Best Athletic Conference.... in Academics

College Search & Selection
1

<p>This is just for fun, but which athletic conference do you think is the best academically speaking? Ivy, PAC 10, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big East, etc... </p>

<p>If you're unfamiliar with the athletic conferences (which is probably a given on CC), here is a breakdown of the major schools in each conference:</p>

<p>Ivy: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, Penn</p>

<p>SEC: Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, LSU</p>

<p>ACC: Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, GA Tech, UVa, Maryland, Boston College, UMiami, VA Tech</p>

<p>Big 10: Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa</p>

<p>Big East: Georgetown, Notre Dame, UConn, Pitt, Rutgers, Villanova, South Florida, West Virginia</p>

<p>Big 12: Texas, CU-Boulder, Texas A&M, Baylor, OU, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas</p>

<p>Conference USA: Rice, Tulane, SMU, Tulsa, Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss</p>

<p>Mountain West: Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, UNLV, New Mexico, TCU</p>

<p>Mid-American: Miami U (OH), Ohio U, Akron, Ball State, Toledo</p>

<p>PAC 10: Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Washington, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona State, Washington State</p>

<p>Sun Belt: Denver, FIU, Troy, North Texas</p>

<p>Western Athletic Conference: Hawaii, Boise State, Fresno State, Idaho</p>

<p>Keep in mind, these are not all of the schools in those conferences, only the major/well known schools. Please don't flame me for starting this, it's only for fun! </p>

<p>Here's my list:
Ivy (duh)
ACC
Big 10... barely over the PAC 10 because of it's overall strength.
PAC 10
Big East
SEC
Big 12
Then the rest...</p>

2

<p>I say we throw the ivy leagues out of this conversation because they are not a Division I-A college football conference unlike the other schools</p>

<p>Other than that I would say ACC though some may argue Big 10 or Pac-10</p>

<p>Conference USA surprisingly has 3 really good schools: Rice, Tulsa and Tulane!</p>

3

<p>Yes, the Ivy IS a division 1 football conference.</p>

4

<p>notice how I said “Division I-A”…</p>

5

<p>Either way, we could take the Ivy league out of the discussion because they’re obviously the best conference. </p>

<p>But yeah, the Big 10, ACC, and PAC-10 are the big three in my opinion… but I think the ACC’s overall strength overwhelms the rest. And CUSA does have three pretty good schools, surprisingly. But I wouldn’t rank them very high because those are the only three they have lol.</p>

6

<p>What about the Colonial Conference?</p>

7

<p>You would have to put the Patriot League in discussion. They are probably #2 behind Ivy IMO.</p>

8

<p>Pierre, don’t forget SMU re. Conf. USA – it’s a much better school than the USNWR rankings indicate.</p>

9

<p>Could we include Kansas State University as a “major school” in the Big 12, please? With an enrollment of 23,000 students, K-State isn’t exactly off the radar and under Coach Bill Snyder, it probably has the most amazing Cinderella story in NCAA football, and the academics aren’t bad either: [url=<a href=“Admissions at Kansas State University”>Admissions at Kansas State University]scholars[/url</a>]. All that being said, I would probably have to go with the ACC or the Big 10.</p>

10

<p>gbesq</p>

<p>I found the selection of “major schools” also to be interesting/lacking. If you are dipping down to the Troy level, then you may as well include every school in a given conference rather than this list of “major schools.”</p>

11

<p>They are the most well-known schools within their respective conference… I’m not suggesting that Troy is on the same level of Harvard or Rice. Or even Kansas State for that matter. I just tried to include enough schools to get a taste for the overall quality of each league, and Kansas State would have been somewhat redundant at that point in the list, given the fact that there are several other schools on the same level. If you want to add the rest, go for it.</p>

12

<p>I would have to say that the ACC would win out, followed by the Big 10.</p>

13

<p>Gosh I was hoping some dummy would ask…</p>

<p>Why are there eleven teams in the BigTen?</p>

<p>Please dont think im the dummy I know PennState joined years ago.</p>

<p>Thought I throw my two cents in to this convo</p>

<p>Id have to go with The Big Ten Idk why I just like all of them except Nwestern, they just dont seem like a BigTen school to me</p>

14

<p>Well, if you’re talking about the SCHOOLS’ academics overall, I’d say ACC is right behind Ivy. </p>

<p>But, if you’re talking about the ATHLETES’ academic performance, then you can thank Maryland for putting the ACC at the bottom of the list. UMCP’s track record for getting its athletes to graduation is disgraceful.</p>

15

<p>I’d take the top half of the Pac-10 over the top half of the Big 10. The question is how much better is the second half of the Big 10 compared to the second half of the Pac-10.</p>

<p>ACC
Pac-10
Big 10
Big East
SEC
Big 12</p>

16

<p>Big Ten is the best. Case Closed.</p>

<p>

</a></p>

<p>ACC is the second best athletic-academic conference. Pac 10 is the third best.</p>

<p>Ivy League doesn’t count because it isn’t Division 1-A. Don’t compare apples to oranges.</p>

17

<p>Big Ten Schools in Order:
Northwestern
UMich
UW Madison
Illinois
Penn State
Indiana
Minnesota
Iowa
Michigan State
Ohio State
(omitiing Purdue cause it is primarily an engineering school)</p>

<p>PAC 10 in order:
Stanford
Cal-Berkeley
UCLA
USC
Washington
Arizona
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington State
Arizona State</p>

<p>So:
Stanford>Northwestern PAC10 1up
Cal Berkeley>UMich PAC10 2up
UCLA>Madison PAC10 3up
USC>Illinois PAC10 4up
Washington>Penn State PAC10 5up
Arizona<Indiana PAC10 4up
Oregon<Minnesota PAC10 3up
Oregon State<Iowa PAC10 2up
Washington State<Michigan State PAC10 1up
Arizona State<Ohio State Even</p>

<p>Tiebreaker: The Big Ten has a top notch engineering school in Purdue.</p>

<p>Big 10>PAC 10</p>

18

<p>Ohio State should be over ASU.</p>

19

<p>Patriot League with Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh, would be 2nd to the Ivies. For most sports, the 2 leagues play each other.</p>

20

<p>Ivy’s and Patriot League have to deal with the academic index in recruiting which the other conferences do not have to deal with.</p>