Big Ten experts

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – West Lafayette is the least favorite Big Ten city among a poll of conference experts, according to a sports website. It’s a ranking that comes as a surprise to Purdue students.

“It’s surprising,” said Nicole Knutel.

“I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with that ranking,” said Michael Rosenthal.

“It’s surprising to me why it’s in the lower ranking of the Big Ten,” said Christian Koch.

The website athlonsports.com polled 10 Big Ten experts. At the top of the list was Madison, Wisconsin. Bloomington was ranked fifth.

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis believes size played a large part.

“When you compare the city of West Lafayette to all the other Big Ten school, we’re the smallest. We’ve got 50,000 static citizens, so that is indicative of a relatively small town environment,” said Dennis.

The website says there isn’t a whole lot to do either inside or outside, unless you like brick and Greek parties. It suggests a visit to Indianapolis or Chicago.

But Dennis thinks some opinions will change with the State Street Project.

“We’re going to bring in more development, to expand accessibility to some of our businesses, and generally improve the overall environment,” said Dennis.

Even without the State Street Project, students said they wouldn’t have Purdue and West Lafayette any other way.

“It’s a great environment, a bunch of young people, great school, great programs, it’s a great time,” said Koch.

“Chauncey has everything going on and campus is really close as a whole. Everything is right here, right here for you,” said Knutel.

Dennis said when it comes to quality of life here in West Lafayette – that deserves a top ranking.