In which region do Kansas, Nebraska, & the Dakotas fit?

[jimrtex]

Well?

Since Illinois is an eastern state, it makes sense to include the next two tiers as Midwest.

[jimrtex]

To train's comment, MO is becoming less southern as areas like Little Dixie are losing their southern character in favor of a typical rural Midwest. The St Louis and KC metros make up over half the population and they aren't Southern cities. The only really Southern areas are in the Ozarks and Bootheel. The political shifts are more like KS than like the South.

Thanks for the correction.  I was thinking about things like the religion map (where Missouri is strongly Baptist, like the South), the recent addition of Mizzou to the SEC (and commentators saying that that signified Missouri's increasing allegiance to the South rather than the Midwest), as well as a vague sense that the Ozarks were growing while the KC and STL metros weren't.  But obviously that is all from a distance and I'm glad to be corrected.

The Mizzou to the SEC was in large part due to their rejection by the Big 10 who felt that their academics were not a good match to the rest of the conference.

Unlike those for Nebraska?

[jimrtex]

The Mizzou to the SEC was in large part due to their rejection by the Big 10 who felt that their academics were not a good match to the rest of the conference.

Unlike those for Nebraska?

Both Nebraska and Mizzou were considered at about the same time and the academics were found to be different enough for the Big 10 to go with one and not the other according to media reports. There may have been other political factors, but they didn't come out at that time in 2010. It certainly wasn't for TV market or Mizzou would have been preferred.

Nebraska was subsequently removed from the AAU.

Leavenworth is close enough to be considered a suburb of Kansas City, and Illinois would fear losing their St.Louis market.   Columbia is a small town in the middle of the state.

[jimrtex]

Of relevance: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/what-states-are-in-the-midwest/

A very timely link.   Thanks.

It also links to:

Which States Are in the South?

Which suggests that Missouri is like the kid picked for dodgeball.

What they didn't test for was self-identification on a local basis.

[jimrtex]

I would draw the present-day South/West line along I-35.  Each of the major cities along I-35 was once clearly Southern but is now ambiguous in a Northern Virginia kind of way.  However, go an hour east of I-35 and it clearly feels like the South.

Or as Will Rogers observed, "Fort Worth is where the West begins and Dallas is where the East peters out."

[jimrtex]

The Midwest does seem to be of an odd category, combining both "the prairies" and the industrial heartland.  In Canada these are seen as very distinctively different regions.

Though in Canada there is a big gap between the areas.  In the USA one could drive from Cleveland to Omaha and gradually transition.  In Canada, a drive from Hamilton to Winnipeg would cross 100s of miles of low-habitation areas.

And Buffalo would hardly be considered a midwestern city, and Hamilton and Toronto are as far east.  This would leave places like Kitchener and Sarnia as the equivalents of the industrial parts of the US Midwest.  So in Canada, the industrial area stops at around Ohio.

[jimrtex]

Though in Canada there is a big gap between the areas.  In the USA one could drive from Cleveland to Omaha and gradually transition.  In Canada, a drive from Hamilton to Winnipeg would cross 100s of miles of low-habitation areas.

And Buffalo would hardly be considered a midwestern city, and Hamilton and Toronto are as far east.  This would leave places like Kitchener and Sarnia as the equivalents of the industrial parts of the US Midwest.  So in Canada, the industrial area stops at around Ohio.

Yes, good point.  The industrial heartland runs in both the Midwest and Northeast and Lake Ontario is entirely in the "Northeast."  I think Ontario would be considered part of the Northeast if it were part of the US.

If the Maritimes were added, then you might have a 10-state Northeast: NL, PE, NB, NS, ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT.

A 7-state East (QC, ON, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD. DC)

Midwest would be 5 states: OH, IN, IL. MI, WI

Prairies would be SK, MB, ND, SD, MN, NE, IA, KS, MO, OK

(The USPS made Nebraska NE to avoid a conflict with NB, though now it is confused with NV).

Mountain AB, MT, ID, WY, UT, CO, NM, AZ, NE

Pacific BC, WA, OR, CA, HI

North AK, YT, NT, NU

South Atlantic: WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, PR

South: KY, TN, AL, MS, LA, AR

Texas: TX