<p>Students of various conferences are always claiming that their conference is best. Following are the USNWR rankings for academics and the 2005-2006 Directors Cup final standings for athletics. Which conference do you think is best? </p>
<p>ACADEMICS</p>
<p>Ivy League: 5.8
Individual School Ranks: Princeton (1), Harvard (2), Yale (3), Penn (7), Dartmouth (9), Columbia (9), Cornell (12), Brown (15)</p>
<p>ACC Average: 41.6
Individual School Ranks: Duke (8), Virginia (24), North Carolina (27), Wake Forest (30), Boston College (34), Georgia Tech (38), Miami (54), Maryland (54), Clemson (70), Virginia Tech (77)</p>
<p>Big 10 Average: 48.2
Individual School Ranks: Northwestern (14), Michigan (24), Wisconsin (34), Illinois (41), Penn State (47), Ohio State (57), Iowa (64), Purdue (64), Minnesota (67), Indiana (70)</p>
<p>Pac 10 Average: 70
Individual School Ranks: Stanford (4), UC-Berkeley (21), UCLA (26), USC (27), Washington (42), Arizona (98), Washington State (112), Oregon (120), Arizona State (3rd Tier-125+), Oregon State (3rd Tier-125+)</p>
<p>SEC Average: 86.3
Individual School Ranks: Vanderbilt (18), Florida (47), Georgia (60), Tennessee (88), Alabama (88), Auburn (88), Kentucky (112), South Carolina (112), Arkansas (3rd Tier-125+), LSU (3rd Tier-125+)</p>
<p>ATHLETICS</p>
<p>Pac-10 Average: 25.3
Individual School Ranks: Stanford (1), UCLA (2), UC-Berkeley (7), USC (10), Arizona (11), Arizona State (13), Washington (18), Oregon State (57), Oregon (63), Washington State (71)</p>
<p>SEC Average: 26.2
Individual School Ranks: Florida (5), Georgia (9), Tennessee (14), LSU (20), Alabama (21), Auburn (25), Arkansas (28), Kentucky (33), South Carolina (43), Vanderbilt (64)</p>
<p>Big 10 Average: 27.7
Individual School Ranks: Ohio State (12), Penn State (15), Minnesota (16), Wisconsin (22), Michigan (24), Northwestern (29), Purdue (35), Indiana (38), Illinois (40), Michigan State (46)</p>
<p>ACC Average: 28.6
Individual School Ranks: North Carolina (4), Duke (8), Florida State (17), Virginia (26), Maryland (27), NC State (34), Clemson (39), Miami (42), Wake Forest (44), Virginia Tech (45)</p>
<p>Ivy Average: 60.2
Princeton (47), Cornell (66), Dartmouth (67), Harvard (69), Yale (80), Brown (84), Penn (88), Columbia (101)</p>
<p>Footnote: Because of the different league sizes, I chose the best ten from each conference but only the eight from the Ivy League.</p>