Earlier today two of my friends were having an argument about different schools and where they fit in college football's elite. They were mainly arguing Texas A&M vs. LSU. We all decided to look it up and judge it by the numbers. We got a few surprises. Check out the results, based on all-time winning percentage.... We decided to look up two groups of teams, the top fifteen (top tier programs) and then 15-30 (second tier programs). Top Tier: #1 Notre Dame #2 Michigan #3 Alabama #4 Nebraska #5 Oklahoma (tied with Texas, but has more championships) #6 Texas #7 Ohio State #8 Tennessee #9 Penn State #10 USC (Southern Cal for all you Gamecocks) #11 Florida State (amazing since this was crap program until 76) #12 Washington (big drop from Florida State to Washington) #13 Georgia #14 Miami #15 LSU (another decent drop after LSU) Second Tier: #16 Arizona State (I'm just as surprised as you are) #17 Auburn #18 Colorado #19 Florida #20 Texas A&M (another big dip from Florida to A&M) #21 Syracuse #22 UCLA #23 Michigan State #24 Georgia Tech #25 Arkansas #26 Arizona #27 Virginia Tech (thanks in great part to Frank Beamer) #28 Clemson #29 West Virginia #30 Minnesota (probably were ten spots higher fifteen years ago) Other notables: #35 Ole Miss #41 Oregon #46 Vanderbilt (right behind Duke!) Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi State are way down there.
Not too surprising The top 5 (six if you count the tie b/w Texas and OK) are not too surprising. Those were the ONLY powerhouses for a very long time a few decades ago. Now with more revenue, schools are able to compete more and there is more parity. Before too much longer, those top five or ten will have to rest on their "legacies" of when they were the only big dogs, because the rest of the pack will be catching up quickly.
We ranked 6th overall in total athletic programs. Titles, fan support etc etc (Baseball really helped with that) UT was number 1....
