Mindful that you’re a student-athlete—and not just a student—we offer you the 4th Annual STACK Elite 50 Colleges, a ranking of the best schools for academically-minded athletes. After months of crunching numbers [wins, losses, championships, school rankings, academic progress and more], we improved on our prior years’ compilations to help you choose a school with the right balance of academics and athletics.
Repeating its silver medal performance, Florida comes in at #2.
WHY THEY’RE ON TOP
Florida again failed to dethrone the champ, but the Gators have reason to be proud of their second Elite 50 silver medal finish. UF football finally knocked off the men of Troy, but not much else changed in the Swamp since last year. Tebow is gone, but the Gainesville faithful still create a difficult atmosphere for opponents, who rarely walk out with a W.
Ranked Sports: Football [1], Softball [1], Women’s Swimming [3], Women’s Track & Field [3], Volleyball [4], Women’s Tennis [4], Men’s Track & Field [5], Men’s Swimming [5], Women’s Cross Country [5], Baseball [6], Men’s Golf [6], Men’s Tennis [7] and Women’s Soccer [9] Rank: 2
Total Points: 81.36
Top-15 Ranked Sports: 13
U.S. News Rank: 53

GENERAL INFORMATION
Location: Gainesville, Fla.
Enrollment: 34,654
Year founded: 1853
Percentage of freshmen in top 10% of their graduating class: 76
Application fee: $30
Acceptance rate: 40%
Average GPA of incoming freshmen: 4.1
Male/female ratio: 41/59
Student/faculty ratio: 20/1
Percentage of students from out of state: 3
Tuition: $4,373 for residents; $23,740 out of state

Admissions contact:
Zina Evans, Assistant Provost and Director of Admissions
University of Florida
201 Criser Hall, PO Box 114000
Gainesville, FL 32611-4000
Phone: 352-392-1365

ATHLETIC INFORMATION
Nickname: Gators
Conference: Southeastern Conference
National championships: 22 [11 men, 11 women] Longest coaching tenure: Buddy Alexander, Men’s Golf, 22 years
Nearest professional team: Jacksonville Jaguars [NFL], 71 miles
FUN FACTS
Notable alumni: NFL’s all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, NFL WR Percy Harvin, NBA players Al Horford, David Lee and Joakim Noah, Olympian Dara Torres
Fast fact: Florida is proud of its Olympic ties, and for good reason. Prior to the 2008 Beijing Games, 118 Gators and 11 Florida coaches represented 27 countries in 10 Olympiads, laying claim to 76 medals, including 39 golds. In Beijing, 33 athletes and 3 coaches with ties to the University of Florida  participated in the Games, representing 20 different countries.

LINKS
University Website: ufl.edu
Wikipedia: University of Florida
Check out the STACK videos of Florida’s nationally-ranked volleyball squad and former stud QB Tim Tebow.
Go to elite50.stack.com to read more on Florida and the rest of the STACK Elite 50 Colleges.
Previously posted:
#10 – USC
#9 – OSU
#8 – Texas A&M
#7 – Duke
#6 – UCLA
#5 – Virginia
#4 – UNC
#3 – Texas
Photos:  wikipedia.com