Basically, what are your big sports? To clarify, I'm asking in terms of historic and current competitiveness. Having a recent 1-2 good seasons isn't enough, but neither is being great until 30 years ago.

Here's a rough stab at some:

SEC - Football/Baseball
ACC - Basketball/Lacrosse/Baseball
B1G - Football/Hockey(?)
Pac - Swimming
Big XII - Wrestling
Big East - Basketball

I'm most interested in finding hidden gems. For example, are there any conference that are especially (more so than others) into fencing? Skiing? Riding? Field hockey? Soccer? And so on.

As s touch of color, my inspiration for this thread was UAB.

UAB fields a very competitive basketball program. But most people probably don't know that because the school is in Alabama, which has a reputation for emphasizing football over basketball.

Big East seems to be competitive in x-country (both m&w) and mens soccer

(03-10-2017 04:43 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  Basically, what are your big sports? To clarify, I'm asking in terms of historic and current competitiveness. Having a recent 1-2 good seasons isn't enough, but neither is being great until 30 years ago.

Here's a rough stab at some:

SEC - Football/Baseball
ACC - Basketball/Lacrosse/Baseball
B1G - Football/Hockey(?)
Pac - Swimming
Big XII - Wrestling
Big East - Basketball

I'm most interested in finding hidden gems. For example, are there any conference that are especially (more so than others) into fencing? Skiing? Riding? Field hockey? Soccer? And so on.

I think the ACC is pretty proud of football right now. You'd have to add soccer too.

(03-10-2017 04:45 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  As s touch of color, my inspiration for this thread was UAB.

UAB fields a very competitive basketball program. But most people probably don't know that because the school is in Alabama, which has a reputation for emphasizing football over basketball.

We've also been very good in soccer for a long time. And beach volleyball.

CUSA has good baseball most years.

I am not saying anybody cares but the Big Ten totally dominates wrestling.

Number of NCAA wrestling titles by Big Ten schools:

Iowa 23
1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010

Penn State 6
1953, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016

Minnesota 3
2001, 2002, 2007

Ohio State 1
2015

Michigan State 1
1967

Indiana 1
1932

Essesentially 32 NCAA titles since 1975.

Football and Baseball

Cheers!

MAC football isn't exactly the epitome of greatness, but when a conference like ours has produced some of the biggest names in the history of the sport as well as today, it gives us reason to be proud. Although I do know that our women's volleyball is pretty good too for being a 'minor' conference, Miami got an at-large bid to the tourney last fall after losing the conference championship.

The PAC 12 is very good in track and field, swimming/ diving, tennis, and baseball/softball.

If you're looking for the hidden gem it has to be track and field or tennis where the PAC 12 is the premier conference historically. 90s and early 2000s were tough in track and field as far as NC's go but still good.

I thought the Pac 12 was really good in football & basketball too. A hidden gem with the SEC has to be women's gymnastics. Georgia & Alabama are both giants in that sport

For a long time, the PAC was the conference for Volleyball, swimming, and track.

The Big East was always robust in rowing/crew. Same with the Ivy.

For the SEC, women's gymnastics and equestrian are two "hidden gems" that don't come up a lot but the SEC consistently does really well in

(03-10-2017 04:43 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  Basically, what are your big sports? To clarify, I'm asking in terms of historic and current competitiveness. Having a recent 1-2 good seasons isn't enough, but neither is being great until 30 years ago.

Here's a rough stab at some:

SEC - Football/Baseball
ACC - Basketball/Lacrosse/Baseball
B1G - Football/Hockey(?)
Pac - Swimming
Big XII - Wrestling
Big East - Basketball

I'm most interested in finding hidden gems. For example, are there any conference that are especially (more so than others) into fencing? Skiing? Riding? Field hockey? Soccer? And so on.

Perhaps you can make a case for Big 10 Lacrosse in a few years -- adding Maryland and Johns Hopkins to Penn State and Ohio State helps credibility, and Rutgers is ranked #7 at the moment.

But it's only the eastern schools in the conference that participate.

I think that you have to include basketball, hockey and wrestling for the BIG.

Skiing *******!!!
Utah and Colorado place 1st and 2nd today in the NCAA championship.

(03-11-2017 02:04 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  Skiing *******!!!
Utah and Colorado place 1st and 2nd today in the NCAA championship.

Yeah... University of Colorado (on the D1 level) always did well in both downhill and Nordic (cross-country) skiing.

Also in the State of Colorado is Western State College which actually allows you to MAJOR in the subject.

Not that I live in their footprint, but what sports are Big West fans rightly proud of?

(03-12-2017 01:38 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Not that I live in their footprint, but what sports are Big West fans rightly proud of?

Baseball. Fullerton's a traditional power and LBSU and Cal-Irvine have both had solid strings of success.

I'd add volleyball to the B1G. Maybe I'm biased being in Nebraska and all, but the conference has been pretty stacked in recent years.

TY Mav! Is there ANY sport UCR excels at?

The conferences that had at least one team win a game in the NCAA Division I Men's basketball tournament every year from 1998-2012 were the Big Ten, Big East, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and the Horizon League.