MSU is ranked No. 6 in the recent CBS Best in College Sports rankings. MSU is one of four Big Ten schools in the top 10.
According to their website, The National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has been ranking athletic programs for years, but weighs every sport equally, meaning a football national title is worth the same number of points (100) as a women's water polo title. The CBS Sports Best in College Sports award is weighed more heavily toward sports that generate the broadest base of fan and media interest. We rated five sports — football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and a "wild card" sport.
The wild-card spot went to the most successful among the school's following spectator sports: softball, men's lacrosse, men's ice hockey, men's soccer, wrestling, volleyball, women's soccer or women's gymnastics.
The rankings weighed football with a triple value and men's basketball with a double value.
MSU came in at the No. 6 spot with 459.5 points. The football team's Cotton Bowl victory earned the Spartans 220.5 points in football and the men's basketball team made a run to the Final Four that secured them 166 points.
MSU earned zero points in both women's basketball and baseball. The wild-card spot earned MSU 73 points. The rankings do not specify which sport they used for each wild-card, but the men's soccer team had the most success out of the sports considered in their run to the Elite Eight.
Ohio State came in at No. 1 with 550 points, Wisconsin came in at No. 7 with 442 points and Maryland came in at No. 8 with 422 points.
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