which college athletic conference is most academically presitgious?

[WalterMitty]

big 10 is the correct answer

[Indy Texas]

MOST PRESTIGIOUS
|
ACC
Big 10
Pac 12
Big 12
American
SEC
Mountain West
|
LEAST PRESTIGIOUS

[ilikeverin]

For language science:

Big Ten (Maryland, Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue, pretty much every school but Nebraska is at least "good")
Pac-12 (Arizona, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, some of the others are a'ight)
Big 12 (UT-Austin, Kansas)
AAC (UConn, USF)
SEC (South Carolina, Mizzou?)
MAC (Buffalo??)
ACC (Pitt?  sorta?)
Mountain West (UNM???)
Conference USA ()
Sun Belt ()

[bedstuy]

It totally depends where you are in the country.  So therefore, since there are more Midwesterners spread across the country than southerners, Great plains people or Westerners, it's the Big 10.  But, in general, prestige is a dumb concept for an entire university as a whole. 

[Gass3268]

Of The Big 5

Big 10 (No really awful schools, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State are all great)
ACC (Florida State, NCST, Clemson kinda drags them down)
Pac 12 (Very top heavy with Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, Washington. Some poor schools at the bottom)
SEC (Vandy, Florida, Georgia, and A&M are not bad)
Big 12 (Texas is excellent, Iowa State and Kansas are pretty good, the rest are awful)

[DemPGH]

Big 10, and a lot of those graduate programs are pretty good too.

[WalterMitty]

Of The Big 5

Big 10 (No really awful schools, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State are all great)
ACC (Florida State, NCST, Clemson kinda drags them down)
Pac 12 (Very top heavy with Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, Washington. Some poor schools at the bottom)
SEC (Vandy, Florida, Georgia, and A&M are not bad)
Big 12 (Texas is excellent, Iowa State and Kansas are pretty good, the rest are awful)

clemson does not drag down the acc.  if anything, louisville is the weakest academic member.

[7,052,770]

Big 10 and ACC (sans Louisville) are the obvious answers.

The other 3 are all fine, but have members that drag them down.


Of course it's important to remember that these conferences are primarily athletic conferences, so the proper way to compare them is athletically.

[ilikeverin]

As far as academic prowess in general... I mean, sure, Georgia Tech, UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Pittsburgh are all good schools, but I'm not sure how they're better (or "obvious[ly] better") than a group that includes UC-Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and UC-Boulder.

[Indy Texas]

Of The Big 5

Big 10 (No really awful schools, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State are all great)
ACC (Florida State, NCST, Clemson kinda drags them down)
Pac 12 (Very top heavy with Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, Washington. Some poor schools at the bottom)
SEC (Vandy, Florida, Georgia, and A&M are not bad)
Big 12 (Texas is excellent, Iowa State and Kansas are pretty good, the rest are awful)

Clemson is a better school than NC State.

Iowa State and Kansas aren't even in the US News Top 100. TCU and Baylor both rank far ahead of them.

[7,052,770]

As far as academic prowess in general... I mean, sure, Georgia Tech, UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Pittsburgh are all good schools, but I'm not sure how they're better (or "obvious[ly] better") than a group that includes UC-Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and UC-Boulder.

Well I'm just talking averages rather than the best of each. Washington State, Oregon State, the Arizona schools -- not awful or anything, but Louisville is the only ACC down that low.

A few years ago I had a huge spreadsheet of every conference and their USNWR rankings. I ought to refresh that.

[ilikeverin]

As far as academic prowess in general... I mean, sure, Georgia Tech, UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Pittsburgh are all good schools, but I'm not sure how they're better (or "obvious[ly] better") than a group that includes UC-Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and UC-Boulder.

Well I'm just talking averages rather than the best of each. Washington State, Oregon State, the Arizona schools -- not awful or anything, but Louisville is the only ACC down that low.

A few years ago I had a huge spreadsheet of every conference and their USNWR rankings. I ought to refresh that.

Hmm, I had no idea that Miami and Wake Forest were ranked as high as they are (insofar as USNWR rankings should be trusted... but, of course, we're talking "prestigious", and pointless peer rankings are probably not a terrible stand-in for "prestige").  Interesting.

[Sol]

As far as academic prowess in general... I mean, sure, Georgia Tech, UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Pittsburgh are all good schools, but I'm not sure how they're better (or "obvious[ly] better") than a group that includes UC-Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and UC-Boulder.

Well I'm just talking averages rather than the best of each. Washington State, Oregon State, the Arizona schools -- not awful or anything, but Louisville is the only ACC down that low.

A few years ago I had a huge spreadsheet of every conference and their USNWR rankings. I ought to refresh that.

Hmm, I had no idea that Miami and Wake Forest were ranked as high as they are (insofar as USNWR rankings should be trusted... but, of course, we're talking "prestigious", and pointless peer rankings are probably not a terrible stand-in for "prestige").  Interesting.

Wake Forest is actually one of the country's best universities.

[Bojack Horseman]

B1G

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Even with Maryland dragging it down, the Big 10

[King]

Big 10, Pac 12, ACC

SEC and Big12 very distant 4th and 5th.

[New_Conservative]

No IVY League? Since no IVY League, Big 10

[bedstuy]

No IVY League? Since no IVY League, Big 10

The Ivy League is not a Division 1-A/FBS conference.

[Gass3268]

Of The Big 5

Big 10 (No really awful schools, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State are all great)
ACC (Florida State, NCST, Clemson kinda drags them down)
Pac 12 (Very top heavy with Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, Washington. Some poor schools at the bottom)
SEC (Vandy, Florida, Georgia, and A&M are not bad)
Big 12 (Texas is excellent, Iowa State and Kansas are pretty good, the rest are awful)

clemson does not drag down the acc.  if anything, louisville is the weakest academic member.

Forgot about Louisville and that Clemson has improved.

[Gass3268]

Big 10 and ACC (sans Louisville) are the obvious answers.

The other 3 are all fine, but have members that drag them down.


Of course it's important to remember that these conferences are primarily athletic conferences, so the proper way to compare them is athletically.

True, but academics and big time research are critical to the Big Ten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Institutional_Cooperation

[ilikeverin]

Even with Maryland dragging it down, the Big 10

Your information's out of date, Grumps; you must have lived in the Mid-Atlantic sometime before about 10 years ago.  (Insert caveats here), Maryland (#62) is between The Ohio State (#54) and Iowa (#71) in USNWR rankings, just to pick a couple of random Big Ten schools.  Nebraska (#99) is the lowest I could find in the Big Ten... the other Big Ten schools were so skeptical of its prospects that it almost wasn't invited to aforementioned CIC:

Big 10 and ACC (sans Louisville) are the obvious answers.

The other 3 are all fine, but have members that drag them down.


Of course it's important to remember that these conferences are primarily athletic conferences, so the proper way to compare them is athletically.

True, but academics and big time research are critical to the Big Ten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Institutional_Cooperation

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Even with Maryland dragging it down, the Big 10

Your information's out of date, Grumps; you must have lived in the Mid-Atlantic sometime before about 10 years ago.  (Insert caveats here), Maryland (#62) is between The Ohio State (#54) and Iowa (#71) in USNWR rankings, just to pick a couple of random Big Ten schools.  Nebraska (#99) is the lowest I could find in the Big Ten... the other Big Ten schools were so skeptical of its prospects that it almost wasn't invited to aforementioned CIC:

Probably not out of date, my friend, but like most things you relate to someting personal in your life when you can.  I don't have much nice to say about those in College Park, except you and Xahar are probably the two smartest there, so that's something good.   

[ilikeverin]

Even with Maryland dragging it down, the Big 10

Your information's out of date, Grumps; you must have lived in the Mid-Atlantic sometime before about 10 years ago.  (Insert caveats here), Maryland (#62) is between The Ohio State (#54) and Iowa (#71) in USNWR rankings, just to pick a couple of random Big Ten schools.  Nebraska (#99) is the lowest I could find in the Big Ten... the other Big Ten schools were so skeptical of its prospects that it almost wasn't invited to aforementioned CIC:

Probably not out of date, my friend, but like most things you relate to someting personal in your life when you can.  I don't have much nice to say about those in College Park, except you and Xahar are probably the two smartest there, so that's something good.   

If you insist *hughughug*  To be fair, I also have very little nice to say about the City of College Park.

[Хahar 🤔]

College Park is of course a dump, but it's also home.

As for the question at hand, of course the answer is the Big Ten. Everyone on campus (myself included) makes fun of the university for its obsession with making everything about the Big Ten, but it does matter.

The Pac-12 and ACC are both very top-heavy, although if the ACC today had the same composition as in the '80s (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech), it would come the closest to giving the Big Ten a run for its money. The Big 12 is Texas + others, and the SEC has Vanderbilt but is notable in that it has no particularly outstanding public schools. If it still had Georgia Tech and Tulane it would be closer to the second tier.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

PAC 12 has both Berkeley and Stanford, so it wins.