<p>Best overall athletics: Pac-10
Best football: arguable, but SEC(sorry to big 10 & 12)
Best basketball: ACC
Best academics: NESCAC(dIII, but still)</p>
<p>Pac-10 is, no doubt, the strongest athletic league. Not only does it contain the most dominant program in ncaa basketball history(UCLA) and the most dominant program in ncaa football history(USC), Stanford and UCLA dominate in every other ncaa sport out there year in year out. Their dominance is shown in the Athletic Director's Cup standings every year(which is given to the most successful college athletic program every year).</p>
<p>as for the original poster's question, i think there are two different kinds of answers:</p>
<p>A) Athletic Conference composed of traditionally academic oriented institutions</p>
<p>NESCAC
Patriot League</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>B) Athletic Conferences composed of schools with perennial national leading athletic programs (particularly in the "BIG THREE" sports) that also possess great academics</p>
<p>Toph, your post is well noted. I think you hit the nail on the head as to the source of some of the acrimonious nature from the "CC" anti-Ivy crowd (is it driven by bitterness / envy on one end or simply a feeling of lack of recognition for some non-Ivies / a feeling of too much recognition for Ivies on the other?... I gather the answer to that question lies somewhere in the middle of those two extremes).</p>
<p>Are you assuming only best undergrad or best overall university? There is a huge difference and a lot more to a major university than undergrads. For best overall major universities the Big 10>>ACC. Between the Big 10 and Pac 10 it's very close.</p>
<p>FYI: Championships won this year so far by ACC and Pac10:
ACC: M baskeball (UNC)
Pac10: Football (USC), M tennis (UCLA), W tennis (Stanford), M water polo (UCLA), W water polo (UCLA), W volleyball (Stanford), W rowing (Cal).</p>
<p>Ivy Grad, exactly. Trust me, I hold no bitterness towards the Ivy League. In fact, I plan to pursue my MBA at an Ivy if possible. I didn't apply to any Ivies as a freshman (although looking back on it, maybe I should have). I don't want to completely hijack this thread, or I'd go into further depth about my opinions of the Ivy League and how my opinions developed. Perhaps in another thread, you will read these thoughts of mine. :)</p>
<p>ivy, i would add to the first category the UAA ( i think someone mentioned it earlier).. all the traditionally athletic schools with their minor sports programs. Its got U. of Chicago, Rice, Hopkins (except for their lacrosse teams), Brandeis, Case. WUSTL.</p>
<p>well, U. of Chicago is not "traditonally" a non-athletic school. They used to be a football powerhouse.. the first heismann trophy when to a UofC lineman.</p>
<p>TheCity - The UAA is comprised of: Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western , Emory, NYU, U Chicago, U Rochester, and WUSTL. JHU used to be in it, but they left awhile ago.</p>
<p>"There is NO way you can make an argument that the pac-10 is better than the ACC athletically, that is absolutely absurd."</p>
<p>Funny, because I think the opposite. As someone already mentioned, UCLA, Stanford, and USC are #'s 1,2, and 3 respectively in total NCAA championships. Furthermore, USC has the most men's NCAA titles and the most sports titles in total if you count non-NCAA titles (those either outside the realm of the NCAA or before its existence). ALSO, in the biggest three college sports in terms of popularity - football, basketball and baseball - USC is tied for the most football titles (and will have the most come January), UCLA has the most basketball titles, and USC has far and away the most baseball titles. ADDITIONALLY, they and Stanford have had the most successful track programs in history. WHAT'S MORE is that USC and UCLA are #'s 1, and 2 in Olympians, medalists, and gold medals. MOREOVER, Sports Illustrated named UCLA the #1 university for sports... ever.</p>
<p>Normally I refrain from making such bold comments on CC, but let's face it, the fact that anyone can post a comment based on such a dearth of thought and call someone else absurd is what's really absurd.</p>
<p>Ivy League-very solid. Patriot League -step below. ACC-Duke, Big10-NW, PAC10 -Stanford, SEC-Vandy. All very good academic schools that play Div. 1. Not much fan support at the UAA and NE smalls except for annual Amherst-Williams football game.</p>
<p>Pac 10 definitely one of the strongest (if not strongest) athletic conference in the country. ACC, certainly no pushover either... Big 10, same deal.</p>
<p>the ACC certainly punches above its weight consistently during March Madness year in and year out and the Big 10 represents as well in football on a yearly basis. Pac 10 seems to have a good balance of both.</p>
<p>i think the point is, for anyone to argue that any one of those three powerhouse leagues ABSOLUTELY blows any of the other ones away is a bit "out of bounds"... (pun intended).</p>
<p>if we've learned anything, there are very few "absolutes" in life as it is...</p>
<p>Academically, after the Ivy League, I would say that the Big 10, ACC and the Pac 10 are the best.</p>
<p>Big 10/CIC:
Northwestern University (top 15 nationally)
University of Chicago (top 15 nationally)
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (top 30 nationally)
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (top 15 nationally)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (top 25 nationally)
No university in the Big 10 is weak. Indiana-Bloomington, Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue are all good universities. Iowa, MSU and OSU are at least decent.</p>
<p>PAC 10:
Stanford University (top 5 nationally)
University of California-Berkeley (top 15 nationally)
University of California Los Angeles (top 25 nationally)
University of Southern California (top 30 nationally)
University of Washington (top 40 nationally)</p>
<p>ACC:
Duke University (top 15 nationally)
Georgia Tech (top 30 nationally)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (top 25 nationally)
University of Virginia (top 25 nationally)
Wake Forest University (top 30 nationally)</p>
<p>Alexandre,
Why is it that you always put Uva below Berekely and Umich? I am just curious.</p>
<p>Also, i realize it is shallow to judge athletic programs based on two sports, but those are the two sports that are easily debated(I would have trouble debating who has the better crew team, etc.).</p>
<p>Uva has a great lacrosse team year after year.</p>
<p>SamLee, you didn't say NCAA championships, just championships. If you were talking just NCAA counts, you would have to remove USC's football. As the pac-ten website states, "And it should be noted that the Pac-10 total does not include USC's national championship in football or CALIFORNIA's in rugby, as they are not counted as NCAA titles"</p>