Are you a football or basketball school? We’ve got the answers for all the top colleges

If you want to get technical about it, Duke averaged about 15,000 more people at football games than at men’s basketball games last season. But no one would argue Duke is anything but a basketball school.

For some Power 4 schools, the question of primary passion — what sport tugs at the heartstrings like no other? — is an easy one to answer. It’s less obvious for others. So after football power Michigan won a basketball title and basketball-centric Indiana won a football title, here’s an attempt to define all 67 in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, plus football independents Connecticut and Notre Dame.

ACC

Boston College: Men’s ice hockey

Apologies to Doug Flutie and Jared Dudley, but Brian Leetch, Bill Guerin and the late Johnny Gaudreau represent the rich history of a program with five national championships and the second-most Frozen Four appearances (26) of all time. BC has four of those titles in the 21st century, drawing even with bitter “Beanpot” rival Boston U.

Cal: Football

The glory days were about 100 years ago — Andy Smith and the Wonder Teams, 50 straight games without a defeat — but there have been other good stretches. Berkeley has passions and societal contributions well beyond sport. It also has “The Play,” arguably college football’s finest moment.

Clemson: Football

This was unquestionable before Dabo Swinney engineered the greatest era, by far, in program history. Clemson may not have the loudest “Death Valley,” but The Hill and Howard’s Rock make this one of the sport’s unique outposts.

Duke: Men’s basketball

A sportswriting rite of passage in this country is having a Duke student comment on/correct typos in the prose on your laptop screen, which is already adversely affected by the fact that several of them are pressed against your back for two hours. Duke became Duke in the 1990s, but Dick Groat, Vic Bubas, Gene Banks, Mike Gminski and others had established a solid history.

Florida State: Football

They care a lot and yearn for the good old days, which likely won’t be approached. Among college football records that should be safe, how about Florida State’s 14 straight years with a top-five finish under Bobby Bowden from 1987 to 2000? Nine of those were 1, 2 or 3.

Georgia Tech: Football

This is not so simple, and the biggest modern impact on college athletics came from Bobby Cremins’ hoops squads, peaking with Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver — “Lethal Weapon 3” — reaching the 1990 Final Four. But it’s the state of Georgia. It’s John Heisman. It’s Bobby Dodd. It’s a tradition richer than many realize.

Louisville: Men’s basketball

Johnny Unitas, Lamar Jackson and Lee Corso may like a word, but this is no contest. Louisville is college basketball royalty, a tier below the blue bloods (including, ahem, rival Kentucky). Only seven programs have more titles — provided we’re counting the third, in 2013 under Rick Pitino.

Miami: Football

With Miami’s first national championship in 1983, out of the blue, led by Bernie Kosar at quarterback, Howard Schnellenberger started a run that has now seen six more Miami coaches achieve at least one 10-win season. Still waiting on the first title since 2001, though.

North Carolina: Men’s basketball

Bill Belichick could win the next 10 national championships, bring in Tom Brady as his offensive coordinator, have Michael Jordan give every halftime speech, take every last NIL dime from the basketball program, make it all available to the public via Jordon Hudson-narrated documentary, and it wouldn’t change a thing.

NC State: Men’s basketball

Football, women’s basketball and baseball have had their moments, but it’s Tobacco Road. It’s David Thompson. It’s Dereck Whittenburg to Lorenzo Charles. It’s Jim Valvano looking for a hug. It’s DJ Burns and three unforgettable weeks in 2024, reminding NC State fans what matters.

Pittsburgh: Football

It’s a football town, but it’s more specifically a pro football town, and support for the Panthers on Saturdays can look feeble by comparison. That contrasts with some of the Fitzgerald Field House hoops crowds back in the vintage Big East days. Still: Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green, Dan Marino, Larry Fitzgerald, Aaron Donald and so on.

Stanford: Everything

Stanford home attendance, relative to team success, has been lamented in various sports over the years. But the athletic department’s performance overall is the source of pride. The school has 139 NCAA championships, one in 50 straight years, with 26 Learfield Directors Cups (out of 32). It sets the standard for college athletics excellence. “Everything school” is overused and really only works for Stanford.

SMU: Football

Let these people actually invest in the players, and they’re going to win some football games. That’s the lesson of the past 40 years.

Syracuse: Men’s basketball

How long does it take 50 years of consistent excellence to be forgotten? Syracuse is acting like it wants to find out. Another five years of irrelevance would be a shame, because so many are passionate about Syracuse basketball.

Virginia: Men’s basketball

Terry Holland, with help from Ralph Sampson, created a tradition in Charlottesville that has been largely maintained, peaking with Tony Bennett’s 2019 national championship. There were some lean years between Jeff Jones and Bennett, but this is a proud program with a passionate following.

Virginia Tech: Football

The fact that Virginia Tech landed James Franklin says plenty about how much people care about Hokies football and the investment he has been promised. This traces back to the incredible work of Frank Beamer, who took a decade before really hitting stride in Blacksburg.

Wake Forest: Men’s basketball

It’s a testament to Wake Forest fans, and basketball fans in the state of North Carolina in general, that a program with no Final Fours since it was called the “Final Four” (the lone national semifinal was in 1962) still has so much support.

Big Ten

Illinois: Men’s basketball

The memories of Red Grange and Dick Butkus have not been honored as hoped on the gridiron, but that spaceship-looking arena (formerly Assembly Hall, now State Farm Center) has been rocking for decades. It’s time these fans are rewarded with a national title.

Indiana: Men’s basketball

It’s in the blood. Curt Cignetti just delivered a football national championship to Indiana, perhaps the most amazing story in college sports history. But how many IU fans would trade it for a basketball title? Or even a general return to the national relevance that has eluded the program for more than two decades? Most of them.

Iowa: Football

You’ve got a nice debate here before ultimately giving the dominant sport the nod. Iowa wrestling is an institution. Men’s basketball has history and passion on its side. Women’s basketball has been strong and became one of the most important teams in American sports during the Caitlin Clark era. But yeah. Football.

Maryland: Men’s basketball

This one is easy. Maryland should still be in the ACC, jousting regularly with Carolina, Duke and Virginia. Its basketball history fits well into the Big Ten, but Maryland hasn’t lived up to its history for most of its time in the Big Ten. It’s a lot to live up to — Lefty Driesell, Len Bias, Gary Williams, Walt Williams, Joe Smith, Juan Dixon and so on.

Michigan: Football

If Michigan and Indiana fans could trade championships from the last school year, they’d do it in an instant. Already, the 2023 season gave Wolverines fans their first undisputed title since 1948. It has been accompanied by scandals galore. But it has not been vacated, and the hats and sweatshirts will continue to be worn.

Michigan State: Football

This might surprise people, but take it from Tom Izzo himself: He works at a football school. He’s the Big Ten’s winningest hoops coach, with a national title and eight Final Fours. But this is about fan passion, not program success. Tracing back to Biggie, Duffy and Bubba, football is king in East Lansing.

Minnesota: Men’s ice hockey

Wade Gustafson could have been watching any Minnesota sport in that scene in the 1996 classic “Fargo,” but what was he watching? That’s right, Golden Gophers hockey against the hated Badgers. Football’s rich history is distant, but two of Minnesota hockey’s five championships have come in the 21st century.

Nebraska: Women’s volleyball

There is no more passionate fan base in this growing sport. Of course, Nebraska fans would rank at or near the top in just about any sport you can name — witness their total takeover of an Oklahoma City arena in March to cheer on Fred Hoiberg’s #Nebrasketball history makers. Maybe if Nebraska stops considering itself a “football school,” its rotten football luck will end.

Northwestern: Women’s lacrosse

Northwestern fans will rally around a winner, but they’ve been forced to do so much polite accommodating of fans from rival Big Ten teams at football and basketball games over the decades. In women’s lacrosse, they expect to win and have a national championship program — nine titles and three runner-up finishes since 2005.

Ohio State: Football

What if this program ever went through an actual recession? It has had but slight dips around the Earle Bruce-John Cooper change, then the Cooper-Jim Tressel change, dating back to Woody Hayes. Ask Ohio State fans what they think about an NFL Lite model designed for a bunch of 8-4 records.

Oregon: Football

The college football atmosphere that doesn’t get talked about enough — and really stands out relative to the other top programs in that region of the country — is that of Autzen Stadium. It’s more than just a Nike stronghold. And Oregon is the best program without a championship.

Penn State: Football

This fall marks the 40th anniversary of Penn State’s last national championship team. And that’s a good reminder that championships only tell part of the story.

Purdue: Men’s basketball

Speaking of championships, Indiana won three national titles under Bobby Knight, while Gene Keady never got Purdue to a Final Four. But Keady was 21-20 against Knight, with both programs winning six Big Ten championships, while they were rival coaches. Matt Painter has continued the consistency, playing in one of the best atmospheres at Mackey Arena.

Rutgers: Football

Success has been fleeting, to be kind. But it’s New Jersey. It’s one side of the first college football game ever played. It’s about time for the greatest era of Rutgers football, isn’t it? After what Indiana and Vanderbilt have done?

UCLA: Basketball

Let’s combine the men’s and women’s teams that share Pauley Pavilion in the wake of the first national championship for the UCLA women. They’ve got 10 more to win to catch up with the men. Of course, the last of those came more than 30 years ago.

USC: Football

It takes a lot to impress USC fans, spoiled as they’ve been by the heights of Pete Carroll, John Robinson and John McKay. The program hasn’t found the perfect fit since Carroll left in 2009, but the downtime has included five seasons with double digits in wins and eight ranked finishes.

Washington: Football

Consistency has eluded the program since the Don James era, but he is one of six coaches to elicit at least one top-six finish since the 1930s. Jedd Fisch may end up the seventh before too long.

Wisconsin: Football

Hockey and basketball deserve nods, but what Barry Alvarez did in the 1990s to turn a 30-year doormat into a consistent winner still resonates, more than 30 years later.

Big 12

Arizona: Men’s basketball

Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena was known as “The House that Lute Built,” but even more impressive was the national power Lute Olson built from scratch in Tucson after leaving Iowa City in 1983. It has proved sustainable.

Arizona State: Football

Biggie Munn disciple Frank Kush established a WAC power in the 1960s and ’70s, leading to an expanded Pac-10 and more success under Darryl Rogers, John Cooper, Bruce Snyder and others.

Baylor: Basketball

Combining men’s — which won it all under Scott Drew in 2021 — and women’s, which is tied for the third-most championships of all time with three (2005, 2012, 2019), all thanks to the coaching of Kim Mulkey. Both programs should be in the hunt for more moving forward.

BYU: Football

If this weren’t a football school, would Kalani Sitake have been able to turn down Penn State late last year? He has things set up for consistent success like they haven’t seen in Provo since the height of the LaVell Edwards era.

Cincinnati: Men’s basketball

Football has been an effective developer of coaches for bigger programs — Brian Kelly, Mark Dantonio, Butch Jones, Luke Fickell — but hoops is where the heart is. That goes back to Oscar Robertson, then consecutive national titles in 1961-62. Bob Huggins had it soaring in the ’90s. Kenyon Martin’s broken leg before the 2000 tournament is an all-time “What if?”

Colorado: Football

As Deion Sanders has demonstrated, give Colorado fans any kind of product and they’ll respond. They’ve too often been left without much to cheer for, but most of the 1990s — under Bill McCartney, then Rick Neuheisel — were special.

Houston: Men’s basketball

A Texas school where football isn’t No. 1? Older fans who remember the glory days of Bill Yeoman — he invented the veer and integrated the Southwest Conference — might argue. But Cougars basketball is Phi Slama Jama and some of the greatest players and teams of all time. To date, some of the greatest heartbreaks, too.

Iowa State: Football

Ames has seen some tremendous basketball teams, but Matt Campbell’s impressive football coaching tenure was not the first. Johnny Majors, Earle Bruce and Dan McCarney also got the Cyclones going. The program’s first coach: a 24-year-old Pop Warner in 1895. He coached Georgia later during the same fall.

Kansas: Men’s basketball

Other places talk about tradition. But no other program can claim the actual inventor of basketball as its first coach. Dr. James Naismith started things in 1898. One of his players, Phog Allen, went on to become one of the greatest coaches of all time. Wilt Chamberlain was the first star in the arena that still stands and bears Allen’s name. What else do you want?

Kansas State: Football

This couldn’t have been the answer before Bill Snyder turned the worst program in college football into its greatest makeover. But he did the work — arguably the best work of the ’90s — and that’s how an embarrassment becomes a passion.

Oklahoma State: Wrestling

As Oklahoma State proclaims, this is the most successful program in the history of college athletics — with 34 team national championships and 148 individual national champs. Football, basketball and baseball have tradition, but nothing like that.

TCU: Football

Who remembers Dutch Meyer’s 11-0, Sugar Bowl-winning national champions of 1938? They were long forgotten for decades of Horned Frogs futility, but Gary Patterson’s work from 2001-21 still doesn’t get enough credit for its excellence.

Texas Tech: Football

But give a nod to the investment devoted to turning Texas Tech into a softball power. Investment is the operative word around Lubbock these days. The late, great Mike Leach deserves credit for making it a place for fun football.

UCF: Football

Everyone remembers Scott Frost’s 13-0 season of 2017 and self-proclaimed national title — how high is that on the list of all-time coaching mirages? — but George O’Leary cultivated a fan base with a lot of winning between 2004-14. There’s the upside of the padded resume he submitted to Notre Dame.

Utah: Football

Rick Majerus, Keith Van Horn and Andre Miller may have pushed a different sport to the forefront long ago, but Urban Meyer’s brief stint and Kyle Whittingham’s expansive follow-up left no doubt. The “Holy War” rivalry with BYU is among the sport’s fiercest.

West Virginia: Football

The dude whose silhouette became the NBA logo once splashed jumpers for the Mountaineers, but even Jerry West wouldn’t argue he attended a basketball school. No school has more football victories without a national title, and few have a game-day atmosphere as intense as the one in Morgantown.

SEC

Alabama: Football

Alabama haters, perhaps it’s OK to dream of another drought like the one the Crimson Tide endured between Gene Stallings’ 1992 national title and Nick Saban’s first in 2009. Is Kalen DeBoer the start of a DuBose/Franchione/Shula kind of run?

Arkansas: Men’s basketball

From the late 1970s under Eddie Sutton through Nolan Richardson’s spectacular — and still underrated — tenure that ended in 2002, a handful of programs could claim similar consistency. John Calipari is trying to restore glory in Fayetteville, not create it.

Auburn: Football

If you have any questions about the power of Auburn football, Gene Chizik coached an Auburn team to a 14-0 record and national championship, and Tommy Tuberville had a 13-0 season. The feasts and famines on the Plains both go to extremes.

Florida: Football

Billy Donovan did for Florida basketball in the 21st century what Steve Spurrier did for Florida football in the 1990s. Both programs won championships after their departures. One of them dictates the happiness of Florida fans — and we are well past ornery in Gainesville these days.

Georgia: Football

Women’s gymnastics is the most accomplished program at Georgia, for the record, with 10 national titles. But Georgia football might be the best all-around job in the sport. The question for Kirby Smart: Can you, in this era, build anything close to the super teams of 2021-22?

Kentucky: Men’s basketball

Anecdotally speaking, there is no college sports team supported more fervently than Kentucky men’s basketball. Nebraska might have had the biggest homecourt advantage at one site in March, but UK has been in that range over and over again … across decades … despite being so spoiled. It’s bananas.

LSU: Football

It’s hard to imagine now, but LSU football was much more frustration than glory for a half-century before Nick Saban changed its trajectory. If all non-LSU fans have their way, frustration will prevail over glory during Lane Kiffin’s tenure as it did for Brian Kelly.

Mississippi State: Baseball

You know what happens at programs that demand excellence? A coach who recently won a national championship gets run out of town. The 2025 firing of 2021 title-winning coach Chris Lemonis should leave no doubt that Mississippi State is a baseball school.

Missouri: Men’s basketball

A proud program for half a century, filled with great players — Anthony Peeler, Derrick Chievous, Doug Smith and Michael Porter Jr., among them — Missouri has 31 NCAA Tournament appearances and no Final Fours. Only BYU (32) has more without reaching the final weekend.

Ole Miss: Football

The passion for Ole Miss football intensified during the late ’50s and ’60s with a stretch of great John Vaught teams, before Archie Manning arrived on campus to play for Vaught. It wasn’t close to that good again until Lane Kiffin’s eventful stay. There are few programs more interesting in the next few years than Ole Miss.

Oklahoma: Football

Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops. That’s three College Football Hall of Famers who had distinctive, sustained eras of excellence in Norman between 1947 and 2016. Representing 492 wins.

South Carolina: Women’s basketball

Dawn Staley has made South Carolina a women’s basketball school. As with many of the programs on this list, one great coach made the difference. Staley has three national titles since 2017, and she appears far from done. Ray Tanner did big things with South Carolina baseball, winning titles in 2010 and 2011, but Staley is on track to be one of the best her sport has seen.

Tennessee: Football

Men’s basketball and baseball are relevant at Tennessee like never before. The late Pat Summitt built one of the two best programs in the history of women’s college basketball and was indisputably that sport’s foremost trailblazer. But Army Capt. Robert Neyland was hired to beat mighty Vanderbilt in 1926, and by 1951, he was a retired general and Tennessee was a national championship program.

Texas: Football

This is Stanford’s closest challenger for the “Everything School” title, but there’s no other sport at Texas that approaches the importance of football. It’s Texas. It’s football. Also, it’s about time Texas football followed up on that 2005 national title.

Texas A&M: Football

An elite track and field school with national championships in five other sports, none of which distract from football as the Aggies’ primary source of passion. Actually, Texas A&M football fans may get as much attention as the actual football team. People can’t get enough of that midnight yell practice.

Vanderbilt: Basketball

Yes, Tim Corbin has built one of the great college sports programs of the 21st century with Vanderbilt baseball, giving Commodores fans a much-needed outlet amid the struggles of other sports. And now Vanderbilt football is finding relevance not seen since its teams took trains to road games. But basketball success, men’s and women’s, is a longstanding tradition. Memorial Gym is one of the underrated snakepits in the sport. And now that both programs are back, that passion has been unlocked again.

Independents

Notre Dame: Football

Fencing is Notre Dame’s best sport — nine of the school’s 13 national championships have come since the last football title in 1988. But football put this small private school — full name: University of Notre Dame du Lac — on the map more than a century ago. A worldwide passion, both for and against the Fighting Irish, remains strong.

Connecticut: Women’s basketball

UConn men’s basketball has done an extraordinary job of forcing itself into “blue blood” discussions, winning six titles since 1999, despite three coaches and some dips. But Geno Auriemma’s program has the bluest blood in his sport with 12 championships since 1995. UConn fans have been able to count on this team for going on 40 years.