4

Known for academic excellence, Stanford was a no-brainer for our number-one pick. Athletically, the Cardinal took the top spot in eight sports, including women’s basketball, placing among the top five in 12 others. Paced by its stellar U.S. News academic ranking [4], Stanford ran, shot, swung, passed and bumped its way to the top over tough competition, with plenty of time to rest its starters. Overall, Stanford made the Top 15 in 17 of our 21 sports. This year, it was all Stanford, with everyone else fighting for second place.

47

The Longhorns must be shaking their heads thinking, “What else do you want from us?” Texas corralled five top-five finishes, including number one in men’s track, and matched last year’s strong showing with Top-15 spots in three of the four major participation sports—football [3], men’s basketball [4] and baseball [9]. But between Stanford’s domination and their middle-of-the-road U.S. News ranking [47], the Longhorns did just enough to outperform last year’s champ, UNC.

30

After ruling last year’s list, the Tar Heels ran into the Stanford buzzsaw and the stampeding Longhorns, but still managed to churn out another quintessential UNC performance. Backed by a first-rate education and fueled by a repeat number-one finish in baseball and second-place finishes in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer, the Tar Heels again proved it’s good to be in Chapel Hill.

26

If either of its basketball teams breaks out of its funk and starts cracking the Top 15, Michigan could make it to the podium of the Elite 50’s top three. The Wolverines jumped three spots from last year with a balanced attack that featured three number ones [hockey, softball and wrestling]; second-place in women’s cross country, women’s track and men’s swimming; and an impressive U.S. News ranking [24]. A third-place finish in baseball didn’t hurt, either.

49

The only school in our top five without a number-one finish in any sport, Florida moved up one spot from last year on the strength of its overall balance. The Gators captured 14 Top 15 finishes—led by volleyball [2], tennis [2] softball [4] and swimming [5] on the women’s side, and football [4], swimming [4], golf [4] and basketball [5] for the men. The Gators had 11 top 10 spots, which helped offset the school’s U.S. News rank [49]—lowest among the top five.

25

The Bruins have the skills and academic chops to be a perennial title contender. Four sports [golf, tennis, track and soccer] earned UCLA a Top-15 finish for both its men’s and women’s teams. And men’s hoops was again a force, finishing first.

27

Back-to-back football champs, the Trojans had eight other top-10 finishes, flexing their muscles in men’s track [2], women’s golf [2], women’s track [3] and men’s golf [5]. To move up this list in ‘09, USC will need more from its major participation sports.

8

Of the Blue Devils’ 11 Top 15 sports, nine were in the top 10, led by women’s golf [1], lacrosse [2], men’s soccer [3], women’s basketball [4] and men’s basketball [6]. Top-notch academics should help Duke continue to rank among the leaders of the Elite 50.

58

Don’t let Georgia’s first-class golf and tennis teams fool you into thinking the Bulldogs can’t play the big sports. Football [5], women’s hoops [11] and baseball [12] go quite nicely with the country-club standouts in Athens.

35

How do you stay warm in Madison? Run, apparently. Men’s cross country [1], men’s track [3] and women’s cross country [8] paced an impressive list of eight top-10 finishes. The Badgers were strong on the mat [6], the gridiron [7] and the ice [8], too.