Columbus (880K, shithole); Tuscaloosa (100K); Athens (130K); Auburn (65K); State College (45K); Gainesville (135K); College Station (115K); Norman (125K); South Bend (105K). All of these towns seem to support schools that continue to do juuuuust fine recruiting, and yet people still think that how much of a shithole the town the school happens to be in matters to recruits.
For these kids, football is priorities one through ten, and they're hardly going to be off campus anyway. And the way colleges are tripping over each other to turn their campuses into Club Fucking Med in order to attract more and more out of state[/s] country enrollees, there's really no need[/i] to leave campus. And even if they do want to go hit the town and have some fun, these are all college towns, shitty and small as they may be. College towns are almost universally fun. Near a major college campus, it is guaranteed there will be cool bars, clubs, breweries, whatever.
Columbus, Ohio is a shithole that I'm not planning any vacations to in the near future, but, just checking Google Maps, I sure as shit wouldn't mind checking out Pretentious Barrel House, for instance.
If you're a star football player who can't have fun on any major campus in America, you're doing it wrong. In the meantime, you go where you can win and get drafted.