The Texas State Fair ranks first? Jeez, wild horses couldn't drag me to that mouth-breather convention. Plus it's in Dallas. Hell naw.
FYI, regarding Fargo, most of the people you will encounter here do not have that heavy accent, but certainly some do have it. If you happen to watch bystander interviews on the TV news, or tune into talk radio, there are no shortage of people with some degree of that accent, although it is not anywhere close to the majority.
I have found that callers to sports radio shows that want to discuss Hockey, especially Minnesota Wild Hockey fans tend to have the Fargo accent most frequently. They also repeat "Ya know" (very long oooo in Know)about 10 times in a 60 second call.
If walking around and finding bars to have a few drinks at is your thing, then for sure you want to stay in downtown Minneapolis. When I travel to road football games I always try to find a hotel in the core so I can walk to series of places and try some local craft beers and pick up a little local flavor. In some of the Big Ten road stops it is hard to do that, but Minneapolis is probably one of the better road stops for non football activity.
Do not get talked into staying anywhere else other than the cluster of Hotels near the south Nicollet Mall (Hyatt, Hilton, Ivy, Millennium) or the few a little further north in the Hennepin/ 1st Ave area near 6th/7th Streets (Radisson, Marriott, Loews, W, Westin) The Aloft or previously mentioned Depot Renaissance are nice hotels and still downtown, but a little more remote, so you are not looking at walking out the front door and being within a block or two of bunch of fun bars and restaurants like you are at some of the other places.
If you wait until the days right before the game you should be able to get a great hotel for $60 to 85 per night on Priceline, Trivago, Booking.com or even Hotwire.
