by Wally
What schools in the NCAA have displayed balanced excellence over the past 5 years? Well, it’s actually pretty rare for Div 1 schools to be good in both “Glamor sports” (football and hoops) at the same time. In fact, it’s extremely rare over the recent past. The actual question was “Which schools have finished in the AP Top 25 in both sports at least 3 times over the past 5 years?” Since Casey was lazy today, I’ve answered my own question from earlier in the day … very unscientifically … so I’m already throwing a waiver into the accuracy of the data. Anyway here are my unaudited findings. Below is a list of the schools ranked by the number of total appearances in the final AP polls over the past 5 completed seasons, in football and men’s basketball combined. Only 4 schools have done at least 3+3 over the past 5 seasons: Texas, Ohio State, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Florida and BYU just missed it with only 2 in hoops. God, I love spreadsheets 🙂
What it also shows, to no surprise, is that it’s very rare to be GREAT in both. The perennial title contenders in hoops (like Duke) aren’t good at football (like USC is) and vice-versa. One surprise, Notre Dame is actually on this list … in the middle. Who woulda thunk it??
| School | football | Hoops | Total | ||
| Texas | 5 | Texas | 3 | 8 | |
| Ohio State | 5 | Ohio State | 3 | 8 | |
| West Virginia | 5 | West Virginia | 3 | 8 | |
| Florida | 5 | Florida | 2 | 7 | |
| Wisconsin | 4 | Wisconsin | 3 | 7 | |
| BYU | 4 | BYU | 2 | 6 | |
| Pitt | 1 | Pitt | 5 | 6 | |
| LSU | 4 | LSU | 2 | 6 | |
| USC | 5 | USC | 1 | 6 | |
| Va Tech | 5 | Va Tech | 0 | 5 | |
| Oregon | 4 | Oregon | 1 | 5 | |
| Clemson | 3 | Clemson | 1 | 4 | |
| Notre Dame | 2 | Notre Dame | 2 | 4 | |
| Michigan State | 1 | Michigan State | 3 | 4 | |
| Boston College | 3 | Boston College | 1 | 4 | |
| No Carolina | 0 | No Carolina | 4 | 4 | |
| Oklahoma | 4 | Oklahoma | 0 | 4 | |
| Duke | 0 | Duke | 4 | 4 | |
| Alabama | 3 | Alabama | 0 | 3 | |
| Cincinnati | 3 | Cincinnati | 0 | 3 | |
| Utah | 2 | Utah | 1 | 3 | |
| Boise State | 3 | Boise State | 0 | 3 | |
| Florida State | 2 | Florida State | 1 | 3 | |
| Ga Tech | 2 | Ga Tech | 0 | 2 | |
| Miami FL | 2 | Miami FL | 0 | 2 | |
| Illinois | 1 | Illinois | 1 | 2 |
Oh, another conclusion … since there are soooooo many hoops teams (over 300), it’s much more difficult to be in the Top 25 … which, mathematically, is not astonishing by any means but we often think it’s the same schools time after time.
Any other conclusions or observations from the Pine?
I suppose if you really wanted to get into it, you’d also weigh the student population against those rankings, like from 0 – 10,000 students, and on up the ladder. Another intangible would be the effect of television (I don’t know if the colleges get money for being on the tee vee, but I’d guess yes), since these are the two high profile, prime time sports. That might skew things a bit.
Don’t think college size is a factor. ND is one of the smallest enrollments in D1 sports. Duke is even smaller. BYU is not overly large if am not mistaken. Size is relevant in HS, but not in D1, where everyone gets the same number of scholarships and access to the same pool of recruits. On the other hand, money IS a factor, but then there are many schools getting as much funding as are these consistent front runners, so money only is a factor when regarding “mid-majors” (of which there are 3 in football’s top 5 right now, so maybe it’s NOT a factor!).
I can’t believe WVa and Wisc did not come up in our earlier discussions. In retrospect they seem obvious. How ironic that Cincy makes the list because of football! Until 3 years ago they were only a basketball school, and a good one. Where have they been the past 5 years. Bob Huggins, where are you? Oh yeah, WVa – not that I am a Huggins fan. And, if Boise St. continues its football success, soon it will be a basketball contender too. Winning breeds winning, especially at schools like Boise where everybody is passionate about their sports team.
Wally, I knew you’d step up if I left that question hanging long enough. Ha!
Pete —
I did think WVU would be on the list if you read those previous responses, but I did not think of Wisconsin. But it is not a shock they are there. The Badgers lurk around almost always between #10 and 20 … but they never seem to really hit it big. But a high quality school and sports program
I missed the later responses on the other thread until this AM. You did indeed hit WVa. And yes, Wisc is high quality and shame on us for not thinking of them pre-research.