Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

I mentioned this in chat late last night as the glorious, heroic Florida Gators were wrapping up their football national title win over the cowardly, ugly Oklahoma Sooners; and now, instead of running processes to delete hundreds of old files at work today, I'm researching this a bit more.

With two wins apiece in each of the two biggest college sports in America (Men's basketball and football), does the University of Florida deserve the spot of the most dominant sports program in the country for this decade? I'm tempted to say yes, but I'm clearly biased as a long-time Gator fan (and only one screwup in their admissions office prevented me from being a Florida alum now, but that's a different story).

I did some digging on ncaa.com this morning, and it seems like there are some other pretty good options if you disagree with Florida:

• North Carolina, based on one men's basketball win, one men's soccer win, and three championships in women's soccer;
• Southern Cal with one FBS win and one women's soccer win (but with a historically very good football program even without championships)
• Texas, with one football championship and two baseball, plus perennial power;
• Connecticut, with a whopping four women's basketball wins and one men's, plus a men's soccer win;
• Maryland, with men's basketball, women's basketball, and two men's soccer wins.

Any other thoughts out there?


--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

I might mention Syracuse (4 lax championships, 1 men's basketball championship) and UCLA (a massive 24 championships, but mostly in niche sports like water polo and gymnastics) along with those others. But then again, I care about lacrosse more than most, just like how Josh cares about soccer more than most.

And if you want to go on about how ridiculous that UNC women's soccer stat is, they've won NINETEEN OUT OF A POSSIBLE TWENTY-ONE women's soccer ACC championships, ever. Other than Cal Men's Rugby that's probably the most dominant D1 stretch still ongoing.

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

You're right, I'm definitely biased towards soccer, but I also definitely think that soccer is much less a niche sport at the college level than any of the others you mentioned, because soccer's played nationwide whereas lacrosse is focused almost exclusively in the northeast and water polo almost exclusively on the Pacific coast, as I recall. Same reason I didn't mention collegiate hockey, where a handful of teams are in the running every year and pretty much no one else is.

That is a pretty nuts stat about UNC's women's soccer - I didn't even try to delve into things like conference championships or national runners-up in the interests of time.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Oklahoma is pretty dominant at losing in BCS Bowls.

--------------------

Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

LSU jumps to mind (2 football, 1 baseball, I think? Also 5 track championships combined between men and women) Stanford and Colorado have combined for 11 of the 18 cross country championships this decade (men's and women's). Arkansas used to win every men's track championship they possibly could, but they're not as dominant anymore. I know that wrestling is always won by either Iowa, Minnesota, or Oklahoma State, and Minnesota probably has some hockey championships in there, too.

But when it comes down to it, it's really all about football and basketball, so I'd probably vote for Florida, too.

--------------------

Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

Doesn't Florida have a pretty good basketball team? I know that one guy on the Bulls used to play for them.

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!