Best College Sports Programs of 2024

ORIGINAL POST

This is biased. Objectively Michigan should probably be 1. Oh well, don’t cheat

UVA - 2019 natty will ring true forever. I’d buy a Kyle Guy jersey in a second if UVA let me in. Football needs work. Baseball is a factor. Anyone sleeping on College Baseball has never been to Mississippi
Duke - perennial basketball threats are fun to live around. It would suck for that threat to be Duke, however. Good at WBB too
Michigan - best overall, but cheating brings them down. Their fans are regrettably very nice.
Stanford - Andrew Luck. Also, their athletic department is featured in the movie “Challengers”
Berkeley - Cal football twitter is awesome
Northwestern - in a rut right now, but they can turn it around!
Georgetown - power conference means something, even if Georgetown basketball sucks rn
Yale - Ivy basketball powerhouse. They can reject me a million times but I’ll always love them for beating Auburn. Following Yale basketball would be unironically fun
Harvard - cool football stadium, fun rivalry with Yale. The gap between 8 and 9 is huge
Penn - Palestra. Cool facilities
Cornell - Ivy basketball threats, at least
Columbia - seems like they aren’t a sports school. At least you’re in NY so you have St. John’s by proxy
UChicago - they have sports I think
NYU - do they have sports?

12 replies

holiday_spice · 5 months ago

cornell’s hockey team has been pretty good recently. we need more good hockey law schools in the t1 though

65 upvotes on reddit

Appropriate_Swan6847 · 5 months ago

Relatively tough years for Michigan, Harvard, and Yale, but they’ve had some good teams historically. Minnesota also in the T20. ND had some good teams a few years ago

12 upvotes on reddit

holiday_spice · 5 months ago

BC/BU have been on a tear recently too, in addition to their historical successes. if i was planning my school choices around the best job outcomes and the best hockey teams i’d 100% be in boston

9 upvotes on reddit

brotoasty · 5 months ago

Cornell hockey has been great. But I think Penn may be the only school where the law school has its own hockey team.

1 upvotes on reddit

RFelixFinch · 5 months ago

NYU is D3, so if I get accepted I have FULL ELIGIBILITY (Go Violets 🤣)

16 upvotes on reddit

randomwalk123456 · 5 months ago

UVA has a very strong soccer program, with a three-peat as national champions at one point.

U of Chicago won a national football title in like 1905. Their modern football cheer is “hey, hey, who, who, we have more Nobels than you.”

Harvard football cheer is “who, who, hey, hey, you’re going to work for us one day.”

14 upvotes on reddit

Noirradnod · 5 months ago

We won two nattys thank you very much (and the first Heisman). We were a founding member of the Big Ten, even.

1 upvotes on reddit

sunburntredneck · 5 months ago

All you have to do is add T20 and you get some of the greatest athletic programs in the country: Texas, USC, UCLA, Georgia, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt (newest addition to the list)

13 upvotes on reddit

Fresh-Recognition888 · 5 months ago

What list are y'all using? Hasn't UCLA been T14 for a couple years now?

1 upvotes on reddit

DancingGoGos · 5 months ago

What's Vandy good at besides baseball?

2 upvotes on reddit

Every_Parsley7497 · 5 months ago

BEATING BAMA!!

3 upvotes on reddit

Appropriate_Swan6847 · 5 months ago

Love that even the biggest haters have to acknowledge that Michigan is objectively #1. You couldn’t even keep up the charade.

17 upvotes on reddit

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r/ApplyingToCollege • [2]

Summarize

Best Overall College?

Posted by SignificanceLive4250 · in r/ApplyingToCollege · 2 months ago

ight ik this is subjective on what yall value more, but when u consider these 5 criteria:

Academics
Campus Life
Sports
Location
Connections

What colleges truly stand out?

30 upvotes on reddit

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drlsoccer08 · 2 months ago

If your considering sports it has to be a power 4 conference member because of how significant and ever growing the gap is between power conference programs and other D1 programs.

“Top” academic schools that are also power 4 include:

Stanford
Duke
Vanderbilt
Cal
Northwestern
Notre Dame
UCLA
Michigan

I’d personally pick Duke of these, but that’s just me

43 upvotes on reddit

Prestigious-Cut2764 · 2 months ago

Sort of agree. I take out the Midwest based on location though. Agree on the ones in the south and cali. Better weather which adds to location value. Duke is definitely best balance of all five aspects by far though.

0 upvotes on reddit

htxatty · 2 months ago

Stanford

UT Austin

U Michigan

Duke

Vandy or Florida?

18 upvotes on reddit

Some-Service-1739 · 2 months ago

Duke, Notre Dame, Vandy, UCLA, and Michigan are really the only prestigious universities that also have the sports & rah rah culture of other colleges.

8 upvotes on reddit

ebayusrladiesman217 · 2 months ago

Stanford maybe? UCB and UCLA are also good here. Maybe UT Austin. You have a few that hit big on some of these. ND hits on academics, campus life, sports, and connections, but is in rural indiana. OSU might be worth considering too, but it isn't on the same level as the UCs or Stanford. Harvard might hit on many of these, but sports isn't their strong suit. Duke also hits many of these points, but that's if you love Basketball and NC. Vandy probably hits pretty well on most of these. UMIch almost, but misses the mark on location unless Ann Arbor is what you're into. USC isn't too bad, location is getting better every year. UNC too. Maybe UW Madison? Idk about that, Madison isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. A&M isn't too bad on most of these. Kinda like OSU. Maybe UMiami, don't know how their football is doing though.

Idk I can't think of too many more.

9 upvotes on reddit

greencatmd · 2 months ago

stanford football is ass unfortunately

1 upvotes on reddit

Adenosine66 · 2 months ago

They were pretty strong in the early 2010s, they have the potential to return to that even with their admission standards. The new reliance of football teams to lean heavily on transfers definitely hurts them though, they generally don’t do transfers.

0 upvotes on reddit

Vaerna · 2 months ago

South Bend is not that rural bruh

1 upvotes on reddit

Nakagura775 · 2 months ago

ND is not rural at all. Where do you even get that idea?

0 upvotes on reddit

drlsoccer08 · 2 months ago

They’re ranked number 18 by US News and are usually considered among the best academic schools in the country, they play in the ACC for all non football sports, and for football they regularly contend for the national championship. “ Campus life” is a bit of a subjective category so it’s hard to grade, but anecdotally I have several cousins that went there that all enjoyed their time. The school has a very good alumni network. I think the only listed category that they don’t excel in is location, as I personally am not a big fan of South Bend, because it’s cold and not very interesting. But that’s also very subjective.

5 upvotes on reddit

Some-Service-1739 · 2 months ago

Not much rah rah at cal and their sports are always bad. Great school tho, and I’d rather go there than ucla tbh.

1 upvotes on reddit

bptkr13 · 2 months ago

Michigan

11 upvotes on reddit

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r/collegehockey • [3]

Summarize

Schools That Could Start D-I Men’s Programs, pt 5: 2024 Offseason Update

Posted by exileondaytonst · in r/collegehockey · 1 year ago

An update from last year's offseason when I last wrote about this topic. I'll typically try to keep track of this throughout the year if there's any newsworthy items, then post an update at some point around or after the coach's meetings in FL. Which is why I'm publishing this now. Here goes...

News on Teams That Might Very Well Be Coming Soon Because They've Already Been Heavily Reported On, and In Some Cases Talked About Openly By College Hockey, Inc. Amongst Others But At This Point Who Knows If Or When Any Of It Would/Could/Will Happen But Hey We Can Dream

For the last year, it’s basically been radio silence on Utica, Binghamton, and the "NEMHA" (the remaining D-II programs that could theoretically just play up by declaring for the D-I championship, since there's no D-II championship).

Our latest news on Binghamton is still the AD's intention to add a team for next season, and… it’s a little late for that, one would imagine.

The "NEMHA"/Northeast-10 Saga was theoretically going to have a conclusion in the fall of '22, and that just never happened.

The last time it was discussed on CHN and USCHO's podcasts, they'd each said it was just a matter of having a conference home for Utica (looking at you, Atlantic Hockey and/or an AH-breakaway conference). Which is either good news, or terrible news for Utica

Updates From Stuff We Knew About Before

Robert Morris officially came back, and Augustana had their debut season. Stonehill finally won a game.

Tennessee State is definitely moving forward, at least with a club team due to play this fall. They even had their first commit this year. What I haven't seen is an actual comment on an arena for them... which... is a major line item. Their FAQ page only indicates a plan to figure it out with the Predators. The Preds practice at the Centennial Sportsplex which, as far as I know, just has a few token bleachers and low seating capacity. How serious they are about going varsity from a club team... well... time will tell.

Oakland University, reported by Tony Paul, Detroit News (h/t to u/nbryson625 for pointing this out to me in the comments in my last post about this). Evidently, the plan centered on buying The Palace of Auburn Hills, which... isn't the most insane arena plan that we've seen (that award, IMO, still goes to Indiana). In any case, the hope for that program is almost certainly well beyond dead. link 1 link 2

u/chn_adamw noted in a comment in part 4 that there was more meat on the bone to the Missouri-Kansas City rumor he reported on in 2021. This appears tied to a new arena UMKC is trying to develop, although those plans are paused as of Oct. '23 when initial quotes for development were higher than expected. If the arena project regains momentum, it'll be time to keep an eye on this more, but until then...

Arizona's potential home for their club team was initially planned to open this year, but only just recently got through some final approvals needed before construction begins. The Ice arena portion of the project won't see completion until before the 2026-27 season. If the Wildcats want to go varsity in hockey, they would likely play in the Tucson Convention Center (currently the club team's home as well as the home of the Tucson Roadrunners AHL team. Of course, we have literally nothing to indicate that they have intentions to go varsity, outside of the occasional exhibition game against ASU.

Georgia is probably in a similar situation to Arizona. The new arena for their club team (and ~~ECHL~~ FPHL team) is still in construction and that's the only "news" item to be concerned with here. But the parallels to Arizona are notable: a club team tied to an arena project from the get-go, a suitable size for D-I, a void left by a departed NHL franchise (albeit that wound is much more recent in Arizona).

Of course, much of the same could be said about Iowa and the construction of Xtream Arena. What they lack in lost NHL franchises, they gain in a varsity sport (volleyball) being tied to the arena and a much simpler conference scenario. And we've seen no indication that D-I hockey is on the horizon there. As you go on the path from about to begin construction (Arizona) to ongoing construction (Georgia) to open a few years with no hockey momentum (Iowa), it gets harder to think that it'll happen. I don't think there's any reason to call Iowa anything more than the dimmest of probabilities at this point, and Georgia and Arizona are increasingly reaching that stage as time goes on.

New-ish Stuff

University of Delaware adds women's program, hires coach, etc. No indication that they'll add a men's team (so file this next to Syracuse as far as the men's game is concerned). Maybe Michigan will join them, who knows.

LeMoyne College are thinking about it, but Mike McMahon called it a long shot in the same report as he noted it in. Not a lot else to go on here. They're in the NEC all sports conference (with LIU and Stonehill... Sacred Heart and Merrimack were in the conference but have since announced that they'll leave for the MAAC), for whatever that's worth.

Mike McMahon (CHN), noted in November that Simon Fraser is looking more seriously than any of us had presumed before, with their 2023-24 schedule allegedly being an indicator of this plan. Presumably, this is the best possible news for GNAC conference mates Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage. However, as of the publishing of that story, SFU was without an athletic director (as of the end of April 2024 they have not concluded their search for an AD), so the direction their next AD takes is to be determined. One known fact is that their football program has been terminated following a conference realignment issue.

There are also two schools that are reclassifying to D-II from NAIA, and each are joining an all sports conference alongside several D-I hockey schools. Both schools have ACHA club teams acknowledged on their athletic department's websites alongside "varsity" teams:

University of Jamestown is joining the Northern Sun conference (with UMD, SCSU, Minnesota St, Bemidji St, and Augustana... and Minot State). Both of their club teams (and their women's team) are acknowledged on their AD page alongside the rest of their sports.
Roosevelt University in Chicago has already made the transition from NAIA to D-II this past school year as a provisional member of the GLIAC (home of the CCHA's FSU, LSSU, MTU, and NMU, as well as former D-I program Wayne State). The men's (and women's) club team is acknowledged on their official athletics website. Plus... maybe their rink is a workable one? Since this has already happened and there hasn't yet been a hockey angle exposed, this may well be the only time I mention it.

If There's Been Recent Updates About Any Of These or Any Other Random School You Can Think Of, I've Missed It (Or Dismissed It)

Navy
Penn
Maryville
Minot State
UNLV
Liberty
Illinois (Adam Augustine, Big Ten’s hockey admin, indicated in a USCHO podcast from Thursday at this years frozen four that they’ve heard nothing about UI revisiting their decision not to pursue a team)

As per usual, it will be worth making notes on which of these schools end up having their club teams scheduling exhibitions against D-I programs for next season.

General disclaimer on what I typically try to loop into these posts

I don't pay much attention to "rumors" (i.e. stuff that randos on the internet say on reddit, or the old USCHO forums, twitter, etc.). And a club team performing (or even drawing) well doesn't necessarily mean a school is willing to pursue it. If I went by any of that, we'd be including Texas Tech and Louisville and Kentucky and all sorts of other schools with basically 0% chance of actually exploring hockey without a Pegula Investment.

BUT, the things that do make me take notice:

If there's actual reported news of a new hockey rink being built or scouted (see: Iowa, Arizona, Georgia, UMKC)
If there's something reported on by actual college hockey reporters (Simon Fraser, LeMoyne, et al being reported on CHN, USCHO, etc.)
Something openly acknowledged by a formal entity like the athletic department or College Hockey Inc (Illinois, Binghamton, Utica, TN State, et al)
If a school is reclassifying to D-I or D-II with some form of college hockey already involved (Maryville, Jamestown, Roosevelt, et al)
If a club team plays exhibitions against D-I programs (Minot State, Liberty, Arizona, UNLV, et al)
If a club team openly talks about maybe wanting to go varsity and there's something more than a quote from a hopeful coach behind that (Penn fundraising, TN State working with College Hockey Inc., Simon Fraser or Maryville having AD personnel quoted by serious reporters, et al.)

None of these actually mean all that much on their own. And clearly, having the donors is ultimately the only thing that matters. (Unless you’re LIU, I guess). But of the last 7 D-I additions dating back to Penn State (plus the confirmed attempts from Illinois, Utica, and Binghamton), everyone other than LIU and Arizona State met at least one of these criteria. There's usually still some level of "hey we need donors" before anything actually means something (again: outside of LIU), but we college hockey fans get bored in the offseason, so... whatever.

42 upvotes on reddit

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AssassinSNiper · 1 year ago

disappointing, to say the least. the two best chances seem to be some fuck off teams in the northeast. it’d be nice to see a few big schools add hockey, a la Penn State a few years ago.

22 upvotes on reddit

rideronthestorm29 · 1 year ago

USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and Rutgers. All in NHL markets other than OU.

1 upvotes on reddit

Ok-Curve5569 · 1 year ago

^^ this man is obsessed with USC and UCLA putting teams together

1 upvotes on reddit

nannulators · 1 year ago

Rutgers, Illinois, and Oregon are the only 3 Big Ten schools without varsity teams who are playing in the top tier of club teams. It'd make the most sense for those schools to make the leap simply based on if they'd be competitive.

Those other schools all may be in NHL markets but it isn't worth them throwing millions of dollars per year at a program that's 100% guaranteed to operate at a loss. Depending on where things stand with their athletic programs already, they'd potentially have to add additional programs for women's sports as well. The Big Ten isn't just going to give these schools and several million dollars to start up a program.

5 upvotes on reddit

CoyoteJerseys · 1 year ago

How do the service academies determine which sports they will or won’t field teams in? Obviously Navy’s an interesting outlier

17 upvotes on reddit

Ok-Flounder3002 · 1 year ago

Feels like momentum is dead rn amongst football schools - I presume because of the huge uncertainty with paying football players being on the horizon

Still feels like Liberty is inevitable. IIRC they had a decent club program, they’re filthy rich, and theyre determined to be ‘evangelical Notre Dame’ so id bet theyll move up sometime

8 upvotes on reddit

exileondaytonst · OP · 1 year ago

It certainly would make sense if any power conference school that wanted to do it was holding off while they see what the NIL fallout will be.

As for Liberty… what you say is true (plus they have a suitable rink!) but all those things have been true for a long time now. They’re basically in the Navy and Rhode Island tier of “people have talked about it online for a long time but it hasn’t happened yet so…”

5 upvotes on reddit

CardiologistQuirky67 · 1 year ago

but people actually want navy and rhode island to move up

4 upvotes on reddit

HornetsDaBest · 1 year ago

I may be off base here, but I’ve heard from a USNA alum that there’s a sort of gentleman’s agreement that Navy both varsity in hockey in exchange for Army not going varsity in some sport (can’t remember what it was). Could be total BS but that’s what I’ve heard.

2 upvotes on reddit

Random0925 · 1 year ago

Please let Georgia move up to varsity because of the domino effect it might have on the rest of the SEC. I would kill for a Mississippi State hockey team. (Probably never going to happen. We don't even have a club team.)

8 upvotes on reddit

CardiologistQuirky67 · 1 year ago

u just want some kind of bulldog alliance with yale umd and ferris

2 upvotes on reddit

rideronthestorm29 · 1 year ago

Florida and South Carolina have decent club programs. It would be cool to see a league of ACC/SEC teams.

Florida State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, UNC, NC State, Duke

Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee

2 upvotes on reddit

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r/AskAnAmerican • [4]

Summarize

Which college is the overall "sports capital?"

Posted by Waltz8 · in r/AskAnAmerican · 5 months ago

Which college(s) excel the most at sports overall? Not in one sport, but considering overall historical success in sports in general (football, basketball, men's and women's soccer, etc)?

Edit: doesn't have to totally dominate each sport, but at least have decent programs in multiple sports.

24 upvotes on reddit

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tiger0204 · 5 months ago

There's a yearly competition called the "Director's Cup" that measures exactly what you're asking. Stanford wins it virtually every year. A big part of it is that they field about twice as many sports teams as most schools you'd think of as "sports schools". Things like fencing, squash, water polo, beach volleyball, etc.

155 upvotes on reddit

YoungKeys · 5 months ago

There is also the Capital One Cup that measures only the most popular sports. Baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling are what’s measured for men and these are the past men’s winners:

2024: Notre Dame

2023: Florida

2022: Notre Dame

2021: Stanford

2019: Virginia

2018: Stanford

2017: Ohio State

2016: Stanford

Women’s side has Texas or Stanford win every year

89 upvotes on reddit

ProfessorBeer · 5 months ago

Looking at this list pretty much hits what I was already thinking. ND, Florida and Ohio State immediately came to mind. Tennessee and Michigan I’d also say have a claim, they’re pretty good at a lot of sports across men’s and women’s historically.

I personally discount Stanford because they aren’t nearly as relevant in popular sports. They matter for something, but a water polo title doesn’t matter as much as a football title. Just is what it is.

3 upvotes on reddit

goodsam2 · 5 months ago

I feel like the big sports are football, basketball both men's and women's, baseball or hockey regionally and I've heard things about women's volleyball.

I feel like you don't want to cherry pick so much but that's what I've heard are likely the sports that are revenue generating at a university.

16 upvotes on reddit

Almond_Brother · 5 months ago

Surprised at all the people saying Stanford. A large majority of their championships are in Tennis and Waterpolo. Hardly any in the sports you mentioned (football, basketball, soccer).

It's hard to pick just one, but I'd personally say Florida, Michigan, UCLA, Texas, Penn State, Ohio State, USC all fit the category with blanket sports success.

87 upvotes on reddit

ColossusOfChoads · 5 months ago

"Overall sports capital" made me think "which college is the sports school?" Let's be honest, most people wouldn't think of Stanford.

1 upvotes on reddit

Kman17 · 5 months ago

Number of spectators vs number of titles, which sports, and over what time horizon will really influence the answer.

Most people think of primarily Men’s D1 football and basketball only, in which case yeah Stanford not at the top.

1 upvotes on reddit

rztzzz · 5 months ago

Yeah but they win in sports that very few people watch or even attend matches / games -

I think if you want to claim the sports capital school you have to be regularly nationally competitive in basketball and football

8 upvotes on reddit

TheBimpo · 5 months ago

> Stanford

Yup. They dominate in the non-revenue generating sports. They've had very limited success in football and men's basketball.

18 upvotes on reddit

beargators · 5 months ago

Florida and Stanford regularly top the lists.

27 upvotes on reddit

OleRockTheGoodAg · 5 months ago

Case in point: the longhorns.

They're a blue blood in football. But their true bread and butter is swimming and diving, as they win it basically every year. Big swimming and diving school.

2 upvotes on reddit

claude_the_shamrock · 5 months ago

Stanford if you're talking all sports, Florida (imo) if you're talking popular sports.

Probably would add: Texas, OSU, Michigan, maybe Alabama (though maybe I'm getting swayed just by football) as runner-ups in the popular sports category.

7 upvotes on reddit

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r/CFB • [5]

Summarize

For good or bad what teams do you think will have a program defining season this year?

Posted by Belegheru · in r/CFB · 1 year ago

Every fan base has seasons that they look back on years later because of the impact that season has had on the program. Sometimes it's because a team had a breakout year and start a prolonged era of dominance in their conference. Other times it's because the program bottomed out and starts an era of misery. What teams do you feel will have a program defining season this year and why? To me the obvious answer is Washington State and Oregon State. They really need excellence across their athletic programs this year, especially in football. A good year in football could help maximize their chances of creating a stable future.

94 upvotes on reddit

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https://x.com/cfbrep/status/1777083137903776037?s=46

12 replies

LeBroentgen · 1 year ago

I think the answer has to be Texas, right? They could come into the SEC, dominate, and really set their program up to be one of the top teams going forward with recruiting momentum or maybe Ewers is still inconsistent, they struggle, the QB controversy starts, and things spiral from there leading to some big questions going forward.

75 upvotes on reddit

yesacabbagez · 1 year ago

Texas is fine unless they consider death by memes.

Oregon really is the biggest test. Phil Knight has poured money and this is the best era for them possible. They are exciting and have an insane bankroll behind them. Knight is old as shit and going die at some point. I'm sure Oregon will still get plenty of money, but it won't be the same without his huge looming presence over everything, complacency will be far more accepted at time.

Oregon needs to hit big right now.

2 upvotes on reddit

Boatswain-or-scruffy · 1 year ago

Anyone not already in a top conference

This season will set the tone for where everyone stands going forward, and if you're already locked into the lower league of the sport you need to establish yourself as the top of that portion so that it becomes easier for you to raid lower programs. Everyone in the G5 is already going to be losing most of their top talent to higher tier programs, so it's important to establish the ability to do the same to lower programs.

Sucks that this is where we're at

73 upvotes on reddit

Rivercitybruin · 1 year ago

How many teams you figure won't lose too many players? Boise is one name that comes to mind.. Opposite is new Mexico state. Finally some success and,see ya later

0 upvotes on reddit

Ok_Swimmer634 · 1 year ago

Same with the bottom of the top conferences. I am just resigned Mississippi State will only ever have great players that wealthier schools missed ever again. Dak Prescott and Jeffery Simmons come to mind. Even then, they will be one and done with us at best.

5 upvotes on reddit

Bart1009 · 1 year ago

I mean Clemson is THE answer to this question. We are on a knifes edge now. We either turn the corner and get back to what we were in the 2010's, or fade back to what we've been historically which is a perennial 8-9 win team.

2 upvotes on reddit

NoNSFW_Workaccount · 1 year ago

I hate to say it but Oregon. Theyre putting together the best team that money can buy. The time is now.

185 upvotes on reddit

kinda_alone · 1 year ago

Thoughts on what this year means for southern cal? Riley’s seat has to at least be lukewarm going into the year right? Schedule is going to be tough.

13 upvotes on reddit

Monkey_Plato · 1 year ago

We paid waaaaay too much money for Riley’s seat to be warm. His buyout heading into this season is estimated to be $88 million so we honestly can’t afford to fire him for the time being.

A lot of our talent is really young and there’ll be a grace period to install the new defence + adapt to B1G football, so Riley will at least be given a couple more years. But this season will set the trajectory for the next few years, whether USC takes a step forward with a new much improved defence or if we stagnate or even regress because our physicality issues aren’t fixed and get exacerbated in the B1G.

Absolute win count honestly doesn’t really matter this season for the fanbase’s hopes (unless we manage to make a playoff run), but how we show improvement over the season. As long as we can show that we can at least be competitive with the Michigans and Penn States of the world the fanbase will be pretty happy for the future, coming off the (7+1)-5 season.

4 upvotes on reddit

FFA3D · 1 year ago

I think those honors go to OSU this year but I don't think Oregon is too far behind

9 upvotes on reddit

RebelFlame15 · 1 year ago

I think it's good and bad, while I'm almost positive Texas will do good, if they somehow get embarrassed in SEC play that might hurt them a lot.

2 upvotes on reddit

idontlikeredditbutok · 1 year ago

I don't think we need to win a title this year, but we absolutely need to have a good showing. Making the playoff is a minimum requirement i think.

4 upvotes on reddit

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r/CFB • [6]

Summarize

Top 25 football + men’s basketball programs of the 2023-2024 season

Posted by hershculez · in r/CFB · 1 year ago

I am now a Jackrabbits fan.

68 upvotes on reddit

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wuweime · 1 year ago

This is a good way to compare programs. I'd even support adding baseball to it.

Not hockey.

44 upvotes on reddit

shjusti · 1 year ago

Think if baseball and soccer get added we might be #1 (Soccer Natty and Baseball is #2)

16 upvotes on reddit

SabreToothMyrrh · 1 year ago

Only baseball and softball please.

1 upvotes on reddit

justaverage · 1 year ago

Softball and women’s golf or bust

3 upvotes on reddit

Jive_Turkey1979 · 1 year ago

Baseball would knock us out of this list. Which is weird given we won a natty just 2 years ago.

1 upvotes on reddit

pitter_patter_11 · 1 year ago

Seriously, is the men’s basketball program over the last month carrying this #5 ranking?

24 upvotes on reddit

Manwar7 · 1 year ago

Top 25 finish in football and Final Four run in basketball is better than almost any other school this season, though 5 does seem a little high

27 upvotes on reddit

hershculez · OP · 1 year ago

I learned yesterday that Boston is the epicenter of college hockey.

6 upvotes on reddit

bestthrowawayever5 · 1 year ago

Yup, it’s literally the only thing BC does well. I’ve never been interested in watching it, but as TC continues to play Runningback at the QB position and everyone good is having a mass exodus from basketball, I’m leaning into the sport

2 upvotes on reddit

DommyMommyKarlach · 1 year ago

This list has my team rated high so it must be very trustworthy.

109 upvotes on reddit

shjusti · 1 year ago

Don’t forget men’s soccer

18 upvotes on reddit

Zoidburger_ · 1 year ago

All bow to your new Wolfpack overlords (please just let us have it until the fall semester)

8 upvotes on reddit

See 12 replies

r/CFB • [7]

Summarize

Texas wins the 2024-25 Division I Director's Cup, the trophy awarded to the nation's most successful athletic program. USC and Stanford round out the top 3.

Posted by city-of-stars · in r/CFB · 3 months ago

si.com

476 upvotes on reddit

12 replies

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12 replies

mcaffrey · 3 months ago

Best overall athletic program seems pretty prestigious to me. It isn't like it is some bullshit popularity contest either - it has strict rules for points for how well your school does across the board.

It clearly is biased towards larger schools that have the budget and size to compete in all the less popular sports, but those larger schools are still fiercly competing with each other to have the best programs.

So, IMHO, no, apathy is not the proper feeling.

25 upvotes on reddit

Young-Viiperr · 3 months ago

TTU needs to get football & baseball back up, then maybe Tech can win one of these. Hoops & softball are already strong (among other non-rev sports).

-6 upvotes on reddit

ComeJoinTheBand · 3 months ago

With such a thin margin between first and third, it looks like even a first round exit in any of the three mandatory counter sports in which we failed to make the NCAA tournament would have brought the Cup back to the Farm.

Or, finishing one place or one round better in any of the sports we ultimately got to count would have led to a Stanford win. I'm sure we could find dozens of what-ifs.

31 upvotes on reddit

xViscount · 3 months ago

I’d argue that this was an off year.

Historically, the winner has been at 1350. This year, the winner was in the 1250 range.

I’d like to believe Stanford and Texas battle it out again with another 100 points setting the distance between 2nd and 3rd as has been the last 5 years.

TL;DR Texas and Stanford under preformed. USC performed as expected.

6 upvotes on reddit

-spicychilli- · 3 months ago

I think that’s the most interesting thing with 3 schools being within 5 points of each other. That’s astronomically close. One small event being different in one sport over the course of the year and the results are different.

On the Texas end we snuck into the NCAA tourney as a first four team giving us 5 points instead of 0 in men’s basketball. Football narrowly escaped ASU. Softball was down 1-0 in a super regional with Clemson having the winning run on 3rd with no outs. So many what ifs with margins this small

16 upvotes on reddit

bakonydraco · 3 months ago

It's worth noting that the format was changed in 2018, I think in part because we'd won it so many years in a row. We would have won by several hundred points under the old format, which counted the top 10 men's teams and top 10 women's teams, instead of 4 required sports and then top 15 other teams.

6 upvotes on reddit

skratsda · 3 months ago

Without any bias, the Director’s Cup seems like the much more important one

41 upvotes on reddit

city-of-stars · OP · 3 months ago

#	Team	Pts.
1	Texas Longhorns	1255.25
2	Southern California Trojans	1253.75
3	Stanford Cardinal	1251.00

> For the fourth time in the last five years, the Texas Longhorns have won the Director's Cup awarded annually to nation's college or university with the most success in athletics competition. Texas finished with 1255.25 points, just ahead of USC (1253.75) and Stanford (1251.0) in one of the closest finishes in the award's 32-year history.

> The Longhorns' 2025 victory was by just 1.5 points, and came down to the finish at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. The Texas A&M men's track team tied USC for first place in the final standings with 41 points each, costing the Trojans the 2.5 extra points an outright first-place finish would have secured them and helping Texas take the 2025 Director's Cup.

> Texas won a national title in both Men's Swimming and Diving and Softball this season. Texas football finished third, as did women's basketball, rowing, women's swimming and diving and men's tennis. Seven Texas teams won a league-best eight Southeastern Conference titles in the Longhorns' first official season in the SEC: soccer (SEC Tournament); men's swimming and diving; women's swimming and diving; women's basketball (regular season); men's tennis (regular season and tournament); rowing and baseball (regular season).

93 upvotes on reddit

LSNoyce · 3 months ago

Diving deeper, had USC finished 4th or better in the final event (4x400m) they would have won the title outright and thus the cup. They finished 8th in what appeared to be their worst performance I’ve seen this year as each runner seemed dead tired and slowed before handing off to the next Congrats to Texas.

32 upvotes on reddit

LegalAd8179 · 3 months ago

4th or better would’ve guaranteed USC the win no matter who won. With the same results (a&m 2nd), if usc would’ve gotten 7th (2 points) instead of 8th (1 point), they would’ve won the title outright.

2 upvotes on reddit

bakonydraco · 3 months ago

There was a moment there where NiJary Canady being at Texas Tech was actually the single individual that had the highest leverage impact on Stanford potentially winning the Director's Cup this year. We finished a hair behind USC as well, but it would have been an incredible story if even in leaving, she helped Stanford find our way to the Cup.

10 upvotes on reddit

mcaffrey · 3 months ago

Wait - hang on - the AGGIES clinched this for us by tying USC for 1st place in Track?

I don't understand how I'm supposed to feel.

371 upvotes on reddit

See 12 replies

r/gmgames • [8]

Summarize

Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2025 (Windows PC)

Posted by cv81 · in r/gmgames · 6 months ago

Are you ready for the excitement of March? Your road to the tournament starts now with Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2025! Take charge of your favorite school's program, recruit the next generation of stars, and guide your team to tournament glory. As the coach, you have control over every aspect of your program, from practice sessions to player grades, and you can exert your influence on game day from the virtual sideline. Will you build a team for the ages or strategically use the transfer portal to reload each year? The choices are yours to make!

All new this season we've got new improvements to the game engine allowing players to perform and feel even more like modern day college players, more items have been added to recruiting along with a streamlined contact approach giving you more control over the data you want to find out about recruits, division II players will now be available as part of the transfer portal and the biggest new feature of all, the introduction of NIL into the game giving you a brand new twist in recruiting and the transfer portal.

Immerse yourself in the game's vast amount of data, news, reports, and special features like an in-game selection show that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you anticipate your team's fate in the big dance. Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2025 offers an unparalleled opportunity to live the life of a college basketball coach, making it a must-play for enthusiasts of the sport.

To see full details head to: https://gmgames.org/draft-day-sports-college-basketball-2025/

10 upvotes on reddit

3 replies

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3 replies

CommandNo5136 · 5 months ago

Are these games available on Mac?

2 upvotes on reddit

cv81 · OP · 5 months ago

You have run a Windows virtual machine on the Mac to play them.

1 upvotes on reddit

LonghornBob77 · 6 months ago

I really wish these Draft Day Sports games worked on the Steam Deck. I’ve been wanting to try them out.

2 upvotes on reddit

See 3 replies

r/CFB • [9]

Summarize

Who are the Best Development Programs in College Football?

Posted by HokiesforTSwift · in r/CFB · 2 years ago

thekeyplay.com

14 upvotes on reddit

12 replies

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This is 247's development rating from 2022 for one alternative measure

12 replies

AllHawkeyesGoToHell · 2 years ago

Interesting list, and they break it down as a function of expected S&P+ vs actual S&P+ between 2017-2022

Wisconsin
Utah
Alabama
Iowa
Oklahoma State
Iowa State
Kansas State
Georgia
Minnesota
Ohio State

I like this list because it puts my flairs in good company, therefore it is correct.

14 upvotes on reddit

SmellyJellyfish · 2 years ago

Yet it has both Wisconsin and Iowa ahead of your teams, so you must hate it at least a little

5 upvotes on reddit

Minnesota_Arouser · 2 years ago

I knew Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa would all be here. They appear to be measuring seasons 2017-2022, and 2017 was PJ Fleck's first year. I was surprised to see Wisconsin so far ahead, but Wisconsin was 13-1 in 2017, Iowa was 8-5, and Minnesota was 5-7, so 2017 was probably Wisconsin's best season in that 6 year span, and Minnesota's worst. I wonder if it would be closer a year later if you measured 2018-2023, assuming we can manage like 7-5 this season.

2 upvotes on reddit

HokiesforTSwift · OP · 2 years ago

I don't think this is the one true development rating or anything like that, rather an interesting alternative to most of the ones I've seen which are focused almost exclusively on producing NFL talent. That is a very important gauge of development, and I value (and have shared on this sub) those measurements as well.

Additionally, the primary point of this article (since it's from a VT specific site) is to assess the pathway for Virginia Tech (or similar programs) to elevate their on-field performance relative to talent.

3 upvotes on reddit

ThaiForAWhiteGuy · 2 years ago

Yeah I think the piece they should really be highlighting is talent evaluation. The biggest leg up a middling program can get is identifying the right pieces for scheme and kids who show certain growth traits. Take the UGA secondary last season: 5-star CB, 5-star Safety, 3-star safety, 3-star nickel, 3-star CB. The 3-star safety was an all American that got drafted. That’s the real secret to the UGA depth

2 upvotes on reddit

HokiesforTSwift · OP · 2 years ago

For this specific measure, which is focused on college football on-field over/underperformance as opposed to NFL draft development (the more common measuring stick in these articles), the key factors identified in the article are coaching continuity, recruiting identity, and institutional alignment.

1 upvotes on reddit

ThunderDudester · 2 years ago

How do these really work in the era of open transfers? Do we go by their Transfer ranking or their HS ranking?

Jared Verse probably being the most extreme example this year. He was unranked out of HS but a high 4* in the portal.

2 upvotes on reddit

OakLegs · 2 years ago

It could also just rank teams that are better at identifying lesser-known talent (which is also a great thing to do!)

1 upvotes on reddit

robintal000 · 2 years ago

Fun fact, Utah still has yet to recruit a 5 star

1 upvotes on reddit

tragicallyohio · 2 years ago

Also they called Baylor and UCONN the two most recent college basketball champions but kinda forgot about a Kansas Jayhawks team that slipped in a win in between those two. That oversight seems a bit convenient given that Kansas is consistently a top performer in CBB recruiting.

2 upvotes on reddit

Alex_butler · 2 years ago

It’s also been noted in many threads before that a lot of the guys these “development” programs are getting were probably just a little underrated to begin with. Guys from rural midwest who just commit early and aren’t seen as much by the recruiting sites.

More recent examples for us would be to just look at Keanu Benton and Leo Chenal playing as true freshmen. Just roll the tape of him vs Ohio State or other teams his true freshman year. He was starting and making high level plays against those high level guys and Im supposed to believe he wasn’t even in the top 1200 players in the country the year before? Now he went 2nd round in the NFL. That’s the issue with recruiting rankings. Because he committed to Wisconsin early, didnt want to give himself more exposure, he was barely even a three star. Leo is even more of a head scratcher than Benton, but you get the point. Yea Leo and Benton go down on paper as “low three stars we developed”, but those guys were monsters from day one.

I do think we’ve done well developing players and matching them to our system, but I also think it’s not like we’re getting bums. A lot of those guys were really talented and probably wouldve been rated higher with greater exposure

5 upvotes on reddit

HokiesforTSwift · OP · 2 years ago

There's a lot of different ways to view it. Most development ratings I've seen focus on how well you send players to the NFL, usually in terms of outpacing peers: Are you sending more 2/3 star guys? Are you developing blue-chip prospects into NFL players at a materially higher clip than the national average?

I found this one interesting because it's focusing on a program's on-field performance relative to their talent level as opposed to the previous ways of measuring it. It keeps the discussion within the parameters of college football for those who care less about the pro-game, though I am fan of both.

5 upvotes on reddit

See 12 replies

r/college • [10]

Summarize

All National Championship winners for all Major NCAA sports for the 2024/2025 Athletic Season!

Posted by BlackStallion657 · in r/college · 2 months ago

i.redd.it

133 upvotes on reddit

9 replies

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9 replies

d3photo · 20 days ago

Only a third of them. Missing all the Div 2 and 3 champions

1 upvotes on reddit

BlackStallion657 · OP · 20 days ago

All the major collegiate sports that like 95% of people watch/keep up with are Division 1. Which is why I sent this image. If I added DII and DIII There’d be like 800+ school’s no one’s heard of.

1 upvotes on reddit

d3photo · 20 days ago

75% of the student-athletes play at other levels.

1 upvotes on reddit

notfornowforawhile · 2 months ago

Mormons love long distance running. My high school was nowhere near an LDS hotbed but half the cross country team and most of the coaching staff was Mormon.

17 upvotes on reddit

Roughneck16 · 2 months ago

BYU grad here. I was the only LDS soldier in my company and I would smoke everyone on the 2-mile run. Not drinking or smoking does wonders 😎

2 upvotes on reddit

henryws31 · 2 months ago

Also a lot of Utah is high elevation

5 upvotes on reddit

OriginalOGOG · 2 months ago

Also going for a mission trip and being 2+ years older than all of the other runners helps.

2 upvotes on reddit

MattonArsenal · 2 months ago

Just curious….

No D1 men’s rowing?

Several NCAA championships not split by gender: Beach Volleyball, Fencing, Bowling, Rifle, Skiing. Assuming the competition is, but combined team award?

32 upvotes on reddit

BlackStallion657 · OP · 2 months ago

There is men’s rowing championship, but it isn’t sponsored by NCAA, but by another competition.

Beach Volleyball, Fencing, Bowling, Rifle under the NCAA are all female. Men’s are in another competition program. Skiing is co ed I believe. So both men’s and women’s!

24 upvotes on reddit

See 9 replies

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