Best Athletics 2026
Strongest college sports programs
How this ranking is calculated
Evaluates the breadth, investment, and achievement of a school's varsity athletics program across all sports.
Source measurement years vary and may precede the ranking edition. The update date records the published dataset, not when every outcome was measured.
See exact overall weights and a worked exampleWhat drives the score
- Number of varsity sports offered (men's and women's)
- Total athletic program revenue and institutional investment
- All-time and recent national championship titles
- Prominence across major sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer)
Data sources
- National collegiate athletics governing body records
- Mandatory institutional athletic finance disclosures
- Eligible public search-interest signals when a monitored live feed is available
Only provenance-approved inputs are included. When an EADA or search-interest feed is unavailable, its weight is removed and the remaining factors are re-proportioned.
Top 100 athletics results
Sorted by College Index's athletics score. The displayed list index rescales the leading score to 100; equal rounded scores may have different sequential ranks.
Ohio State University-Main Campus
Columbus, OH
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL
University of California-Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
University of Georgia
Athens, GA
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
Auburn University
Auburn, AL
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI
Clemson University
Clemson, SC
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN
Texas A&M University-College Station
College Station, TX
University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus
Norman, OK
University of California-Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR
Duke University
Durham, NC
University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA
University of Maryland-College Park
College Park, MD
Baylor University
Waco, TX
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS
Indiana University-Bloomington
Bloomington, IN
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL
University of Mississippi
University, MS
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
New Brunswick, NJ
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR
Oklahoma State University-Main Campus
Stillwater, OK
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
University of Denver
Denver, CO
Villanova University
Villanova, PA
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
Baton Rouge, LA
University of California-Davis
Davis, CA
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Amherst, MA
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Wilmington, NC
California State University-San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA
University of California-Riverside
Riverside, CA
Arizona State University Campus Immersion
Tempe, AZ
University of Maryland-Baltimore County
Baltimore, MD
University of California-Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE
Washington State University
Pullman, WA
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, GA
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA
Colorado State University-Fort Collins
Fort Collins, CO
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Pomona, CA
University of Cincinnati-Main Campus
Cincinnati, OH
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Raleigh, NC
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS
University of South Carolina-Columbia
Columbia, SC
University of California-Irvine
Irvine, CA
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
University of Virginia-Main Campus
Charlottesville, VA
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus
Denver, CO
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, HI
North Dakota State University-Main Campus
Fargo, ND
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO
University of Nevada-Reno
Reno, NV
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
Kent State University at Kent
Kent, OH
California State University-Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
Pittsburgh, PA
Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO
California State University-Long Beach
Long Beach, CA
Alabama State University
Montgomery, AL
Yale University
New Haven, CT
University of Illinois Chicago
Chicago, IL
Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD
California State University-Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
East Tennessee State University
Johnson City, TN