Although Dartmouth's athletic program is currently ranked among the top-20 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, this week's edition of Sports Illustrated places Dartmouth athletics in the middle of the heap -- 108th in the nation among the 324 Division I athletic programs and seventh in the Ivy League.
Sports Illustrated based their rankings on factors such as the school's performance in the "big five" sports (baseball, football, hockey and men's and women's basketball); the number of varsity, club and intramural sports; range of recreational facilities; position in the 2001-'02 Sears Cup NCAA all-sports standings; and whether or not spirit boosting events were held.
Dartmouth Athletic Director Josie Harper, however, defended the College's athletic program.
"It depends on how and what you're measuring," she argued, pointing to the disparity between the Sports Illustrated and U.S. News and World Report rankings.
Harper said she remains confident that Dartmouth has a great athletics program in comparison to many other Division I schools.
Barry Harwick '77, the head coach of the men's track and cross-country team, also argued that the Sports Illustrated ranking was an inaccurate characterization of Dartmouth athletics.
"It essentially ignores the fact that several of our teams, such as cross-country, soccer and ice hockey are nationally competitive and compete in the NCAA championships on a regular basis," he said.
"I don't think we got nearly enough credit for sponsoring 34 sports. Many of the highly ranked schools sponsor few sports and just throw a lot of money at them. I don't consider that a sign of success," added Harwick.
The U.S. News rankings were based on gender equity, win-loss record, number of varsity sports offered and athlete graduation rate.
However, 88 schools were excluded from the U.S. News rankings because of NCAA violations.
Stanford, Michigan and Duke were the schools ranked in the top 20 in both reports. Only four schools in the top 20 had athlete graduation rates of at least 67 percent.
In the Sports Illustrated report, University of Texas was ranked as having the best athletics program. Harvard was ranked the highest in the Ivy League at 41st.
A category in which Dartmouth ranked high was its number of varsity sports, 34, which ranked seventh in the nation.
