Headed into this weekend’s big game against Oklahoma, the Baylor football team is ranked in the top 15 nationally in every major poll (10th in the coaches poll, 12th by the AP, and 13th by the College Football Playoff committee).
Of course, top-15 programs are not a new phenomenon at Baylor. Just among active sports, you’ve got women’s basketball ranked 2nd in the country, volleyball ranked 3rd, equestrian ranked 10th, and men’s golf ranked 12th. And that doesn’t include spring sports like Baylor acrobatics and tumbling, which has won five straight national titles, or men’s tennis, which finished 6th in the nation this past spring.
And there are plenty of top-15 ranked programs at Baylor outside of athletics, as well:
- Baylor trumpeters have won the National Trumpet Competition six times in the last nine years.
- The Baylor Model UN team won top honors at the American Model UN Conference in Chicago last fall.
- Baylor Law School’s trial advocacy program is ranked No. 2 in the nation by U.S. News.
- A Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education report this fall ranked Baylor No. 4 nationally for student engagement.
- Baylor’s entrepreneurship program is ranked No. 5 in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.
- Baylor was ranked No. 8 in the country for student first-year experiences by U.S. News.
- The U.S. Army-Baylor doctoral degree in physical therapy is ranked No. 8 nationally by U.S. News, and its master’s degree in health care management is ranked 9th.
- The Louise Herrington School of Nursing’s nurse-midwifery program placed 10th in U.S. News‘ most recent rankings.
- Baylor is one of just 10 large four-year universities to earn elite Honor Roll status among the country’s “Great Colleges to Work For,” based on a nationwide survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The only question that remains is — who’s next?
Sic ’em, Bears!