New York, NY, December 4, 2008 -- STACK today announced their 2008 Elite 50 college rankings of NCAA football, basketball and more than a dozen other Division I men's and women's sports programs. Overall, Stanford University, University of Texas, University of North Carolina, University of Michigan and University of Florida scored consistently high in all categories and are ranked as the five best schools for academically minded athletes.

In addition to the top schools overall, STACK also provided sport-specific rankings for NCAA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's soccer, women's soccer, track, men's track, women's track, volleyball, wrestling, lacrosse, men's swimming, women's swimming, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's golf, women's golf, men's tennis, women's tennis, and hockey. To see the complete list, visit The Elite 50.

Chad Zimmerman, Co-Founder of STACK, said, "As part of our consistent goal to bring value to high schools and high school athletes nationwide, we've created the second annual STACK Elite 50 to truly serve as a resource to athletes, coaches and parents when evaluating college sports programs. After months of crunching numbers -- wins, losses, championship titles, school rankings and academic progress -- we can offer academically-minded athletes a groundbreaking compilation of information that they will need to choose a school that provides the right balance of academics and athletics."

To determine the Elite 50, STACK Magazine and STACK.com use data from four academic and athletic performance categories: U.S. News & World Report on America's Best Colleges, Academic Progress Rate (APR), National Rank, and Win-Loss Record. In addition, a STACK Factor is used to evaluate the strength of a school's overall athletic community and its level of support for athletics, both of which strongly affect student-athletes. For more information on the "Elite 50" methodology, visit "Determining the Elite 50."

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Elite 50: What It Is And How To Use It

by Josh Staph

For the second year in a row, we scoured every detail of the nation's top colleges and universities in conjunction with their sports programs, crunched thousands of numbers, and compiled the crucial data for the STACK Elite 50 College Rankings. Although your potential college experience cannot be anticipated strictly by the numbers, the STACK Elite 50—the most recognized, comprehensive college rankings and resource of its kind—is a powerful research tool for any high school athlete looking to compete and study at the next level.

The college recruiting and selection process is demanding, time consuming and stressful from the get-go. With so many colleges and sports teams to choose from, you'd need several years to complete all necessary research, based on both academics and athletics. So we went ahead and knocked out the hard work, calculating and weighing the key elements of your future academic and athletic collegiate experience. The following 20 pages will give you a tremendous head start in finding the perfect college for your academic and athletic games.

The Elite 50 Sums It Up

Using the criteria highlighted here, we identified the top 15 teams in 21 varsity sports. Each Top 15 team within a sport was awarded points based on its finish, with first place receiving the most, 15th the least. Schools that didn't crack the Top 15 received no points for that sport. After all 21 sport-specific rankings were determined, we tallied each school's total points, giving slightly heavier weight to higher participation sports. Our Elite 50 schools were then ranked based on their final point totals.

Sport-Specific Criteria and Calculations

We used five main indicators of excellence to determine our sport-specific rankings.

1. 2009 U.S. News & World Report on America's Best Colleges. Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks the nation's top colleges and universities, strictly in terms of academic prowess. The publication uses a detailed formula that takes into account, among other factors, college entrance exam scores; acceptance, retention and graduation rates; education expenditures [e.g., funds dedicated to research]; and faculty resources [e.g., student-to-teacher ratios]. We used each school's U.S. News & World Report ranking as one of the main academic factors in our formula.

U.S. News groups academic institutions into different categories, including "National Universities" and "Liberal Arts Colleges." For any school not classified as a university, we used its ranking within its category and denoted it with an asterisk [*].

2. Academic Progress Rate [APR ]. In 2005, the NCAA instituted the APR system to measure how well a collegiate athletic team's members progress toward graduation during their playing careers. Basically, this rating indicates, at the extremes, whether a team is loaded with academic-minded student-athletes or singleminded jocks who can't hang with their studies.

Within the APR system, every team receives a rating based on the eligibility and retention of its players. Two points are awarded each season for every student athlete who meets academic eligibility standards and remains with the institution. The total points a team's members earn in a given period, divided by the total points possible, equals the team's APR. The highest possible score is 1,000.

Teams that fail to reach minimum standards, which depend on the sport and its number of participants, risk NCAA sanctions. Each team's APR serves as a key academic indicator in STACK's sport-specific rankings.

3. National Rank. End-of-the-season national rankings and polls [e.g., USA Today, ESPN, and the Associated Press] are the most recognized method of determining a team's single-season athletic performance. The polls effectively sum up the entire season's results, including ups, downs and late-season runs or flops. Nothing goes unnoticed.

We took into account each team's spot in their sport's most widely accepted final national ranking for the past three seasons. Multiple seasons were counted so that perennial powerhouses were rewarded more than recent one-and-done fluke finishers.

For sports whose seasons wrap up with an NCAA championship tournament [golf, track and field, cross country, swimming, tennis and wrestling], we used the team's finish in its respective tournament as its end-of season rank.

For each of the 21 sports covered in our Elite 50, we awarded points for any top-25 finish. The number-one ranked team received the most points; and a descending scale was used for teams two through 25. Finally, we awarded more points for top-25 finishes in the most recent season, slightly fewer for the season prior, and slightly fewer still for the season before that.

4. Win-Loss Record. NFL coach Herm Edwards said, "You play to win the game!" We know other motivations drive athletic competition; however, winning games is obviously a huge factor for any athlete and team. For this reason, we calculated the number of games over .500 [wins minus losses] for each team over the past three seasons, then awarded points based on that total. This system allowed for smaller schools in smaller conferences [often overlooked by national polls despite winning a ton of games] to make some noise within our rankings. Again, we chose to count multiple years to prevent any Cinderella-style serendipity from gobbling up too many points.

We did not factor in win-loss points for individual sports whose seasons consist mostly of meets, tournaments and invitationals, as those place little emphasis on win-loss records.

5. STACK Factor. Your personal development and enjoyment while participating in college athletics is not limited to time spent on your sport. Outside of each individual team's environment, every college has an overall athletic community that plays a large role in the experience of its student-athletes. The STACK Factor evaluates the strength of this athletic community, in terms of the level of athletic support and prowess throughout all 21 varsity sports covered. The score is based largely on the number of a school's sports teams that finished in the top 25 nationally. Obviously, the more nationally ranked teams a school has, the stronger its athletic environment; therefore, it is awarded a larger number of STACK Factor points.

Putting It All To Use

Our Elite 50 consists of two extremely helpful sections: the overall Elite 50 and summary, and individual team rankings for 21 varsity sports. If overall athletic domination is most important to you, dive into the Elite 50. This chart highlights which schools scored best taking all 21 sports into account, and tells you which schools are best in terms of a strong overall athletic presence. Understand, though, a high ranking in the overall Elite 50 does not necessarily mean a school offers the best experience in all sports. For example, Florida took hold of the number-five overall spot due to 14 Top-15 finishes in the 21 sports, but didn't notch a single number-one finish. In fact, for women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, wrestling, lacrosse, men's cross country and hockey, the Gators didn't even show up in the Top 15. So be aware that a school ranked highly in the top 50 overall might not offer the best experience for your particular sport.

Now, if you want a breakdown of which universities offer the best combo of academic and athletic experiences for your sport, head to our individual sport rankings. You'll find our insights on which schools are best, even if some didn't make the overall Elite 50. For example, Iona is the third best men's cross country school, and Johns Hopkins is fifth best in lacrosse, but neither cracked the STACK Elite 50 due to less-than impressive rankings in most other sports. So although they're not overall powerhouses [and might make a football player cringe], Iona and Johns Hopkins offer some of the best experiences for male runners and lax stars.

What a Difference a Year Makes

We have a winner! Stanford University topped our Elite 50 rankings this year in dominating fashion. The Cardinal bounded from the three spot last year by finishing number one in eight of our 21 sportspecific rankings. North Carolina, our 2007 top finisher, dropped two spots to number three, behind Stanford and Texas. Florida and Michigan, two newcomers to the top five, supplanted UCLA and Duke, which finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in last year's rankings. UCLA found a new home in the six spot and Duke fell to eighth.