Tuscaloosa No. 4, Birmingham No. 12: Best Mid-Sized Sports Cities 2026
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Tuscaloosa is the fourth best Mid-Sized Sports City in the U.S., with Birmingham coming in 12th, according to WalletHub, the personal finance site that publishes multiple popular lifestyle rankings throughout the year.
Why Tuscaloosa ranked No. 4
Home to the Alabama Crimson Tide, Tuscaloosa was the highest ranked Mid-Sized city that does not have a major professional sports team.
Ranking 1-3 in the Mid-Sized Cities category are:
- Green Bay, Wisconsin — Green Bay Packers
- Buffalo, New York — Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres
- Salt Lake City, Utah — Utah Jazz
WalletHub based their overall Best Sports City in the U.S. rankings from their previous 2026 surveys on the following sports:
Propelling Tuscaloosa to the top of the list was the town’s support of the football team. Including the big cities, T-Town ranked 29th in the U.S. for that category, the best city on the list without an NFL team.
How did the rest of Alabama’s cities do?
Wallethub graded 399 cities in the U.S. for their 2026 Best Sports City list.
Birmingham, which has UAB, Samford, Miles, the Birmingham Barons, Birmingham Legion and the Birmingham Bulls ranked 12th nationally in the Mid-Sized category and 62nd overall.
Here is how the other Alabama cities fared in the Mid-Sized category:
- Montgomery #36
- Mobile #37
- Huntsville #62
In the Small-Sized city category:
- Troy #21
- Jacksonville #68
- Auburn #109
- Madison #207
Did WalletHub shortchange Auburn?
One city that should have a beef with the WalletHub ranking is Auburn at #109 in the small city category.
Even though Tuscaloosa’s Bryant-Denny stadium is about 12,000 seats larger than Jordan-Hare at Auburn, there really isn’t much daylight between Tuscaloosa and Auburn when it comes to fans packing stadiums, basketball arenas and sports programs.
The most rabid Tide fan would agree, WalletHub needs to rank Auburn higher.
Other than Auburn, did they get the rest of the ranking right? Tell us what you think on social media by tagging us at @bhamnow
