The first college football game played was won by Rutgers over Princeton, 6-4. According to a newspaper account, one Rutgers prof was seen waving his umbrella towards the Princeton players and shrieking, “You will come to no Christian end!” Now that's some Old (Testament) School trash-talking.

The first college football game played was won by Rutgers over Princeton, 6-4. According to a newspaper account, one Rutgers prof was seen waving his umbrella towards the Princeton players and shrieking, “You will come to no Christian end!” Now that's some Old (Testament) School trash-talking.

My alma mater, the University of Chicago was one of the original members of the Big Ten. The first Heisman trophy winner, Jay Berwanger, was a Maroon–yes, amongst the worst team names ever–and the teams were successful enough to inspire the original Monster of the Midway moniker. Chicago eventually dropped out of the Big Ten in the 1930’s to focus on academics leaving Northwestern as the only private university remaining in the conference. Today, there are 120 teams that compete in NCAA Division I football. Here, a nifty map of the US shows their locations. The state of New York has three Division I teams. The state of Utah? Three as well. Go figure. After poring through conference lists, I also learned that only 17 are private. Only one in seven! The remainder are all public institutions. I knew big-time football would skew towards public schools but didn’t realize how heavily.

Baylor University
Boston College
Brigham Young University
Duke University
Miami University
Northwestern University
Notre Dame University
Rice University
University of Southern California
Southern Methodist University
Stanford University
Syracuse University
Texas Christian University
Tulane University
University of Tulsa
Vanderbilt University
Wake Forest University

So, who cares? Probably no one but a college football meets college admissions nerd like myself. But, it’s still interesting to note that 10 of these 17 are in US News and World Report’s Top 50 Universities and 14 in the top 68. Certainly schools like USC and Notre Dame have built reputations on the backs of the football teams. TCU is undefeated this year and many argue, worthy of a spot in the BCS Championship game. In fact, on quick glance, all these schools have fared well at times over the past decade with the exception of perhaps Baylor, Tulsa and Tulane.

And for those of you searching for schools with a “rah-rah” spirit but still hoping for some smaller classes, excellent academics and greater resources, these would be places to consider. Sure, big-time football may not a perfect proxy for school spirit but it’s not the worst one either.