<p>Thanks! Because the sports scene is pretty important to me- I like the cheering and school spirit et al-- so I wanted to check out the schools I'm considering. Does anybody know about Chicago?</p>
<p>hawkette, note the difference -- minxy knows he / she likes cheering and school spirit, so he / she is interested in understanding the crowds etc at the school being considered. That's great! My difference with you is that you seem to have an agenda to want other people to like sports, and you seem afraid that they might miss out on them.</p>
<p>Chicago is probably not your ideal school for athletic spirit, as our athletic programs are pretty unremarkable D III.</p>
<p>minxy,
Can you elaborate a bit on what you are looking for in a sports scene from your college? Is your interest related to certain sports or sizes of crowds/venues? Also, what previous athletic scenes have you experienced first-hand and enjoyed?</p>
<p>While somewhat stronger than U Chicago, the Dartmouth athletic life is considerably smaller and less vibrant than what you'd find at a place like Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame. If you are interested in having this as a part of your undergraduate experience, then you might want to take a closer look at what these colleges offer. </p>
<p>p'girl,
My agenda is to draw and illuminate contrasts that I see among top colleges and encourage students to think about the entire undergraduate experience, in and out of the classroom. For many students, athletic life is part of that calculus and, in the comparison among top colleges, there are some sharp differences. Helping students understand and appreciate those differences is my goal while also understanding that some will like sports and some will not like sports. Your protestations notwithstanding, I am very firm in my belief and understanding that many high school students (male and female) in certain sections of the country (not to mention non-US students) who have never experienced a high-level, nationally-relevant college sporting event would quite possibly love it if they ever saw it first-hand.</p>
<p>^^ While am not as interested in swaying others as hawkette is, I am an example of someone who didn't think sports would matter in my college experience. I went from an academically strong but athletically weak public high school to a Big Ten university. I was quite shocked at the attention paid to sports, especially basketball (football was pretty bad- oh wait, it still is...) I got hooked very quickly and, to this day, have a cat named Bobby Knight. It has shaped my lifelong support of the school and a lot of my pride in my alma mater.</p>
<p>This may end up being a golden year in college football for some of the nation’s most highly ranked academic institutions. With a month still left in the college season, a record number of top schools have either won the necessary six games to qualify for a post-season bowl appearance or need to win only one more game. And two (Duke & Wake Forest) need to win only two more games to be bowl-eligible. These are not the usual suspects and fans across America are loving and admiring their success. </p>
<p>Following are the schools that are having very successful years on the field and in attendance in this most competitive and most closely followed of college sports.<br>
Northwestern
Rice
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
UC Berkeley
U Virginia
USC
U North Carolina</p>
<p>Congrats, continued good luck in your remaining games, and enjoy the parties and festivities and positive campus energy for the rest of the season and post-season. </p>
<p>Also, there were two SAT bowls over the weekend. In the California edition, UC Berkeley defeated UCLA before a boisterous crowd of 64,653. In the Southern edition, Duke defeated Vanderbilt in front of 38,270. Here are the full results and attendance figures for this past weekend’s games for all of the USNWR Top 30 national universities. </p>
<pre><code>10/25 , BOWL DIVISION
STANFORD , No game
</code></pre>
<p>With 38,270 in attendance DUKE defeated @ Vanderbilt by 10-7
With 30,698 in attendance NORTHWESTERN lost to @ Indiana U by 19-21
With 17,841 in attendance RICE defeated @ Tulane by 42-17
With 38,270 in attendance VANDERBILT lost to Duke by 7-10
With 70,437 in attendance NOTRE DAME defeated @ U Washington by 33-7
With 64,653 in attendance UC BERKELEY defeated UCLA by 41-20
With 47,416 in attendance U VIRGINIA defeated @ Ga Tech by 24-17
With 64,653 in attendance UCLA lost to @ UC Berkeley by 20-41
With 110,146 in attendance U MICHIGAN lost to Michigan State by 21-35
With 57,427 in attendance USC defeated @ U Arizona by 17-10
With 41,208 in attendance WAKE FOREST lost to @ Miami by 10-16
With 48,000 in attendance U NORTH CAROLINA defeated Boston Coll by 45-24</p>
<pre><code>10/25 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 10,189 in attendance HARVARD defeated @ Princeton by 24-20
With 10,189 in attendance PRINCETON lost to Harvard by 20-24
With 10,490 in attendance YALE lost to U Penn by 7-9
With 1,799 in attendance MIT defeated @ Salve Regina by 34-19
With 10,490 in attendance U PENN defeated @ Yale by 9-7
With 2,161 in attendance COLUMBIA defeated Dartmouth by 21-13
With 1,140 in attendance U CHICAGO lost to @ Denison by 14-26
With 2,161 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to @ Columbia by 13-21
With 1,312 in attendance WASH U defeated Ohio Wesleyan by 24-3
With 9,298 in attendance CORNELL lost to @ Brown by 7-27
JOHNS HOPKINS , No game<br>
With 9,298 in attendance BROWN defeated Cornell by 27-7
With 2,341 in attendance CARNEGIE MELLON lost to Wittenberg by 14-21
With 5,168 in attendance GEORGETOWN lost to @ U Richmond by 0-48
With 1,100 in attendance TUFTS lost to @ Amherst by 17-24</p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
</code></pre>
<p>and here are the latest Sagarin national football rankings of these colleges:</p>
<p>Sagarin
26-Oct </p>
<p>3 USC
22 U VIRGINIA
24 U NORTH CAROLINA
27 UC BERKELEY
27 DUKE
34 NORTHWESTERN
36 NOTRE DAME
40 WAKE FOREST
41 VANDERBILT
54 STANFORD
74 RICE
79 UCLA
92 U MICHIGAN
133 HARVARD
149 BROWN
155 U PENN
175 YALE
183 CORNELL
190 PRINCETON
213 COLUMBIA
224 DARTMOUTH
225 GEORGETOWN</p>
<p>Thanks unalove! I've decided to apply to Chicago despite its lack of athletic prowess cause I think the strengths of the school outweigh the poor sporting scene. And I can probably support Red Sox (or is it White Sox?). </p>
<p>Hawkette,
Hmmm honestly I don't really have a specific criteria that must be fulfilled. I'm from overseas, so I don't really know what the collegiate sports scene is like in the US. However, I come from a school that's really good at many sports nationally, and it brings me great joy and pride to go cheer for them and to know that my school is awesome. Haha I know that makes me sound egotistic and stupid (it's not like it's my achievement) but yeah I like that. I would like a school where people turn out in droves to support the team, even if it's just for the more popular ones. I'd like it to be a significant part of my college experience, cheering for the team and having school pride. Yeah. Thanks for helping!</p>
<p>"Thanks unalove! I've decided to apply to Chicago despite its lack of athletic prowess cause I think the strengths of the school outweigh the poor sporting scene. And I can probably support Red Sox (or is it White Sox?)."</p>
<p>The pro baseball teams in Chicago are the Cubs and the White Sox. The Red Sox are Boston's pro baseball team, not Chicago's. </p>
<p>If you are so inclined, the other pro teams in Chicago are the Bears (football), Bulls (basketball) and Blackhawks (hockey).</p>
<p>Hey Hawkette, you might be interested in this thread here, in which Rice's sports culture is discussed. (I have no dog in any Rice discussion one way or the other.)</p>
<p>Hawkette: Did you go to Joseph's? (The Hawks)</p>
<p>It was a momentous football weekend for many of the USNWR Top 30 colleges.</p>
<p>Historic moment # 1: The Rice Owls are now bowl-eligible!! They defeated UTEP for their 6th win and still have 3 more games to play.</p>
<p>Historic moment # 2: The California Bears are also bowl-eligible! They defeated Oregon yesterday and now have big games in the next two weeks vs USC and Oregon State. Win both and the Bears will be in the Rose Bowl vs…..</p>
<p>Historic moment # 3: U Michigan lost to Purdue yesterday. A losing season is now guaranteed and also the end of a long streak of bowl appearances. Some U Michigan partisans like to claim that their school is a close peer to the Ivy League. It would appear that they now have a football team to prove it….However I, for one, don’t expect this to last and U Michigan will be soon be back at or near the top of the Big Ten. </p>
<p>Here are the full figures for attendance and scores from yesterday’s games:</p>
<pre><code>11/1 , BOWL DIVISION
</code></pre>
<p>With 26,662 in attendance STANFORD defeated Washington State by 58-0
With 32,226 in attendance DUKE lost to @ Wake Forest by 30-33
With 54,122 in attendance NORTHWESTERN defeated @ U Minnesota by 24-17
With 30,702 in attendance RICE defeated @ UTEP by 49-44
VANDERBILT , No game<br>
With 80,795 in attendance NOTRE DAME lost to U Pittsburgh by 33-36
With 61,432 in attendance UC BERKELEY defeated U Oregon by 26-16
With 53,308 in attendance U VIRGINIA lost to Miami by 17-24
UCLA , No game<br>
With 59,135 in attendance U MICHIGAN lost to @ Purdue by 42-48
With 80,216 in attendance USC defeated U Washington by 56-0
With 32,226 in attendance WAKE FOREST defeated Duke by 33-30
U NORTH CAROLINA , No game </p>
<pre><code>11/1 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 4,111 in attendance HARVARD defeated @ Dartmouth by 35-7
With 7,122 in attendance PRINCETON defeated @ Cornell by 31-26
With 11,870 in attendance YALE defeated Columbia by 27-12
With 575 in attendance MIT lost to Plymouth State by 14-27
With 15,056 in attendance U PENN lost to Brown by 27-34
With 11,870 in attendance COLUMBIA lost to @ Yale by 12-27
With 1,125 in attendance U CHICAGO lost to @ Case by 24-38
With 4,111 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to Harvard by 7-35
With 834 in attendance WASH U defeated Carnegie Mellon by 16-8
With 7,122 in attendance CORNELL lost to Princeton by 26-31
With 1,100 in attendance JOHNS HOPKINS defeated Juniata by 12-0
With 15,056 in attendance BROWN defeated @ U Penn by 34-27
With 834 in attendance CARNEGIE MELLON lost to @ Wash U by 8-16
With 2,053 in attendance GEORGETOWN lost to Lehigh by 13-33
With 1,100 in attendance TUFTS defeated Colby by 17-10</p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
</code></pre>
<p>Nice comment on Michigan hawkette. Of course I wouldn't expect anything "less" than that from a person who won't even admit where she attended college undergraduate.</p>
<p>Another historic “athletic life” moment for a top academic college. Last night Vanderbilt defeated Kentucky for its sixth win to become eligible to play in a post-season bowl game. This will be Vanderbilt's first post-season football appearance in over 25 years. No one will confuse Vanderbilt football with U Florida, but I'm sure that folks in Nashville are feeling pretty good that they can now add good football to go along with their already existing strong programs in basketball (men and women) and baseball. Congrats to the 'Dores and good luck in your remaining games.</p>
<p>Another top academic college, Northwestern, is also doing great on the football field as the Wildcats defeated U Michigan. Like Vandy and Rice, NU will be playing in a post-season bowl this year. U Michigan was Northwestern’s 8th victim this season with the U Illinois game this weekend in Evanston. Go ‘Cats! </p>
<p>In this week's SAT Bowl played under clear skies and temps in the high 70s, USC was too much for Stanford on the field. But the tailgates and the soldout crowd at Stanford Stadium made for a terrific college football atmosphere. Stanford has one more chance to win its 6th game this year when they play this weekend at UC Berkeley in the Bay Area’s annual BIG GAME. Good luck to both teams. </p>
<p>Attendance Numbers and Results from the last two weeks:</p>
<pre><code>11/8 , BOWL DIVISION
</code></pre>
<p>With 58,013 in attendance STANFORD lost to @ U Oregon by 28-35
With 31,964 in attendance DUKE lost to NC State by 17-27
With 47,130 in attendance NORTHWESTERN lost to Ohio State by 10-45
With 19,243 in attendance RICE defeated Army by 38-31
With 39,773 in attendance VANDERBILT lost to U Florida by 14-42
With 44,500 in attendance NOTRE DAME lost to @ Boston Coll by 0-17
With 88,523 in attendance UC BERKELEY lost to @ USC by 3-17
With 34,014 in attendance U VIRGINIA lost to @ Wake Forest by 17-28
With 83,478 in attendance UCLA lost to Oregon State by 6-34
With 55,040 in attendance U MICHIGAN defeated @ U Minnesota by 29-6
With 88,523 in attendance USC defeated UC Berkeley by 17-3
With 34,014 in attendance WAKE FOREST defeated U Virginia by 28-17
With 59,000 in attendance U NORTH CAROLINA defeated Ga Tech by 28-7</p>
<pre><code>11/8 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 12,437 in attendance HARVARD defeated Columbia by 42-28
With 8,966 in attendance PRINCETON lost to U Penn by 9-14
With 9,010 in attendance YALE defeated @ Brown by 13-3
With 710 in attendance MIT lost to Endicott by 18-39
With 8,966 in attendance U PENN defeated @ Princeton by 14-9
With 12,437 in attendance COLUMBIA lost to @ Harvard by 28-42
With 1,130 in attendance U CHICAGO defeated Wash U by 17-14
With 4,132 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to @ Cornell by 14-37
With 1,130 in attendance WASH U lost to @ U Chicago by 14-17
With 4,132 in attendance CORNELL defeated Dartmouth by 37-14
With 1,081 in attendance JOHNS HOPKINS defeated @ F&M by 26-25
With 9,010 in attendance BROWN lost to Yale by 3-13
With 1,155 in attendance CARNEGIE MELLON lost to @ Case Western by 13-38
With 1,164 in attendance GEORGETOWN defeated Marist by 13-12
With 1,675 in attendance TUFTS lost to @ Middebury by 24-38</p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
11/15 , BOWL DIVISION
</code></pre>
<p>With 50,425 in attendance STANFORD lost to USC by 23-45
With 75,000 in attendance DUKE lost to @ Clemson by 7-31
With 107,856 in attendance NORTHWESTERN defeated @ U Michigan by 21-14
RICE , No game<br>
With 65,595 in attendance VANDERBILT defeated @ U Kentucky by 31-24
With 70,932 in attendance NOTRE DAME defeated @ Navy by 27-21
With 45,969 in attendance UC BERKELEY lost to @ Oregon State by 21-34
U VIRGINIA , No game<br>
With 59,738 in attendance UCLA defeated @ U Washington by 27-7
With 107,856 in attendance U MICHIGAN lost to Northwestern by 14-21
With 50,425 in attendance USC defeated @ Stanford by 45-23
With 56,174 in attendance WAKE FOREST lost to @ NC State by 17-21
With 46,113 in attendance U NORTH CAROLINA lost to @ U Maryland by 15-17</p>
<pre><code>11/15 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 7,352 in attendance HARVARD defeated @ U Penn by 24-21
With 5,711 in attendance PRINCETON lost to @ Yale by 0-14
With 5,711 in attendance YALE defeated Princeton by 14-0
MIT , Regular Season Over<br>
With 7,352 in attendance U PENN lost to Harvard by 21-24
With 3,811 in attendance COLUMBIA defeated Cornell by 17-7
With 1,043 in attendance U CHICAGO lost to @ Carnegie Mellon by 21-28
With 2,215 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to Brown by 16-45
With 684 in attendance WASH U lost to Case Western by 0-17
With 3,811 in attendance CORNELL lost to @ Columbia by 7-17
With 1,100 in attendance JOHNS HOPKINS defeated McDaniel by 27-10
With 2,215 in attendance BROWN defeated @ Dartmouth by 45-16
With 1,043 in attendance CARNEGIE MELLON defeated U Chicago by 28-21
With 2,758 in attendance GEORGETOWN lost to @ Fordham by 0-17
TUFTS , Regular Season Over </p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
</code></pre>
<p>Wow! What a great (and cold-brrrrrr!) weekend of college football. Lots of fun goings-on at colleges all across the country:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In the original “The Game” Harvard and Yale played in front of 31,398 at frozen Harvard Stadium. Harvard came out on top, 10-0, and shares the Ivy League title with Brown (although Brown won the head-to-head). The Ivy League season is now over. </p></li>
<li><p>Hail Northwestern! With 32,166 on hand, Northwestern defeated U Illinois and finished 4th in the Big Ten. Northwestern now waits for its bowl assignment.</p></li>
<li><p>Those Rice Owls continue to impress and now have 8 victories and will play again this upcoming weekend against U Houston for the Conference USA West Division championship. The Owls will also be playing in a postseason bowl game.</p></li>
<li><p>And in The Big Game, Cal’s Bears beat up on Stanford, 37-16, and pandemonium reigned among the 70,000+ who enjoyed the sight and the festivities. Cal will also be heading to a bowl game sometime in late December. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here are the full results from last weekend’s games:</p>
<pre><code>11/22 , BOWL DIVISION
</code></pre>
<p>With 70,086 in attendance STANFORD lost to @ UC Berkeley by 16-37
With 66,233 in attendance DUKE lost to @ Va Tech by 3-14
With 32,166 in attendance NORTHWESTERN defeated U Illinois by 27-10
With 15,131 in attendance RICE defeated Marshall by 35-10
With 38,725 in attendance VANDERBILT lost to U Tennessee by 10-20
With 80,795 in attendance NOTRE DAME lost to Syracuse by 23-24
With 70,086 in attendance UC BERKELEY defeated Stanford by 37-16
With 51,979 in attendance U VIRGINIA lost to Clemson by 3-13
UCLA , No game<br>
With 105,564 in attendance U MICHIGAN lost to @ Ohio State by 7-42
USC , No game<br>
With 30,373 in attendance WAKE FOREST lost to Boston Coll by 21-24
With 60,000 in attendance U NORTH CAROLINA lost to NC State by 10-41</p>
<pre><code>11/22 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 31,398 in attendance HARVARD defeated Yale by 10-0
With 7,113 in attendance PRINCETON defeated Dartmouth by 28-10
With 31,398 in attendance YALE lost to @ Harvard by 0-10
MIT , Regular Season Over<br>
With 2,437 in attendance U PENN defeated @ Cornell by 23-6
With 7,865 in attendance COLUMBIA lost to @ Brown by 10-41
U CHICAGO , Regular Season Over<br>
With 7,113 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to @ Princeton by 10-28
WASH U , Regular Season Over<br>
With 2,437 in attendance CORNELL lost to U Penn by 6-23
JOHNS HOPKINS , Regular Season Over<br>
With 7,865 in attendance BROWN defeated Columbia by 41-10
CARNEGIE MELLON , Regular Season Over<br>
GEORGETOWN , Regular Season Over<br>
TUFTS , Regular Season Over </p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
</code></pre>
<p>Pairings have been announced for the post-season football bowl season. It was an excellent year for top academic colleges that also performed well on the football field, so well that 8 colleges ranked in the USNWR Top 30 will be participating in bowl games. I'm sure that it has been a lot of fun on those campuses this fall with all of the enthusiasm, the tailgates, the victories, and the post-game parties. </p>
<p>Congratulations to these schools which have demonstrated their unique ability to deliver a premier academic experience and a nationally excellent product on the football field. Enjoy the festivities and the games, all of which will be shown on national TV. </p>
<p>Eaglebank Bowl (12/20): WAKE FOREST vs Navy</p>
<p>Hawaii Bowl (12/24): NOTRE DAME vs Hawaii</p>
<p>Meineke Car Care Bowl (12/27): U NORTH CAROLINA vs U West Virginia</p>
<p>Emerald Bowl (12/27): U CALIFORNIA (Berkeley) vs U Miami </p>
<p>Alamo Bowl (12/29): NORTHWESTERN vs U Missouri</p>
<p>Texas Bowl (12/30): RICE vs Western Michigan</p>
<p>Music City Bowl (12/31): VANDERBILT vs Boston College</p>
<p>Rose Bowl: (1/1): USC vs Penn State</p>
<p>Go 'Cats!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Sure hawkette. ND has a very impressive record of 6-6. They sure have balanced academics with mediocre football well.</p>
<p>My dear rjko,
While ND's record is an underwhelming 6-6, it is an improvement over last year's team. And 6 wins is the standard for going to a bowl game so they qualified. And let's not forget that among the Irish's six victories was a 35-17 defeat of your U Michigan. Not sure why you're picking on them. And given their broad excellence in major college sports, I think that Notre Dame does a pretty good job of mixing excellent academics and excellent athletics. Among the top academic colleges, probably only Stanford and Duke do it better.</p>
<p>6-6. Mediocre, no matter how you slice it.</p>