How Do the Power Five Conferences Perform Academically According to the World University Rankings?

How do the Power Five Conferences perform academically?

Football season has begun with a bang, and once again fans from around the country are in heated debate as to which schools and conferences are the best in the land.

Of course, most of those debates are centered around football. Especially down in SEC country, where football is much more important than academics.

The World University Rankings were released today and this article will look at where Power Five Conference schools landed on the Top 100 of the charts. 

This is a tough ranking because the Power Five schools are competing not only with each other but also other top universities from around the world.

In Grand Countdown Fashion, the list of Power Five Conferences from Worst to First. 

 

#5 -- The Southeastern Conference (SEC) -- ZERO

The SEC landed a big fat ZERO for schools on the "Wonderful One Hundred" list of top universities in the world. The closest to making the Top 100 was Vanderbilt at #105.

#4 -- The Big 12 Conference -- ONE

The Big 12 beat the SEC by one by landing the University of Texas on the Top 100. The Longhorns came in at #49 worldwide.

#3 -- The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) --  FOUR

The ACC landed FOUR schools on the "Wonderful One Hundred" that was released today. Those schools were:
-- #17 - Duke University
-- #33 - Georgia Tech University
-- #56 - North Carolina University
-- #100 - University of Pittsburgh 

#2 -- The Pac-12 Conference -- SIX

The Pac-12 landed SIX schools on the Worldwide Top 100, including four on the ultra prestigious Top 25. Those four were more than any other Power 5 conference.
-- #3 - Stanford
-- #15 - UCLA
-- #18 - California
-- #25 - Washington
-- #66 - USC
-- #100 - Colorado (tied with ACC's Pittsburgh)

#1 -- The Big Ten Conference -- TEN

The overall academic excellence award surely goes to the Big Ten, which placed 10 of their conference schools on the Worldwide Top 100. The Pac-12 may have had a few higher up in the rankings, but the Big Ten pounded the rankings like no other conference.
-- #20 - Northwestern
-- #21 - Michigan
-- #37 - Illinois
-- #43 - Wisconsin
-- #56 - Minnesota
-- #60 - Purdue
-- #69 - Maryland
-- #70 - Ohio State
-- #77 - Penn State
-- #83 - Michigan State


The verdict is in and three of the Power Five conferences put a total of 20 schools on the Top 100 worldwide. Those were the Big Ten with 10, the Pac-12 with six, and the ACC with four. The SEC, the self-proclaimed kings of college football had a total of zero.