Florida Gators wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland (9) returns the ball during the 2020 Reese’s Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, USA on January 25, 2020. Photo and Caption: Brad McPherson/Shutterstock.com
The University of Florida (UF) has landed the top spot on the list of Niche’s 2021 best college athletics in the country. UF took the number one spot above University of Alabama (No. 2) and Louisiana State University (LSU) (No. 3). The University of Florida’s latest appearance in the Niche college rankings gives a first-place nod to its athletics.
This No. 1 ranking for Florida athletics follows a successful, but short 2019-20 year for Gators athletics. UF football finished with an overall record of 11-2, including an Orange Bowl victory over Virginia. Volleyball finished 27-5 on the season with a loss in the NCAA tournament semifinal. Gymnastics was surging forward with an undefeated regular season before being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University also made 5th place in Best Colleges for Student Athletics in America on Niche’s website.
Niche is a company made up of data scientists, engineers, parents, students and alumni of various colleges in the U.S. The website is known for its extensive research on colleges throughout the U.S., which it uses to create rankings each year for various categories. Students all over the country and internally can make decisions on where to go based on these findings later on.
Niche determines its rankings for each college by comparing statistics, diversity and other demographics and student-submitted surveys. From this aggregation of data, the Niche team produces a standardized score for each factor at each college, according to their website. It then weighs each factor and calculates a final, standardized score for each college.
The Florida college boasts some not-worthy accolades. University of Florida student athletes have earned a total of 121 academic all-American honors since 1992. UF is also the only school with 100 or more academic all-sec honorees in the last 23 seasons. Finally UF can boast that it is the only program to finish among the nation’s top 10 in each of the last 36 national all sports standings. *Source: University of Florida Athletics website
The University of Florida fields teams in nine men’s sports and twelve women’s sports, all administered by the University Athletic Association, Inc. (UAA):
| Men’s sports Florida Baseball Florida men’s Basketball Florida men’s Cross Country Florida Football Florida men’s Golf Florida men’s Swimming & Diving Florida men’s Tennis Florida men’s Track & Field | Women’s sports Florida women’s Basketball Florida women’s Cross Country Florida women’s Golf Florida Gymnastics Florida Lacrosse Florida Soccer Florida Softball Florida women’s Swimming & Diving Florida women’s Tennis Florida women’s Track & Field Florida Volleyball |
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ten states, three additional public land-grant universities, and one private research university. The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I in sports competitions. The SEC is regarded as one of the most accomplished sports conferences in terms of its winning reputation: with 43 national football championships, 21 basketball championships, 41 indoor track championships, 42 outdoor track championships, 24 swimming championships, 20 gymnastics championships, and 13 College World Series.
Melissa’s career in writing started more than 20 years ago. Today, she lives in South Florida with her husband and two boys.
