Even schools and conferences that normally pay little attention to sports can get very excited when their teams start winning. The Ivy league prides itself in its No Athletic Scholarship rules, but they still compete in Div I sports. Every year the Ivy league champion gets an automatic berth into the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the school in question gets just as excited as any PAC-12 or ACC school that also qualifies. A few years ago Harvard was the conference champion and managed to defeat the much higher ranked Univ. of New Mexico in the opening round of the tournament, and the students and alumni came positively unglued over that victory.
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that my son’s favorite memories of college will be going to the football games. At his school they are always sold out, student section is nuts - and fun. Tons of alumnae come back, everyone tailgates together. It’s an atmosphere to behold. Totally bonding for the students, alums, employees, and town. Camping out for the weekend at the Battle of Bristol with thousands of students from both schools in the campgrounds was THE experience. And academically he’s fine - his major is now regularly ranked in the top 10. The fact that we’re paying instate for this is a bonus 
Ivy League is an NCAA D1 conference, although in the “lower” division for football (FCS).
Among NY public schools, Buffalo is in NCAA D1 FBS (Mid-American Conference), while Stony Brook and Albany are in NCAA D1 FCS (Colonial Athletic Association).
If these are not big enough names, be sure to check your budget, because some of the biggest names are out-of-state public schools that can be expensive (Michigan, Texas, UCLA, etc.). Although if he has high stats and is a football fan, he can roll in a tide of scholarship money at Alabama.
I wouldn’t choose a school that way, but I understand it. At big football schools, gameday can be an all day event: tailgating before the game, watching the game, and going to parties after the game. A lot of the social life of the school can revolve around the football and basketball games.
Both of my children are like your son in terms of shyness. The both had gone to very small high schools and wanted a different college experience with big time sports as part of the equation. My husband and I had come from small LACs and ivies. I have to say it was a great experience for both kids and it did indeed make them more confident and less shy. My DS went to Ohio State so have your son look at OSU. Like my son, most of my students got the National Buckeye and one other scholarship which made it very affordable. My DD goes to Georgia Tech and has had great football and basketball experiences. Sports bond the students and gives them great memories like storming the field.
We made it a point of going out for at least one game and got to join our children in the fun of watching big time sports. I am going to miss it when the youngest graduates. Don’t stress over it, since your son seems pretty clear on what he wants look at those schools. Both my children have said that they are very happy having not attended colleges similar to their parents. Since I was concern about size, both of them were part of honors or special living communities that made their large schools feel smaller.
I think most large cities have decent bagels.
I’m not a football fan but everyone I know at Ohio State appreciates it…and for decades after they leave, too
Our kids both went to a U with a big Div 1 team and it did very well while they attended. S continues to be interested in how HIS football team does, tho he graduated 7 years ago. He hasn’t attended any football games since graduation, as far as we know but he enjoyed it especially freshman year. D attended a few games as well but isn’t much of a fan.
We even attended 2 football games with them on 2 separate years of parents’ weekends.
Fortunately, the school had an excellent engineering and cinema school, so the kids got fine educations.
He’s not picking a school based on the team, he’s using a criteria that makes a school a fit for him. I think it’s perfectly fine criteria. I went to an SEC school and absolutely loved the sports aspect even though we had good teams and bad teams depending on the sport. My oldest daughter doesn’t care and it wasn’t a factor. It may be a factor for my younger daughter.
Depending on the budget, lots of good schools have been mentioned, particularly Vandy (if he doesn’t care if he wins) and USC. Duke clearly has basketball. Stanford has established itself in D-1 football. U Mich and UCLA from publics.
Good luck!
I asked a similar question on a thread I started a few days ago looking for LACs with a sports culture. Richmond, Davidson, Middlebury, Denison, Dickinson, Lafayette came up quite a bit as suggestions.
My S would love to go to any one of these top notch D1 schools but can he get in or can you Pay for it -not us !
Even though I was an engineering major and very serious student, I LOVED UT football games. Hard to describe unless you’ve been to a game with 75,000+ in attendance. Going to the OU-UT game in Dallas every year was one of the highlights of college for me. I feel kind of sad that my kids won’t get to experience that.
My father is 83 and he an his fraternity brothers still get together once a year. Last year or the year before, a group of them (not my father as he lives in Colorado) took a train from Mass to Notre Dame to go to a game. This year they are going to Fenway Park to see UMass play a football game in Nov. It is just an activity to center their reunions around.
Same for me. This year we are having a 40th reunion of my sorority. We picked a weekend were there is a football game, we’ll walk around campus when it is festive and there are tailgates and the buffalo will run and it will be just like we are still in college. Of course other small campuses can have events around football or another sport. Hopkins does it around lacrosse games. My brother still does it around his high school Thanksgiving day game. Same two schools every year, and all the alums go to the game and talk about the good old days.
U of Oregon also has a pretty good sports team some years, even had a Heisman winner. It’s more affordable than some other big Div 1 Us. When I was a student, U of O had an awesome men’s basketball team. Some of the state Us have good teams and academics. Some even give generous merit awards, even for OOS kids with great grades and scores.
Honors colleges are also worth looking in to. Many at publics that are sports powers. Many affordable with scholarships.
Colleges within larger Us also make it cozier–School of engineering or business or other, etc. Honors colleges can also oersobslize bigger Us.
“…our S18 has drawn a line in the sand about only being interested in schools that are in high D1 sports, and we are struggling to get on the same page with him.”
You see some postings on CC where kids only want to go to ivy league schools (sometimes, but not always including “equivalents” such as MIT and Stanford).
To me, this one actually seems both more sensible (a social scene might give him something to do), and also easier to deal with. There is a pretty wide range of universities that have strong D1 sports.
I’ve never had a decent bagel out here in California, even in San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Now I’m craving a good bagel - the kind we had in Ohio where I grew up. Crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside.
Wow, so much great feedback. I feel a lot better about where S18’s head is at after reading all these responses.
Right now his list includes (in obvious order of wish to reality): Vandy, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, UVA, UNC, Wake, W&M, Tulane, Richmond, Northeastern, Pitt, Syracuse, Temple and I’m pretty sure he’d be happy at any of them (being, in general, a pretty easy-going guy).
Big time athletics are ruining college. Way too many resources are being funneled into athletic programs at the expense of academics. Pro football and basketball, especially, are using colleges for their de facto minor leagues. The University of Chicago had the right idea in 1939 when they dropped big time football to better pursue its academic vision.
Just my $.02.