<p>I want to look at smaller schools with big Division-I athletics. One school like this that I like is Wake Forest, to give an example. Any others you can think of?</p>
<p>Here are a few that come to mind…</p>
<p>Duke, University of Richmond, Davidson, Tulsa, Furman, Rice, Wofford, Dartmouth, Schools in the Patriot League.</p>
<p>^^ Of those, I’d only consider Duke and Rice (barely) as big athletics. Richmond isn’t D-1 for football even.</p>
<p>Check out Wake, Boston College (not super small, but around 10,000 students)…andddd I’ll try and think of some more and get back to you :)</p>
<p>Tulsa beat Rice in football and basketball this year (and holds a dominating record over Rice in both sports). Tulsa has been the Conference USA champs in football in the past few years and has been to and won 2 of its last 3 bowl games. TU’s basketball has been to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament (albeit >10 years ago) and has won the NIT twice. </p>
<p>Rice basketball has not been in post-season play in decades. Rice football is on the rise and has been to two bowls in the past three years, and they won their bowl game convincingly this year. Rice baseball, however, is one of the elite programs in the country with a national championship under its belt and an amazing record in post-season play with multiple appearances in the College World Series. Rice just recently beat Texas in baseball, truly a case of a little school winning over a huge school, and that’s not unusual for Rice baseball.</p>
<p>Duke has an awesome basketball team. The Cameron Crazies, as their student fans are known, are in a league of their own when it comes to D1 sports and lofty academics. Duke’s football had a relatively good season this past year. I say “relatively” only because they actually won a few games, unlike past seasons.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt had their best football season in years this past year. They went to a bowl game for the first time in 26 years and even won it. Vandy basketball didn’t enjoy post-season play this year, but did 2004-08. They are in a tough conference so losing is more acceptable.</p>
<p>Boston College often has a ranked football team and made it into the NCAA tournament this year, but lost in the first round. Good fans.</p>
<p>Stanford fields some competitive D1 teams, and I hear they’re pretty academically oriented. Haha</p>
<p>USC routinely competes for a national title in football, and they’re playing in March Madness in basketball but not at the same competitive level that they do in football.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt, I forgot to mention that one.</p>
<p>Tulsa is pretty unheard of on the West Coast at least, so idk if I would consider them a “big D-1 athletic program”…certainly not on the level of Boston College/Wake/Duke. But it wouldn’t hurt to look into it if you’re interested.</p>
<p>USC is another one, but the school isn’t that small, so I’m not sure if that’s exactly what you’re looking for…also look at Notre Dame</p>
<p>To my knowledge Colgate has one of the largest D1 athletic programs for it size. Not only does it have the normal D1 sports such as football and basketball, but fields full(competative) D1 teams in hockey and Lacrosse, while large D1 schools such as University of Oregon have to gid rid of wrestling just to have baseball. In terms of D1 Athletes per student Colgate can’t be beat</p>
<p>I agree that despite the fact that it is D1, the Rice culture does really support the athletics. Yes, they get fired up if there is a bowl game, but otherwise it’s pretty lame.
If you want an athletic vibe, go with Vanderbilt, Wake, Duke.</p>
<p>thanks guys, these are really helpful!</p>
<p>Gonzaga! =]</p>
<p>Wake Forest… although they effed me over last night</p>
<p>Most of the schools mentioned don’t exactly fall into the “small” category (mid-sized would be more accurate; USC, otoh is “large” even if it is on the lower end of large).</p>
<p>There are also two ways to look at “big athletics”:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A school belonging to a “power” conference (the Pac10, the B10, B12, ACC, etc.) where one will be able to regularly watch games against top-flight competition or</p></li>
<li><p>A school w/ a strong program in one of the two main revenue sports (FB or men’s BB) w/o necessarily belonging to a power conference.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For the smaller schools which do not belong to a power conference, it’s rare to have a strong program in both and usually they tend to have a strong program program in BB since it is easier to build and maintain a BB program, not to mention cheaper (Gonzaga would be a good example).</p>
<p>These are the “small” (actually, most being mid-sized) schools which belong to power conferences in both FB and BB and a brief synopisis of their programs.</p>
<p>**Stanford<a href=“Pac10”>/b</a></p>
<p>FB - While the program has been struggling recently, Harbaugh is one heck of a recruiter and is bringing in the best class of recruits ever by a top academic school. Otoh, Stanford has always recruited pretty well in FB and that hasn’t always translated into wins (but it would be a good bet that the FB program will return to winning within the next couple of years).</p>
<p>BB - the program has consistently made the Tourney since the late 1980s-early 1990s. However, the program recently underwent a coaching change and it remains to be seen how the new coach fares.</p>
<p>**USC<a href=“Pac10”>/b</a> - w/ over 16K undergrads, too large too be even considered a “small” school.</p>
<p>**Wake Forest<a href=“ACC”>/b</a> - probably closest to being a “small school” of all the schools listed w/ an undergrad enrollment of 4,400 or so.</p>
<p>FB - after decades of mediocrity, Grobe has the Deacon program competitive in the ACC (w/ a conf. championship in 2006). While traditional power programs (like UMiami) are back on the upswing, the Deacons, under Grobe should remain competitive in the conf.</p>
<p>BB - one of the better BB programs in the ACC after UNC and Duke.</p>
<p>**Boston College<a href=“ACC”>/b</a></p>
<p>FB - competitive program in the ACC, tho, the Eagles may have lost their best chance of winning the conference a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>BB - competitive program (should make the Tourney on a somewhat consistent basis).</p>
<p>Duke</p>
<p>FB - the worst program of all schools the past couple of decades bar none. But the worst seems to be over w/ the program having hired a very dynamic coach, Cutcliffe, and having lowered their academic standards for recruits. It’s hard to see them getting beyond being a middle of the pack team in the conf. at best for the next few years, but the winless conference seasons should be a thing of the past.</p>
<p>BB - no question the most successful of all the BB programs of all the schools listed (and arguably the most successful of either BB and FB). The BB program at Duke should remain a top program for the forseeable future, tho, I have my doubts whether they will be winning national championships as they did during the 1980s/1990s (haven’t been able to recruit or develop any dominant “big men” and the athleticism of the team tends to be inferior to most national championship contenders nowadays).</p>
<p>**Vanderbilt<a href=“SEC”>/b</a></p>
<p>FB - Vandy just had their best season in recent history (Vandy just found enough offense to go along w/ their usually decent defense). While the program likely is not a threat to win the conf. any time soon, the years of 1-2 conf. win(s) seasons should be over for the most part.</p>
<p>BB - A pretty competitive program w/ a good amount of Tourney appearances.</p>
<p>**Northwestern<a href=“B10”>/b</a></p>
<p>FB - despite a stretch of futility during the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s (known as the “Dark Ages”), the program since 1995 has been competitive and the most successful of all the top academic schools in power conferences w/ 3 conference titles since 1995. While more conf. titles are not likely in the future, the program should remain quite competitive in the future w/ a young dynamic HC, Fitzgerald and one of the best DCs around.</p>
<p>BB - the BB program is another story at NU (being the only major conf. program to not have gone to the Tourney) - anytime the program seems close to getting over the “hump”, it gets snake-bitten by injuries or transfers. The program finally has some decent talent (that isn’t looking to transfer) and has slowly established a pipeline to the rich Chicago area talent. The team came agonizingly close to making the Tourney this year and should be a bubble team for the next couple of years (but I’m not going to believe a Tourney bid is in the cards until I see it).</p>
<p>**Baylor<a href=“B12”>/b</a></p>
<p>FB - Has been a mediocre program since joining the conf. Of all the schools listed, may have the least upside (but admittedly, I don’t really know much about Baylor FB).</p>
<p>BB - Doesn’t have a lot of history of recent success, but made the Tourney last season after scandal decimated the program.</p>
<p>**Notre Dame<a href=“Big%20East/Ind.”>/b</a> - While ND doesn’t have both programs in a power conference, it’s FB program, as an ind pretty much matches the criteria.</p>
<p>FB - the FB program all too often gets the benefit of history/media hype, but win or lose, the ND FB program is and will remain one of the most talked about programs in college FB.</p>
<p>Weis isn’t a very good HC, but even w/ him at the helm, ND will start winning (tho, not likely at a National Championship) due to the talent of the incoming recruiting class (overrated as they might sometimes be; Wanny, also not a very good HC, eventually got Pitt to start winning due to the talent of the recruiting classes).</p>
<p>BB - a pretty competitive program that should make the Tourney on a fairly regular basis (tho, it has gotten tougher for ND w/ all the teams in the BE and the resurgence of Purdue and even NU increasingly active w/ local Chicago-area recruits).</p>
<p>Surprised no one mentioned Miami (Fla)</p>
<p>Villanova. Big-time basketball, not quite as big football.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, they most certainly are - and FCS national champions at that. They open the 2009 season against Duke. </p>
<p>They are not a National D1 power like an SEC, Big 10 school or anything, but they are definitely D1 and good enough to be hosting a spring Pro Day with NFL scouts and coaches coming to campus just to look at UR players. In fact, the CAA conference was well represented with players in this year’s Superbowl. </p>
<p>The A-10 is also represented with teams going into the second round of March Madness.</p>
<p>look at Gonzaga</p>
<p>Duke, Vandy, some of the A-10 schools like Dayton, Xavier, Temple, St. Louis, they have big basketball, not really football though.
Georgetown has Big East Basketball, same with Villanova.
Notre Dame of course, UMiami i guess, although its about 10,000, Syracuse is in the same boat.
Northwestern is in the Big Ten, and they suck but its big time sports, Wake Forest,</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We’re the only school in the A10 with FBS football.</p>
<p>Pretty much any private school in the BCS conferences.</p>
<p>ACC - Boston College, Duke, Miami, Wake Forest
Big 12 -
Big East - Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, DePaul, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova
Big 10 - Northwestern
Pac-10 - USC, Stanford
SEC - Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Syracuse isn’t THAT big, and it has a pretty good athletic culture.</p>
<p>The smallest D-I school is Centenary, with under 1,000 students.</p>