Is your school helmets or hoops?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, April 07, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Now that the Final Four is over and spring football is winding down, we're sliding to the edge of the annual three-month abyss without the two Big Dog college sports.

So here's something to contemplate during the interim, a little kick-start to sports bar conversation.

You've heard the expression "That's a football school," or "That's a basketball school." When you think about it, there may be some truth there.

Have you ever thought of how few colleges are really good -- perennially, Top 15 good -- in both sports?

If you put the final Top 25 in college football this past season next to the post-tournament basketball rankings, you'll find only six schools with a team in both lists -- Texas, Ohio State, LSU, West Virginia, Florida and Boston College.

Sure, nearly every major college is going to occasionally field strong teams in both sports (West Virginia over the last couple of years, Georgia Tech a few years back). But in terms of consistently finishing in the Top 15, I can think of only a handful. Florida, you'd have to say, has reached that plateau of late. Ditto, Texas, which only developed a killer basketball program in the last decade or so. Most years, Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan and Georgia are strong in both sports.

LSU? A football school, despite the success of this year's basketball Tigers. UCLA? Generally basketball.

Other football schools include Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Auburn, Clemson and Southern Cal.

Basketball schools? Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Pitt, Syracuse, Kansas, Cincinnati, Indiana, Illinois, Arizona and Kentucky come to mind.

This can change over time. Duke, Pitt and Syracuse used to be football powers. Now, they're very much basketball schools.

It gets even more interesting when you consider individual states. Kansas is a basketball school, Kansas State football. Arizona State is better at football, Arizona at basketball.

The question is, why should this be? If a school is attractive to high school football players, wouldn't the same be true for basketball players? How can Duke be so perennially strong in basketball and so predictably awful in football? Why don't you ever see Penn State in the Final Four?

Part of it, I suppose, is tradition. An outstanding high school basketball player would be ecstatic to receive a scholarship offer from Kentucky; a football jock, much less so. Two-sport All-American Greg Paulus seriously considered an offer to play quarterback and point guard at Notre Dame, but he wanted no part of the Duke football team when he signed with Mike Krzyzewski.

Maybe it has to do with coaches. Mack Brown had some good teams at North Carolina and used that success as a springboard to the Texas job. For a basketball coach, however, North Carolina is near the pinnacle.

Just something to ponder as you flip channels between baseball, the NBA and NFL Europe.
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