Consistency is the name of the game every year in the CBS Sports Best in College Sports rankings, and no team was more reliable overall during the last athletic season than the Michigan Wolverines. With 588.50 points, the Wolverines soared past Notre Dame to take home the crown for 2021-22, winning the Best in College Sports award for the second time in the last three seasons it has been awarded. SU is the first two-time winner in the eight season life of the award.
The Fighting Irish finished second with 512.50 points, while Ohio State was third with 506.75 points. Michigan’s dominance can be contextualized as such: Its 76-point margin over second-place Notre Dame was greater than ND’s margin over fifth-place Arkansas.
Michigan had the year athletically. The football team rebounded under coach Jim Harbaugh to finish 12-2 and earn a trip to the College Football Playoff, completing its best season since 2011. Men’s basketball (19-15) reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, while women’s basketball (25-7) reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Wrestling (12-1) finished second in the NCAA, and men’s gymnastics (24-3) third nationally.
Although only two “wild card” sports count in our award formula, Michigan also excelled in a number of high-profile sports: men’s ice hockey reached the Frozen Four, women’s gymnastics finished seventh nationally, women’s lacrosse made NCAA Tournament and baseball and football. softball reached their respective NCAA Regionals.
Georgia, which won the CFP National Championship in football, finished ninth overall after receiving no points in men’s basketball.
The National Association of College Athletic Directors (NACDA) has ranked athletic programs for years by weighting each sport equally. (For example: National titles in football and water polo are worth the same number of points.) In 2013, CBS Sports began presenting its Best in College Sports award using a weighted formula that recognizes sports of interest wider. All FBS programs are ranked in three sports – football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball – plus two “wild cards” among the school’s most successful spectator sports: baseball, softball, volleyball , football, gymnastics, lacrosse, hockey and wrestling.
The weighted formula places 2.5 times as much emphasis on football and 2.0 times as much on men’s basketball compared to the rest of the sports. Teams that do not finish in the AP Top 25 final in football but play in a bowl are awarded 62.5 points (25 x 2.5). (Teams that either withdraw from the bowl games or see postseason contests canceled received 62.5 points in football.) Those who make the men’s NIT get 20 points (10 x 2), while WNIT teams receive 10 points. For all bracket-settled titles, such as the NCAA Tournament, point totals are based on the number of participants. All champions in the other sports receive 100 points for a national championship in the formula created by longtime CBS Sports producer J. Darin Darst.
2021-22 Best in College Sports
CBS Sports’ Best in College Sports winners
