5 Biggest College Basketball Programs Right Now

[Iplayboard]

[ QUOTE ]
Since 1994, they've been the Final Four 4 times, won it once could win it again.

# of FF Since 1994:

UNC-4
Duke-4
UF-4
UCLA-3
MSU-4
Zona-3
Kansas-2
Arkansas-2
Maryalnd-2
Cuse-2
Kentucky-3
UCONN-2

So Florida has been pretty good for a while.

USC with their new coach will probally be more of a basketball school then in the past. They got Mayo to come.

[/ QUOTE ]

The NCAA can re-write the history books all it wants. Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn still took the Buckeyes to the Final Four in 1999.

[capone0]

Whoops, your right. tOSU-2. Forgot about this year for tOSU. There are other programs with only 1 which of course I didn't include including GT, Stanford, etc.

[CarlSpackler]

[ QUOTE ]
Since 1994, they've been the Final Four 4 times, won it once could win it again.

# of FF Since 1994:

UNC-4
Duke-4
UF-4
UCLA-3
MSU-4
Zona-3
Kansas-2
Arkansas-2
Maryalnd-2
Cuse-2
Kentucky-3
UCONN-2

So Florida has been pretty good for a while.

USC with their new coach will probally be more of a basketball school then in the past. They got Mayo to come.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not debating that UF has had great success since 1994. A team's win-loss record, however, isn't the sole factor in measuring how good a program is. Considering the success that Florida's teams have had on the hardwood over the last several years, their fan support is HORRIBLE. Off the top of my head, I can't even think of a national champion in the last 20 years that has worse fan support than Florida.

Calling them a top 5 program is laughable. Florida is the defending national champs, yet they didn't come close to selling out there allotment of tickets for either site they've played at thus far in the tourney. UNLV and Butler sold all 1200 of their allotted tickets in St. Louis, but Florida sent 500 back. That's absolutely pathetic, when you consider that they're defending national champs and have been to 4 final 4's since 1994.

The bottom line is, if you're a basketball school, at a football university, in a football state, you're almost certainly never going to be a top 5 bball program.

[Assani Fisher]

[ QUOTE ]
The fact that people voted for Florida as one of the current top 5 bball programs right now is ridiculous. Have they had the best team in the country the last couple of years? Absolutely. Are they currently a top 5 program? Not even close.

Florida is a football school! They sold out what, 2 home games this year for men's bball? And this is your guys' definition of a top 5 program? Absolutely hillarious. You could actually make a good case that the only school UF is ahead of on that list is Texas.

I guess if USC, Notre Dame, or Nebraska suddenly produces back-to-back men's bball national championships, they too will be considered a top 5 bball program.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. We're overrating Florida simply because they currently have a great team.

Now that great team(and exposure) could lead them to become a bigger basketball power, but I'd hold off on putting them too highly just yet.

[KUJustin]

For the record I think fan support is only marginally important in saying the CURRENT biggest basketball programs. A lack of fan support will manifest itself on the court in the long run, as will a strong fan base (e.g. Nebraska football will never stay down for long because of the rabid fanbase).

I've got to second the fairly clear cut top 6. I think arguments can be made for: Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas, or UNC as the best program of all-time (comes down to what criteria you want to use basically), and Duke and Indiana are right there behind them.