Which college football conferences have the best academic rankings?

Zach Miller
Run It Back With Zach
4 min readSep 14, 2021
Stanford is the highest-ranked FBS school in the latest U.S. News rankings.

As the wheels continue to turn on the latest round of conference realignment, many pundits have pointed out that academics are an important factor since conference decisions are made at the university president level.

We all heard about how the Big Ten and Pac-12 consider it important for members to be part of the prestigious American Association of Universities (the only schools in those conferences that aren’t members are Arizona State, Nebraska, Oregon State and Washington State) and that their alliance with the ACC at least partly has to do with shared academic values.

Earlier this week, U.S. News and World Report released its latest college rankings. These rankings are considered to be among the most credible rankings of U.S. colleges.

So I took a spin through these rankings to see which conferences truly have the most academic caché, and how schools within each conference rank relative to each other.

Below are the rankings for all 134 FBS schools. The conferences are ranked from best average ranking to worst average ranking. Schools are each grouped in with the conference they’ll be part of in 2025.

Note: There are a lot of ties in the U.S. News rankings, that’s why you’ll see many schools with the same ranking. The lowest possible ranking is 331st, which is shared by more than 100 schools. And there are a handful of schools that did not receive a ranking because they have no accreditation or only national accreditation. I did not count those unranked schools in their conference’s average.

Rankings last updated on Jan. 13, 2023.

Big Ten

Average ranking: 56th

Northwestern — 10th

UCLA — 20th

Michigan — 25th

Southern Cal — 25th

Wisconsin — 38th

Illinois — 41st

Ohio State — 49th

Purdue — 51st

Maryland — 55th

Rutgers — 55th

Minnesota — 62nd

Indiana — 72nd

Michigan State — 77th

Penn State — 77th

Iowa — 83rd

Nebraska — 151st

ACC

Average ranking: 57th (55th with Notre Dame)

Duke — 10th

(Notre Dame — 18th)

Virginia — 25th

North Carolina — 29th

Wake Forest — 29th

Boston College — 36th

Georgia Tech — 44th

Florida State — 55th

Miami — 55th

Pittsburgh — 62nd

Syracuse — 62nd

Virginia Tech — 62nd

NC State — 72nd

Clemson — 77th

Louisville — 182nd

Pac-12

Average ranking: 97th

Stanford — 3rd

California — 20th

Washington — 55th

Colorado — 97th

Arizona — 105th

Oregon — 105th

Utah — 105th

Arizona State — 121st

Oregon State — 151st

Washington State — 212th

SEC

Average ranking: 109th

Vanderbilt — 13th

Florida — 29th

Texas — 38th

Georgia — 49th

Texas A&M — 67th

Auburn — 97th

South Carolina — 115th

Tennessee — 115th

Missouri — 121st

Oklahoma — 127th

Kentucky — 137th

Alabama — 137th

Mississippi — 151st

Arkansas — 176th

LSU — 176th

Mississippi State — 194th

Big 12

Average ranking: 148th

Baylor — 77th

BYU — 89th

TCU — 89th

Kansas — 121st

Iowa State — 127th

UCF — 137th

Cincinnati — 151st

Kansas State — 166th

Houston — 182nd

Oklahoma State — 182nd

Texas Tech — 219th

West Virginia — 234th

AAC

Average ranking: 182nd

Rice — 15th

Tulane — 44th

SMU — 72nd

South Florida — 97th

Temple — 121st

Tulsa — 137th

UAB — 137th

Charlotte — 219th

East Carolina — 234th

Florida Atlantic — 263rd

Memphis — 263rd

North Texas — 285th

UTSA — 331st

Navy — N/A

Wichita State — 331st (non-football member)

Mountain West

Average ranking: 226th

Colorado State — 151st

San Diego State — 151st

Hawaii — 166th

Wyoming — 202nd

New Mexico — 212th

Fresno State — 250th

Utah State — 250th

Nevada — 263rd

UNLV — 285th

Boise State — 331st

San Jose State — N/A

Air Force — N/A

MAC

Average ranking: 240th

Buffalo — 89th

Miami — 105th

Ohio — 182nd

Ball State — 212th

Kent State — 212th

Central Michigan — 250th

Bowling Green — 263rd

Toledo — 285th

Western Michigan — 285th

Akron — 331st

Eastern Michigan — 331st

Northern Illinois — 331st

Conference USA

Average ranking: 291st

Florida International — 151st

New Mexico State — 263rd

Sam Houston — 263rd

Middle Tennessee State — 299th

Louisiana Tech — 317th

Liberty — 331st

UTEP — 331st

Western Kentucky — 331st

Jacksonville State — N/A

Sun Belt

Average ranking: 299th

James Madison — 151st

Georgia State — 234th

Old Dominion — 299th

Marshall — 299th

Arkansas State — 317th

Georgia Southern — 331st

Louisiana — 331st

South Alabama — 331st

Southern Miss —331st

Texas State — 299th

ULM — 331st

Appalachian State — N/A

Coastal Carolina — N/A

Troy — N/A

Independents

Notre Dame — 18th

UConn — 67th

UMass — 67th

Army — N/A

Research 1 universities

Another way to measure academic status is by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. There are 131 schools in the country with Research 1 (R1) status.

Of the 69 schools that will be part of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or SEC by 2025, the only ones that don’t have R1 status are BYU, TCU and Wake Forest.

Of the other 62 schools that play FBS football, just 17 of them have R1 status:

  • 7 in the AAC (North Texas, Rice, South Florida, Temple, Tulane, UAB, UTEP)
  • 5 in the Mountain West (Colorado State, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, UNLV)
  • 2 in the Sun Belt (Georgia State, Southern Miss)
  • 2 independents (UConn, UMass)
  • 1 in the MAC (Buffalo)

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