<p>The only ivy league schools out there are Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and possibly Princeton. That's how I define ivy-league. Forget that athletic conference.</p>
<p>good thing u arent the one defining it.</p>
<p>Top Athletic Leagues in terms of Academics</p>
<p>Averaging all the rankings (of US News) of each school in the league [I used 121 for any school below rank #120], I get these average rankings:</p>
<p>Ivy - 6.75
Big 10 - 49.3
ACC - 52
Pac 10 - 70.4
Big East - 80.8
Big 12 - 91.9
SEC - 92.66</p>
<p>UC_Benz, you are wrong in this instance. You are right when you say that roughly 20 years have resulted in shared football titles, but you are wrong when you say that there has been 112 years. The first official NC was handed out by the Associated Poll in 1936. That's less than 70 years ago. And the AP poll was the only official poll until 1950, so clearly, all NCs from 1936-1950 were unanimous! LOL In 1950, the Coaches Poll came out. Only since then can one truly speak of official NCs from more than one source. So yes, there have been 19 or 20 shared NCs, but not over 112 years, but rather, 55 years. 19 or 20 out of 55 is, as I mentioned before, roughly 40%. So, to get back to my point, National Championships, shared or outright, are special.</p>
<p>And by the way, although not 100% sure, I think this year, USC was the outright NC. Auburn finished 2nd in both the AP and the Coaches polls. I think.</p>
<p>Boy...reading this thread makes me feel like I just tuned into the movie "Deliverance." Heavy testosterone!</p>
<p>A great non-athletic conference-Big 10 + Chicago</p>
<p>The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, established in 1958, is the academic consortium of twelve major teaching and research universities in the Midwest. Its programs and activities extend to all aspects of university activity except intercollegiate athletics. The CIC headquarters office is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the office is supported through member university dues.
Is there any relationship to the Big Ten Athletic Conference?
Of the 12 CIC member universities, 11 of them are members of the Big Ten Athletic Conference. The Big Ten generously provides meeting space to CIC groups and committees at the Big Ten Conference Center near the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, and the Big Ten and CIC staffs work together, as appropriate, to share information with the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, or the CIC Members (Provosts) as appropriate.</p>
<p>Here is a list of the football champions:
<a href="http://www.hickoksports.com/history/cfchamps.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.hickoksports.com/history/cfchamps.shtml</a></p>
<p>They use much different criteria than I'm sure you and I are accustomed to, so it's really not going to support either argument. But I thought it was interesting to see it.</p>
<p>If we're going to use the USNWR rankings to determine conference academic strength then the #2 academic conference is the University Athletic Association with an average ranking of just over 25: </p>
<p>Chicago (14), WUSTL (11), Rochester (37), NYU (32), Carnegie-Mellon (22), Emory (20), Case-Western (35), & Brandeis (32). </p>
<p>I'll give the Big 10 credit for being strong academically if they ever change their conference name to accurately reflect the number of member schools.</p>
<p>On the athletic side, I think you either need to count NCAA championships or use the Sears Director Cup rankings. Either way there's no question: the Pac-10 is the best athletic conference overall.</p>
<p>ACC: M baskeball, W Golf--2 championships-- considered a "good" year for ACC.
Pac10: Football, M tennis, W tennis, M water polo, W water polo, W volleyball, W rowing, Rugby--8 championships--considered an "average" year for Pac-10. ;)</p>
<p>3 Pac10 teams are still alive in the round of 16 for baseball. The bad news for Pac-10 is USC is meeting Oregon State next; the good news is at least one Pac-10 team will be represented in the college world series.</p>
<p>Stanford/UCLA are among the W Track&Field title contenders.</p>
<p>Actually Sam Lee, Michigan won the Softball NC...and last I checked, Michigan belonged to the Big 10! hehe But 7 NC is pretty amazing just the same.</p>
<p>LOL! Actually 8. I didn't count the softball. I thought UCLA won but I didn't realize it was best of 3 and UCLA won only the first game.</p>
<p>aww man that sucks that they lost today. UCLA lost the championship games for women's soccer, softball, and men's volleyball. they also placed 2nd at women's golf. i forgot how they placed at women's gymnastics championship but it wasn't first. ahhh so CLOSE to so many more national team championships!!!</p>
<p>UCLA should be very happy with what they have.. Stanford finished 2nd more. Way too many runner-ups for my taste! M swimming, m&w water polo this year. I can't count how many times the M swimming and W water polo had finished second in recent years. The 3 runner-ups in baseball in the last 5 years stinks the most because it's to hard for anyone to reach the championship game.</p>
<p>haha yeah UCLA and stanford are definately blessed to have such complete athletic programs. but when you're #1 and #2 on the overall count, there's always the expectation that your team is going to bring in another one this year. but congrats to both for another wonderful year.</p>
<p>Michigan Wins NCAA Women's Softball Title - June 8, 2005</p>
<pre><code> (Beat UCLA)
</code></pre>