Despite football losses, UF’s athletics ranked No. 1 as the most dominant college sports program.
Business Insider listed 20 colleges, including Florida State University at No. 18 and University of Southern California at No. 8.
The online business site ranked universities by the colleges’ revenue, NCAA championship score, average home football attendance, average home men’s basketball attendance and student survey responses.
Chip Howard, executive associate athletic director for the University Athletic Association, said UF was the only athletic program regarded as top 10 for the last 31 years.
“We want to deliver a championship experience to all of our student athletes and fans and we want to do that in a way that makes the University of Florida as an institution proud,” he said in an email.
Jasmine Pollard, a UF English junior, said she is not surprised UF was top ranked.
“It’s a reason it’s great to be a Florida Gator,” the 19-year-old said.
In 2013, the athletic department revenue was $130.1 million, according to the Business Insider.
“Despite our past success, our goal is to be the model collegiate athletics program in the nation and we are always looking for innovative ways to achieve that,” Howard said.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 11/17/2014]
