Sporting News rates
athletic program
tops in nation

Penn State has finished atop a comprehensive survey by The Sporting News, in which the 112 colleges in the United States that participate in NCAA Division I football and men's basketball were graded according to various standards ranging from on-field to academic performance.

Fresh off its third-place finish in the 1998-99 Sears Directors Cup standings, its best ever, Penn State was the only school to receive no less than an A-minus in the four categories, for a 3.92 "grade point average." The University was the subject of a cover story for the Sept. 13 issue.

"The results of the survey are a reflection on the outstanding efforts by our coaches, student-athletes and administrators, who work together as a team to achieve a common goal of excellence in all areas of our broad-based athletic program," said Tim Curley, director of athletics.

Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive athletic programs, with 29 varsity sports (15 men's and 14 women's) and approximately 800 student-athletes.

The remainder of the top 10 in The Sporting News survey are: North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, Florida, Duke, Purdue, Virginia, Nebraska and Michigan State. Nine schools from the Big Ten Conference were included in the top 20, with Indiana finishing 21st. No other conference made such a strong showing.

The first-time survey, expected to become an important reference table for high school guidance counselors and coaching staffs, college-bound prospects and university recruitment offices, measures the full programs at these schools, not just on-field performance.

Although the schools were selected by playing Division I football and men's basketball, their full athletic programs -- including the number of teams each school sponsors, their success rates, graduation rates for students in all of those sports, and Title IX compliance, are all factored into the category "Do We Play Fair?" Incidents of probation, plus addition or subtraction of teams, are also included in this category.

The ratings cover the last four years of graduating classes, and include grade point averages and SAT scores for incoming freshmen. The poll awards 4.0 for A, 3.0 for B and so forth, so that each school's "final grade" is similar to the grading system generally used by colleges themselves.

Other categories in the ratings are:

n "Do We Rock?" -- measures fan support, attendance, merchandise sold, size of athletic budget, number of teams, and points awarded in the annual Sears Directors' Cup competition.

n "Do We Graduate?" -- uses graduation rates as the best available measure of academic achievement for the classes which entered school in the 1989-92 period, allowing six years to achieve a degree. In the NCAA's recently released graduation rate report, for incoming freshmen in 1992-93, Penn State's student-athlete graduation rate was 78 percent, tied for its second-best performance since the report commenced nine years ago. Penn State had a school record nine GTE Academic All-Americans in 1998-99.

n "Do We Win?" -- awards points for wins, regular-season conference championships, conference tournament championships, rank in The Sporting News poll and performance in the NCAA Tournament. The Nittany and Lady Lions won one national championship (fencing) and four Big Ten titles (women's volleyball, women's soccer, field hockey and men's swimming) in 1998-99, and 20 teams were represented in their respective NCAA Championships. Penn State has won 42 national championships overall.

For the complete survey rankings, visit http://www.sportingnews.com/features/ad/.