Greatest NCAA Sports Program

[NSL]

In light of Pat Summitt achieving 1000 wins, I want to know what you think the greatest college sports program is of all-time.

I'm going to stay with Pat Summitt, and go with the Tennessee Vols women's basketball. Summitt reaching 1000 wins, means that they have won more games during her tenure, than any other college team, in any sport. Since the WNBA has began, Tennessee has sent a number of players to the professional level. They're also a consistent contender for the national title, and are usually a contender for the Final Four, and have even had undefeated seasons. Another stat I didn't know, until her speech, is that Tennessee has had a 100% graduation rate for the last few years. That's the most impressive stat that any school can give, no matter what the wins and losses are.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'm going to play homer and say UK's Men's Basketball team. Say what you want about us now, but no one can deny what we've meant to the game over teh years. Most wins all time, second most titles, a legendary arena and puts tons in the NBA. Allow me to give you a brief history lesson.

UK has been playing ball for over 100 years. Adolph Rupp was our greatest coach with over 820 wins, good for 5th all time, 30 years plus after he retired. UK's gym, Rupp Arena, consistently is either 1st or second in attendance. Since it opened, the attendance has been second in the nation only 11 times, all of which were to Syracuse, whose gym is approximately 10,000 seats larger. Speaking of home games, UK's win streatk at home once hit 125 games. That means we didn't lose a home game for over 10 years. Think about that for a few minutes. ten years ago the Monday Night Wars were going on. Steve Austin hadn't faced the Rock for the world title at Mania yet. Bill Clinton was President. Flash forward to today. UK still hasn't lost a home game. Imagine a streak like that. Mind blowing.

Some people might say UCLA has more titles. True, but UK did it over a longer time frame. We won our first in 1948 and our most recent in 1998. Three straight appearences in the National Title game with the one loss in Overtime. On the 98 Championship team, 12 of 13 players played in the NBA. We once had 3 of the 5 first team All Americans and 7 in total, over half the team.

Finally, think of conference championship tournaments. ESPN goes insane for it. It's one of the biggest tiems in college sports. There was no SEC tournament from 1953-1978. Do you know why? In the words of the SEC Commissioner, "we feel that the competitiveness has been taken away from the players." In other words, no one can beat Kentucky. That's dominance. It's one thing to be better than your conference. It's another to be so good there's no point in playing. Most SEC gyms were built to hold UK. Look at the attendance numbers for other gyms. For a long time, the numbers are abysmal, except when UK came to town.

To me, there's nothing even close.