When deciding on college, most high school students and their families think of academics first and foremost. But for many others, a college tradition rooted in athletic ability is just as important.
Public schools dominate:
Nearly 70% of that list of schools that excel in the classroom and in the field are made up of large state universities. This shouldn’t come as a complete surprise considering that larger schools are known for their athletic success and can spend a lot of money on athletics. According to the latest data from the Department of Education, 22 of the 25 highest spending colleges and universities are public schools – the three highest spending were the University of Texas at Austin at $ 155 million and Ohio State University at $ 151 million and University of Michigan for $ 140 million.
Two of the three exceptions – Stanford University and the University of Southern California – top this list, spending $ 112 million and $ 106 million, respectively.
The west coast wins:
Another notable fact is that the top three schools and four of the top six are in the Golden State.
Stanford (112 titles of all time), University of California, Los Angeles (114) and USC (104) dominate above all in athletics and form the top three of the national championships by a large margin. By comparison, the unrated Oklahoma State University, the school with the fourth-highest national championships, has won just 51 titles. The fourth dominant California school, University of California, Berkeley, has won 37 titles.
With all three of California’s best schools in the top 50 of the 2017 Top Colleges List, it would make sense for students interested in athletics to head west.
And it’s true: all four universities rank in the top 25 total applicants, with UCLA (92,000 applications) and Cal Berkley (79,000 applications) ranking first and second in the latest IPEDS data.
Methodology:
The metric used to determine which schools have historically been “dominated” athletes was based on the entire NCAA Division I championships and national soccer championships. For a school to qualify, it needs to be in the top 1% of total NCAA championships of all time – which is loud NCAA records, a total of 1,949 national titles were won (NCAA and soccer), which means that at least 20 championships had to be considered for this list.
As a result, well-known schools like Duke University (16 titles) did not make the cut.
The athletic dominance scale was then compared to the list of FORBES America’s Top Colleges. The best school in this academic / athletic dominance ranking is Stanford, which is the No. 2 school overall. Louisiana State University was ranked 20th on that list, while it was ranked lowest overall in the college rankings at number 219.
The 25 schools on the following list all excel both academically and athletically:
1. Stanford University
2. University of California, Los Angeles
3. University of Southern California
4. University of Texas at Austin
5th University of Michigan
6. University of California, Berkeley
7. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
8. Yale University
9. Princeton Universityton
10. Pennsylvania State University
11. Notre Dame University
12. University of Florida
13. University of Virginia
14. University of Maryland
15. University of Wisconsin
16. Ohio State University
17. University of Georgia
18. University of Denver
19. Villanova University
20. Louisiana State University
21. University of Minnesota
22. University of Connecticut
23. University of Oklahoma, Norman
24. University of Colorado
25. Indiana University, Bloomington
25 Top Colleges That Produce The Most Pro-Athlete Draft
