| Mar 26 @ 10:46 PM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools
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Jankia
Posts: 8,800
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Sporting News-By Steve Greenberg
1. Wisconsin. Forty football wins in the past four years. Ten straight NCAA basketball tournaments --- coach Bo Ryan, who has won three Big Ten regular-season championships, has been there for seven of those --- without a single NBA stud (sorry, Devin Harris) in the house. But there I go again. The best part: Badgers fans support both teams equally, in full force and in full throat at all times.
2. Texas. It's obviously still more of a football school, but Longhorns fans learned to love the basketball team even before Kevin Durant and Mike DeCourcy's favorite point guard, D.J. Augustin. And Longhorns fans travel in droves for basketball, which counts a ton in my book.
3. West Virginia. You might be surprised to see the Mountaineers ranked so high, but this has been the best school for both sports in the 2000s in a state without a major professional team. In Wisconsin and Texas, the NFL will always be king. In West Virginia, a state that is underappreciated for producing both football and basketball talent, Morgantown is a lifeblood of good times.
4. Oregon. Maybe the Ducks have been over-marketed by Phil Knight and Nike, but they certainly have become iconic in both football and basketball for wild environments and quality teams. The recruits prove it, but the great fans in Eugene deserve all the props.
5. Kansas. Even if the football program were consistently better but coached by a run-of-the-mill type, I might overlook the Jayhawks. But Mark Mangino is a rock star, more popular on campus and throughout the state than Bill Self, and KU basketball speaks for itself.
6. Louisville. I know better than most it's a basketball school. My dear mother is a Louisville native and a U of L graduate, and the Greenberg family's Dodge station wagon rolled down there from Chicago twice a year when I was growing up. But high school football in that city is enormous, and the university's football program has become an extension of that passion. It ain't Lexington, folks.
7. Tennessee. Give it up to Pat Summitt for keeping Vols fans tuned into basketball through the years, but Knoxville supports its men's team better than any SEC school outside of Lexington and Nashville. And I don't have to tell you how important Vols football is. Don't make me sing "Rocky Top" down in this dungeon and wake up the kids.
8. Connecticut. Geno Auriemma is big. Jim Calhoun is much, much bigger. And yet Randy Edsall --- um, he's the football coach --- can sit at Calhoun's table and be pestered by just as many well-wishers and autograph-seekers. Huskies football is blowing up huge. Shame on you if you haven't noticed.
9. Florida. I've spent enough time in the Sunshine State to know the reality of this thing, which is that the Gators could win three or four straight national titles in basketball and still play second fiddle to the football team. Yet the hoops success is too great to ignore for the purposes of this list.
10. Ohio State. Buckeyes fans will slay me for ranking their school so low, but I don't think they fully appreciate --- with their Tressel goggles on --- what Thad Matta has done and just how strong the basketball program will be the next couple of years (no thanks to Terrelle Pryor). Still, this is such a potent fan base that it has to make the top 10.
Also receiving halfhearted consideration: Air Force, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Purdue, UCLA and USC. Oh, yeah, and Notre Dame. But not really.
I suppose I should show you all the rest of the story.  
Don't know about you, but I subscribe to the theory that the best football teams run 50 percent of the time and pass 50 percent of the time. And the best basketball teams are equal parts perimeter- and interior-oriented.
And the best sports schools in America celebrate both sports on equal terms.
In my four blurry years of University of Wisconsin studentry, I not only learned to make up words. I also ran the table of ineptitude with four bad basketball teams and four football teams that combined for an almost unimaginably foul record of --- are you ready for this? --- 9-35 during the 1988-91 seasons.
But I stand before you today, seated on a $19 Target chair in my dank, depressing basement office, and declare that my alma mater has the best football-basketball balance of any school in the country. The football team goes bowling every year, usually in January. And the basketball team is in the Big Ten title mix season after season.
In each program, the talent is marginal for a national power. But the results are undeniable. And as my boss, Bob Hille, reminds me every time I talk about college football or basketball in NFL or NBA terms: It's college, stupid. It's more than good enough in its own context.
Also receiving halfhearted consideration: Air Force, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Purdue, UCLA and USC. Oh, yeah, and Notre Dame. But not really.
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| Mar 27 @ 1:31 AM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools |
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Say_Yes
Posts: 1,632
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What a joke. Wisconsin #1? Sure, right. After all, they have won 0 national championships. The same with Louisville. Care to compare their conference titles in football & basketball to # 9 & 10 Florida & Ohio State, or even teams that don't make the top 10, like UCLA & USC or LSU who did not even get honorable mention?
U-Conn & TN get in on the strength of Women's Basketball. I guess the writer was one of the two people, who isn't in school there that actually watch those games. Oregon over UCLA & USC. Would you care to compare the record of Oregon to that of either of those programs?
It just goes to show, any idiot can be paid to write a column by Sporting News.
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| Mar 27 @ 8:46 AM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools
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Jankia
Posts: 8,800
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like UCLA & USC or LSU who did not even get honorable mention?  Somebody having a hard time with there reading skills?
Also receiving halfhearted consideration: Air Force, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Purdue, UCLA and USC.
Sure, right. After all, they have won 0 national championships
Somebody should do some research before they spray what they dont know about Wisconsin......again.
The joke is the story,the idiots are those that dont get it.
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| Mar 28 @ 1:01 AM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools |
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Say_Yes
Posts: 1,632
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like UCLA & USC or LSU who did not even get honorable mention?
Somebody having a hard time with there reading skills?
Okay, I should have realized that I was responding to someone from Wisconsin, so I should have written my response, to fit the level of reading comprehension that is common that region. My statement
Care to compare their conference titles in football & basketball to # 9 & 10 Florida & Ohio State, or even teams that don't make the top 10, like UCLA & USC or LSU who did not even get honorable mention?
is a three part statement. In the first part, I compare the achievements of Florida & Ohio State to that of Wisconsin. In the second part, I talk about teams that do not make the top ten, mentioning both USC & UCLA. In the third part, I mention a team that does not get honorable mention, LSU. Now, I realize that by writing a sentence with more than six words in it, I probably confused you. I guess I should have said,
Wisconsin is over rated. Florida has more conference titles. Ohio State has more conference titles. Florida was won multiple national championships. Ohio State has won multiple national championships. Ohio State has played in other national title games.
USC has more conference titles. USC has won national championships. UCLA has as many conference titles. UCLA has won national titles. UCLA has played in national title games.
LSU has more conference titles. LSU has won multiple national championships. LSU did not even get honorable mention.
Now, can someone from Wisconsin understand that? If not, I will try again. Next time, I will use smaller words too.
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| Mar 30 @ 10:40 PM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools
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steveemac
Posts: 2,336
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After all, they have won 0 national championships. Incorrect, Badger Hater: the University of Wisconsin was the 1941 NCAA Men's basketball champions.
Yeah, only one, I know, and in an era when MarchMadness only lasted a week; but it does give strength to Jankia's statement: Somebody should do some research before they spray what they dont know about Wisconsin......again.
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| Mar 31 @ 7:59 PM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools |
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Jankia
Posts: 8,800
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Thanks stevemac,this thread wasnt about championships but one sportswriters off the wall look at combination sports in particular colleges.
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| Apr 1 @ 1:46 PM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools
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lj450
Posts: 7,933
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the University of Wisconsin was the 1941 NCAA Men's basketball champions.
Oh, so they were pretty good way back when black people were not allowed to play the game?
Wisconsin is over rated.
I have to agree with say-yes.
So is ohio state.
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| Apr 8 @ 8:04 PM |
The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools |
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,040
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So is ohio state.
Please don't tease the Kitty... 
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