How do you define the Midwest?

[MantyMadTown]

Whenever I would travel from Tennessee to Michigan, I considered everything south of I-64 to be the South, everything between I-64 to I-70 to be the transition zone, and north of I-70 to be the Midwest.  This also (usually) corresponded with whether or not I would see Krystal or White Castle on the blue logo signs and whether I would see Meijer stores, which I consider to be a staple of the Midwest.  The one exception that I know of is that there is a Meijer in Richmond (?), KY on I-75, which is south of I-64 and I believe it is in Berea that has both a White Castle and Krystal logo on their blue logo sign.

There's a Meijer even farther south than Richmond now, but it's on I-65 at Bowling Green. And London, even farther south than Berea, has a Krystal (Exit 38) and White Castle (Exit 41).

I saw a Culver's on I-65 at Bowling Green when I went to Tennessee 4 years ago.

[hbelkins]

Whenever I would travel from Tennessee to Michigan, I considered everything south of I-64 to be the South, everything between I-64 to I-70 to be the transition zone, and north of I-70 to be the Midwest.  This also (usually) corresponded with whether or not I would see Krystal or White Castle on the blue logo signs and whether I would see Meijer stores, which I consider to be a staple of the Midwest.  The one exception that I know of is that there is a Meijer in Richmond (?), KY on I-75, which is south of I-64 and I believe it is in Berea that has both a White Castle and Krystal logo on their blue logo sign.

There's a Meijer even farther south than Richmond now, but it's on I-65 at Bowling Green. And London, even farther south than Berea, has a Krystal (Exit 38) and White Castle (Exit 41).

I saw a Culver's on I-65 at Bowling Green when I went to Tennessee 4 years ago.

Yes, and there's also one at Somerset. I have dined at both.

[SD Mapman]

For whatever it's worth, most Plains residents consider themselves Midwestern.

For me, the Midwest is the Dakotas (minus the Black Hills cause we're mountain men), Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, northern Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

Even though Indiana and Ohio are similar they just have an "Eastern" feel to me.

I would see Meijer stores, which I consider to be a staple of the Midwest.

I've never been in a Meijer... I have been in a HyVee though!

[Bruce]

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

[Big John]

^^ The NCAA used to have a mideast regional for the basketball tournament and still does for a few sports.

[MantyMadTown]

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

No. By that logic, the Great Plains states would be part of the "east", when they're really not.

[SSOWorld]

How about the middle.

[hbelkins]

^^ The NCAA used to have a mideast regional for the basketball tournament and still does for a few sports.

Which included the Big Ten, SEC and Ohio Valley. And if independents like Notre Dame or Marquette got bids, they went to the Mideast. The East was the ACC and the schools/conferences in the northeast. Midwest was Big 8, SWC and I think Missouri Valley. West was Big Sky and Pac 8.

Now they're called East, Southeast, Midwest and West, but geography has nothing to do with where conference champions are placed the way it did back then.

[jon daly]

I got nostalgic reading some of those conference names, HB. I remember that Indiana State was a MVC school when Larry Bird was there and they might still be. I guess that makes Indian the Midwest .

[vdeane]

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

No. By that logic, the Great Plains states would be part of the "east", when they're really not.

That might be why I have a hard time thinking of the Great Plains as part of the Midwest.  I tend to think of the Midwest as being in the eastern part of the country.

[hbelkins]

I got nostalgic reading some of those conference names, HB. I remember that Indiana State was a MVC school when Larry Bird was there and they might still be. I guess that makes Indian the Midwest .

Louisville was MVC for years. I don't remember when they left the MVC for the old Metro Conference, but it wasn't until around 1980 or '81 that the whole concept of Louisville playing Kentucky got to be a Thing. The NCAA tried to set that up in the 1982 tournament, but UK lost to Middle Tennessee in the NCAA (that was back when the top seeds in each region got byes, and Louisville had a bye.) The following year was when the teams played in the Mideast Region finals in Knoxville, and then that fall, they played a regular-season game.

One of the two over-the-air Lexington TV stations we got carried Louisville games, so we got to see a lot of Drake, Creighton and other MVC schools.

[MantyMadTown]

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

No. By that logic, the Great Plains states would be part of the "east", when they're really not.

That might be why I have a hard time thinking of the Great Plains as part of the Midwest.  I tend to think of the Midwest as being in the eastern part of the country.

I would still include Minnesota and Iowa at the very least.

[triplemultiplex]

Still call it the Midwest because it's "mid way to the actually West".
The actual West has deserts and mountains.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

However the NCAA screws it up by calling one of the "sides" of the March Madness the Midwest. Considering the other three "sides" are South, East and West they really should call that one North instead of Midwest (as I do anyway).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

However the NCAA screws it up by calling one of the "sides" of the March Madness the Midwest. Considering the other three "sides" are South, East and West they really should call that one North instead of Midwest (as I do anyway).

But that's how the US is divided, so I don't see anything wrong with this.

[kphoger]

I've lived in Illinois and Kansas my whole life, grew up in the northwestern corner of Kansas.  It never occurred to me that I was not living in the Midwest.  To me, the Great Plains is a subsection of the Midwest.

To me, the Midwest extends from the Front Range to Ohio, and from the Canadian border to whatever point begins the Mid-south.  My thinking might be more agricultural in nature than anything:  the Midwest is the part of the country between the East and the West with extensive large-scale farming.

[dvferyance]

Whenever I would travel from Tennessee to Michigan, I considered everything south of I-64 to be the South, everything between I-64 to I-70 to be the transition zone, and north of I-70 to be the Midwest.  This also (usually) corresponded with whether or not I would see Krystal or White Castle on the blue logo signs and whether I would see Meijer stores, which I consider to be a staple of the Midwest.  The one exception that I know of is that there is a Meijer in Richmond (?), KY on I-75, which is south of I-64 and I believe it is in Berea that has both a White Castle and Krystal logo on their blue logo sign.

There's a Meijer even farther south than Richmond now, but it's on I-65 at Bowling Green. And London, even farther south than Berea, has a Krystal (Exit 38) and White Castle (Exit 41).

I saw a Culver's on I-65 at Bowling Green when I went to Tennessee 4 years ago.

Culver's goes beyond the midwest now. They have expanded to Florida and Arizona.

[kphoger]

I might have missed a post or two, but this is Reply #93 and I could only find one user on the thread so far (TXtoNJ) who both (a) lives between California and the Mississippi and (b) does not consider Kansas to be part of the Midwest.  And the trend seems to be that, the farther someone lives from this area, the less likely they are to consider Kansas part of the Midwest.  Plenty of posts from the IL/IN area stating KC should be part of the Midwest, but the rest of Kansas shouldn't.  Plenty of posts from the Atlantic states excluding Kansas in its entirety.  In contrast, I think all of us who live either in Kansas or KC or Oklahoma consider Kansas to be part of the Midwest.

This confirms the statement below:

For whatever it's worth, most Plains residents consider themselves Midwestern.

[tdindy88]

Instead of using Culver's or Meijier's to determine the coverage of the Midwest, how about Menards? Outside one or two in Kentucky and Wyoming it's pretty much Midwestern territory.

[vdeane]

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

No. By that logic, the Great Plains states would be part of the "east", when they're really not.

That might be why I have a hard time thinking of the Great Plains as part of the Midwest.  I tend to think of the Midwest as being in the eastern part of the country.

Expanding this, I tend to think of the Midwest as "the northeastern part of the country that isn't actually part of the Northeast".  The Mississippi River, to me, is a Very Important Boundary (as is the Ohio River).

[MantyMadTown]

However the NCAA screws it up by calling one of the "sides" of the March Madness the Midwest. Considering the other three "sides" are South, East and West they really should call that one North instead of Midwest (as I do anyway).

But that's how the US is divided, so I don't see anything wrong with this.

To me the North means the Northeast plus the Midwest. Kind of like the old boundaries between North and South during the Civil War.

I've lived in Illinois and Kansas my whole life, grew up in the northwestern corner of Kansas.  It never occurred to me that I was not living in the Midwest.  To me, the Great Plains is a subsection of the Midwest.

To me, the Midwest extends from the Front Range to Ohio, and from the Canadian border to whatever point begins the Mid-south.  My thinking might be more agricultural in nature than anything:  the Midwest is the part of the country between the East and the West with extensive large-scale farming.

Doesn't that mean you would consider places like Denver to be part of the Midwest? I'm pretty sure anybody in Colorado would consider themselves Western.

"Midwest" is such an outdated term for a part of the country that is far closer to the eastern edge of the continent.

We should call it the Mideast and let heads explode.

No. By that logic, the Great Plains states would be part of the "east", when they're really not.

That might be why I have a hard time thinking of the Great Plains as part of the Midwest.  I tend to think of the Midwest as being in the eastern part of the country.

Expanding this, I tend to think of the Midwest as "the northeastern part of the country that isn't actually part of the Northeast".  The Mississippi River, to me, is a Very Important Boundary (as is the Ohio River).

I would very much consider Minnesota and Iowa part of the Midwest, despite being west of the Mississippi.

[MantyMadTown]

I would see Meijer stores, which I consider to be a staple of the Midwest.

I've never been in a Meijer... I have been in a HyVee though!

We have a HyVee out in Madison. Three, actually, in the Madison area. Those are the only HyVee stores in Wisconsin.

We're also getting a Meijer in my hometown as well. Idk when it's going to be built, but land acquisition has already happened and groundbreaking should start soon, either late this year or early next year, so it should be opening within the next few years for sure. Sheboygan's also getting one, too, that they just started working on almost two months ago. Part of the ever expanding Meijer presence in eastern Wisconsin.

[webny99]

Plenty of posts from the IL/IN area stating KC should be part of the Midwest, but the rest of Kansas shouldn't.

Yikes. If anything, I would have that reversed. Anything with ties to Missouri is very distinctly un-Midwestern, being a much better fit with the Mid-South/south in general.
Meanwhile, I agree that Kansas, and to a lesser extent Oklahoma, are very much a part of the Midwest. Excluding some of the most centrally-located and flattest states in the nation from one's definition of Midwest seems a bit foolish - aren't flat and central the geographic qualifiers?

That might be why I have a hard time thinking of the Great Plains as part of the Midwest.  I tend to think of the Midwest as being in the eastern part of the country.

Expanding this, I tend to think of the Midwest as "the northeastern part of the country that isn't actually part of the Northeast".  The Mississippi River, to me, is a Very Important Boundary (as is the Ohio River).

I would very much consider Minnesota and Iowa part of the Midwest, despite being west of the Mississippi.

Yeah, Minnesota and Iowa are very much part of the Midwest. In fact, if I had to pick one single state that is without question, undeniably, part of the Midwest, it would be Iowa. It's very agricultural, and it's a perfect geographic fit, being too far north to have cultural ties to the south, and situated distinctly west of East and east of West.

And I'd include the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas before I'd include Ohio, so there's that.

[hotdogPi]

Plenty of posts from the IL/IN area stating KC should be part of the Midwest, but the rest of Kansas shouldn't.

Yikes. If anything, I would have that reversed. Anything with ties to Missouri is very distinctly un-Midwestern, being a much better fit with the Mid-South/south in general.
Meanwhile, I agree that Kansas, and to a lesser extent Oklahoma, are very much a part of the Midwest. Excluding some of the most centrally-located and flattest states in the nation from one's definition of Midwest seems a bit foolish - aren't flat and central the geographic qualifiers?

It's impossible to include Oklahoma but exclude Missouri.

[SP Cook]

NCAA - The use of "regional" by the NCAA is very dated.  As pointed out, they used to assign teams according to actual geography.  This was because the $$ were in the live gate, and if Kentucky won the SEC and got sent to Louisville, or Indy, or Knoxville or Nashville and so on they sold a lot of tickets. 

Now they have turned the whole thing into an over-analyzed try to make everybody equal thing which sends teams all over.   Because the money is in the TV and one arena is the same as the next, all are just studios, really. 

Outside of games involving local or local ish teams the easiest ticket in live sports to get is the first round NCAA, particularly the day sessions.