Princeton, Stanford, Notre Dame And That's The List

TigerBlog is extraordinarily proud to be able to put "P'22" after his name.

It's not really anything he actually accomplished. It was all Miss TigerBlog, who graduated this past May with the Class of 2022. 

Even a few months later, TB still marvels at what she accomplished everytime he thinks about it. When he updated the women's lacrosse letterwinners in the record book and added her fourth letter, he stopped and again thought about how impressed he was that she balanced that with mechanical and aerospace engineering and saw both through all four years.

In the time that his daughter was on campus, TB didn't really see her all that often, which was fine with both of them. She wanted to make her own way. He wanted to say out of her way. 

It worked — but it was also nice for both of them to know that the other one was close by. She actually admitted to that, though not until after graduation.

As the new school year has begun, it is definitely strange not to have her around anymore. She was one of the students who stayed enrolled during the 2020-21 academic year, and so many of her friends and other athletes who came in with her who did withdraw for the year are now seniors, which makes it even odder.

If you'll indulge TB for a little parental pride, MTB is on her way to Paris next week to present a paper at the International Aeronautical Congress. Her presentation will be on: Nuclear Fusion Powered Titan Aircraft.

So yes, there's a great deal of parental pride there. She did not ask her father for help on the subject. If she wants to know something about Princeton Athletic history, though, she shouldn't hesitate to ask.

The opportunity to attend Princeton, study what your passion is and play the sport that you love is unparalleled. There have been so many people who have benefited from the experience, and to see his own daughter have that chance too was just amazing.

It's worth keeping in mind when you watch Princeton's teams compete that they are composed of athletes who also excel at the absolute highest academic level. TB thought about setting out to quantify this, and what he found out was really eye-opening.

The news came out this week that Princeton University was named the No. 1 national university in the country by the esteemed US News rankings. It was the 12th straight time that Princeton has been at the top of those rankings.

Of course, everyone at Princeton is rightly proud of that.

Here's something else Princetonians can be proud of, TB figured out.

His idea was this: What if you combined a school's US News ranking with its Learfield Directors' Cup ranking? Then what would you find.

The Directors' Cup measures overall athletic success through NCAA tournament participation and results. In other words it looks to define the best all-around athletic programs in the country.

Princeton finished 18th in the Directors Cup a year ago, for its best finish ever, as well as the best finish ever by an FCS school. Prior to last year, Princeton's best finish had been 21st, back in 2001-02.

So what did TB find out when he looked at both lists? 

There are only three schools that were in the top 20 of both rankings. Here's the full list: 

* Princeton (No. 1 in US News, No. 18 in Directors' Cup).
* Stanford (No. 3 in US News, tied with Harvard and Yale by the way, and No. 2 in Directors' Cup)
* Notre Dame (No. 18 in US News, No. 8 in Directors' Cup)

If you add the two together, then Stanford is first with 5, followed by Princeton with 19. Nobody else is under 20.

That's pretty amazing stuff, people.