National Collegiate Scouting Association Announces 2008 Collegiate Power Rankings

and Student-Athlete Graduation Rates at Four-Year Colleges

Chicago, IL (EMWNews) August 22, 2008 — The National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) is pleased to announce the release of the 6th Annual NCSA Collegiate Power Rankings.

NCSA’s 2008 Collegiate Power Rankings rate colleges and universities comprehensively based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess of the university. The institutions posted in the 2008 Power Rankings are in an elite group of less than 6% of colleges and universities across the nation.

“With so many outstanding colleges and universities to choose from, NCSA’s power rankings objectively help student-athletes compare collegiate opportunities so they know how institutions stack up pound for pound,” said NCSA Founder Chris Krause. “With this ranking, it shows us which colleges not only places importance on winning games, but on academics and graduating their student-athletes.”

The Collegiate Power Rankings from NCSA are calculated for each college and university at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels by averaging the U.S. News & World Report ranking, the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup ranking and the NCAA student-athlete graduation rate of each college/university. The collegiate power rankings based off of the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup rating evaluates the strength of NCAA athletic departments, while the U.S. News & World Report rating recognizes institutions of academic excellence. The student-athlete graduation rates are based on those provided by the NCAA. New for 2008, NCSA distinguished the top national and liberal arts colleges from the list of comprehensive colleges.

In addition to the collegiate power rankings, NCSA publishes recruiting guidelines and provides education to the nation’s top clubs, camps, and combines to high school athletic directors, coaches and families of student-athletes who are interested in competing at the next level.

“The backbone of NCSA is education,” said Krause. “The NCSA staff consists of more than 70 former collegiate athletes and college coaches whose focus is to match college coaches with qualified and committed student athletes, maximizing their collegiate recruiting potential.”    

Top 10 Overall

1.   Williams College

2.   Amherst College

3.   Middlebury College

4.   Washington University in St. Louis

5.   Stanford University

6.   Duke University

7.   Massachusetts Institute of Technology

8.   Tufts University

9.   (tie) Emory University

9.   (tie) Princeton University

Division I

1.   Stanford University

2.   Duke University

3.   Princeton University

4.   Harvard University

5.   University of Notre Dame

6.   University of Pennsylvania

7.   Northwestern University

8.   (tie) Cornell University

8.   (tie) Yale University

10.   Georgetown University

Division II

1.   University of California-San Diego

2.   Stonehill College

3.   Merrimack College

4.   Colorado School of Mines

5.   Eckerd College

6.   University of North Dakota

7.   University of Massachusetts – Lowell

8.   St. Michael’s College

9.   Pace University

10.   Adelphi University

Division III

1.   Williams College

2.   Amherst College

3.   Middlebury College

4.   Washington University in St. Louis

5.   Massachusetts Institute of Technology

6.   Tufts University

7.   Emory University

8.   Haverford College

9.   John Hopkins University

10.   Washington and Lee University

About NCSA

More than 35,000 college coaches and more than 1,700 colleges and universities use NCSA to meet their recruiting needs. NCSA annually tracks more than 100,000 of the top student athletes in 25 sports who will be making their way on to college rosters with the ultimate goal of earning a college degree.

Please visit www.ncsasports.org/about-ncsa/power-rankings for a complete overall ranking list, as well as rankings by division level.

For More Information

Please Contact:

Daniel Tudor

661.809.6200