Dayton regularly sells out its basketball games. No football but there’s a lot of school spirit around hoops. And while Dayton’s not a big city, it’s certainly not isolated either. It’s a medium size city of 150,000 with almost a million in the greater metro area.
If I were going to eliminate schools based on urban & big time atmosphere, I’d be starting with Rowen & NJIT. And for that matter, Penn State is about as far from urban as you can get.