The Most Academic Conference is...

The Ivy League, but we all knew that. The real question is which conference that excels at sports other then polo, crew, and the fan fave "who has the biggest house in the Hamptons?" is the most academically great. To establish the champion in this debate I decided to use the US News rankings. Though I am not the biggest fan of these rankings (since they give an obvious bias towards private schools), it is a good system and is widely accepted. So here are the numbers for each BCS conference (the other ones are a joke, seriously, they are):

ACC:
Number of Public Schools: 8
Number of Private Schools: 4
Schools in the top 25: 2
Schools in the top 50: 6
Average Rank: 48.25

Big East:
Number of Public Schools: 7
Number of Private Schools: 9
Schools in the top 25: 2
Schools in the top 50: 2
Average Rank: 51.29
SIDENOTE: There are also 2 unranked colleges here (Nova and Providence), and 7 Tier 3 which did not have actual rankings.

Big Ten:
Number of Public Schools: 10
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 0
Schools in the top 50: 4
Average Rank: 49

Big 12:
Number of Public Schools: 11
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 0
Schools in the top 50: 1
Average Rank: 86.50
SIDENOTE: OSU and Texas Tech are Tier 3 schools.

Pac-10:
Number of Public Schools: 8
Number of Private Schools: 2
Schools in the top 25: 3
Schools in the top 50: 5
Average Rank: 62.11
SITENOTE: Oregon State is a Tier 3 school

SEC:
Number of Public Schools: 11
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 1
Schools in the top 50: 2
Average Rank: 89.10
SITENOTE: MSU and Ole Miss are both Tier 3 schools

Now, here is the formula to crown the champion:

• 6 points for highest % in each category (and 5-1)
• -2 points for each school not ranked

Final Standings:
1. ACC - (17)
2. Pac 10 - (13)
3. Big Ten - (11)
4. SEC - (2)
5. Big 12 - (1)
6. Big East - (-4)