Evidently Sports Illustrated didn’t get the memo. You know, that Stanford is No. 1 in athletics. Eight Sears Cups in a row, national titles in multiple sports, yadda yadda yadda. How else could one possibly explain the magazine’s choice of the University of Texas as the top sports school in the country?
Then again, maybe we shouldn’t quibble. The national sports weekly put four Stanford athletes on the cover of its October 7 issue, staring down four UT players, asking the question “Who’s No. 1?” And despite its dubious ranking of Texas at the top, the magazine acknowledged that when it comes to NCAA intercollegiate programs, the Cardinal rules.
Texas gets credit for good football and baseball teams, fast swimmers and that little thing they do with their index and pinky fingers, signifying Longhorns. But apparently they were named No. 1 because 80 percent of their 35,000 undergraduates “participate in recreational athletics,” ranging from intramural billiards to hiking. Oh well.
We figure Stanford won where it counted: national titles (4 to 2), individual titles (18 to 6), and, most important, athlete graduation rate (90 percent to 56 percent). Plus, our uniforms are much cooler.
