By and large, the two biggest money-making sports in college athletics are football and basketball. At a place like Ohio State, the football program brings funds a lot of other sports, programs, and activities of the athletic departments. Second to that is hoops, where OSU has its own significant tradition.
However, when you look across the landscape of college athletics, it’s hard to find programs like Ohio State that have a rich tradition on the gridiron and hardwood. They are out there, but historically speaking, there are not too many that hold a candle to the Buckeyes when looking at both sports.
But it’s not every year of course. Some seasons are much better than others, and there are also other programs that do well at both in any given year.
We like to follow College Football News because each season Pete Fiutak and Rich Cirminiello do a fantastic job of assessing which college programs had the best combination of football and basketball seasons by using a method they have devised.
So, how did Ohio State and all of its Big Ten brethren do this year? Who took first in the conference and who has a lot of work to do? Furthermore, where did the Buckeyes and other conference programs stack up nationally?
Let’s find out, but first, just to get some of the housekeeping out of the way, here’s how these things are assessed by two of my former colleagues at College Football News.