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It's not true that there is never any enthusiasm for college sports in New England. I recall a sudden spike in the enthusiasm for Boston College football during Doug Flutie's senior year, the year of The Pass, when B.C. was ranked in the top ten. The interest lasted for that one season, however. This temporary interest in teams that are successful for the moment seems to be the norm in this region. Maybe some day someonw will write a doctoral dissertation about the differences in regional sub-cultures that account for the passion for college sports in some parts of the country and not others. It certainly does seem true, for whatever reason, that college sports aren't so big in that oddballl northeastern corner of the U.S.
Boston College is currently ranked #12 in the nation, and is usually in the top 25 year after year in both football and basketball.
The only ones I would concider changing is North Carolina and NY/NJ. N. Carolina was a four way toss up, to me.
Other than that, I stand by the rest of my list.
The Director's Cup standings don't influence your rankings at all? It is a legitimate system for ranking overall athletic programs and not just the popularity of a football or basketball program. Some of the teams you had representing their state weren't even in the top 100, and there were other teams far ahead of them.
I had to go back to 1993-1994 to find a year where Stanford didn't win:
1. North Carolina 2. Stanford 3. UCLA 4. Florida 5. Penn State
Stanford University obviously dominates college athletics, as do a handful of other powerhouse teams like Michigan, North Carolina, UCLA, Florida, Texas, and Georgia.
North Carolina is the most popular sports team in North Carolina hands down. They are the oldest public school in the nation and a sports powerhouse. The Charlotte Bobcats have sacrificed talent in order to draft as many UNC players as they can. The Tarheels put buts in seats.
North Carolina is the most popular sports team in North Carolina hands down. They are the oldest public school in the nation and a sports powerhouse. The Charlotte Bobcats have sacrificed talent in order to draft as many UNC players as they can. The Tarheels put buts in seats.
I'm not a UNC fan, but I live in North Carolina, and it's no question that UNC is more successful and more popular than Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest.
I agree with what others are saying about Duke being disliked by a lot of North Carolinians. Duke is made up of over 80% out-of-state students, most from the wealthy suburbs of the northeast.
Boston College is currently ranked #12 in the nation, and is usually in the top 25 year after year in both football and basketball.
There seem to be two factors being considered for rating schools on this thread: the quality of their teams, and the enthusiasm of their following. When it comes to quality of the teams, B.C. is pretty clearly number one in MA, with UConn being the only other school in New England that could compete with B.C. as tops in the region. As for the enthusiasm with which college sports are followed, well, I live in the Boston area, and I can tell you college sports don't generate the enthusiasm they do in many areas. At many schools in New England, the teams have vigourous followings among the schools' students, and maybe in the local towns where the colleges are located, but it takes the rare really big season for any college team to generate more widespread enthusiasm. There's not a whole lot of interest in the B.C. team that is consistently in the top 25. It was only during that one year in the '80's when they were in the top ten and had the Heisman winner that they generated some fairly serious interest.
Don't get me wrong. There's SOME interest. The teams from the big schools in the Boston area make the local sports reports on the news, and Boston is a serious sports town, where there's going to be some degree of interest in any local team, where every sport has at least a hard core of fans. But the BIG interest is in pro sports. When it comes to the kind of rabid following you get for college teams like Alabama, Nebraska, Ohio State, to name a few, in Boston you're talking the Sox year in and year out, and whatever pro team in any other sport might be winning at present. There's some interest in college sports, but it's a very distant second behind the following for any of the pro teams.
North Carolina is the most popular sports team in North Carolina hands down. They are the oldest public school in the nation and a sports powerhouse. The Charlotte Bobcats have sacrificed talent in order to draft as many UNC players as they can. The Tarheels put buts in seats.
William & Mary College in VA is the oldest public school in the country. The second oldest public school in the country is Rutgers in NJ.
Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly on December 11, 1789 and beginning instruction in 1795, the University of North Carolina is known as the oldest public university in the nation. The University of North Carolina was the first to hold classes and to graduate students. The University of Georgia was chartered first in 1785 but did not start classes until 1801. The University of North Carolina is the only university in the United States that awarded degrees as a public institution in the eighteenth century.
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