Below are some schools you may want to consider, based on your stated preferences.
Appalachian State (NC) has about 19k undergrads, big spirit, D1 football, and a variety of majors that might suit your interests, as well as the option to create your own major. Additionally, it falls within budget at sticker price. Some of the potential majors are linked below:
Duquesne doesn’t have the same degree of school spirit as Pitt, but it does have D1 football. This Jesuit school of about 5200 undergrads allows to students to design their own major and also has some options that may be of interest such as International Security Studies or the Criminal Justice concentration within sociology or Cybersecurity studies. Looking at the net prices at various income levels, I suspect that Duquesne could fall within budget:
Marshall (WV): About 8200 undergrads
Middle Tennessee State: About 18k undergrads
I don’t have time to go into as much depth on these other schools, but these are some others I would investigate:
Schools with greater levels of school spirit around sports
- Michigan State: About 45k undergrads
- Oklahoma State: About 21k undergrads
- Texas Tech: About 33k undergrads
- U. of Central Florida: About 59k undergrads
- U. of North Dakota: About 10k undergrads
- West Virginia U.: About 19k undergrads
Schools that don’t have the same degree of enthusiasm for sports as above, but generally still have some:
- East Tennessee State (TN): About 11k undergrads
- Miami U. (OH): About 16k undergrads
- Rowan (NJ): About 15k undergrads
- Towson (MD): About 17k undergrads
- U. at Albany (NY): About 12k undergrads
- U. of Alabama-Birmingham: About 12k undergrads
- U. of North Carolina - Wilmington: About 14k undergrads
- U. of Southern Mississippi: About 10k undergrads