Big Ten schools ranked academically by U.S. News for 2025.
After a full calendar year of athletics, the 18-member Big Ten Conference now has a sense of permanence.
At this time last year, former Pac-12 schools Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA had yet to take the football field or basketball court as conference members. At that point, the memory of the Pac-12 Conference was still prominent.
Now, Oregon football is the reigning Big Ten champion and UCLA men’s basketball is one of the conference’s top contenders. Several other new programs outside of the two major sports also claimed conference titles, including Oregon women’s cross country, USC/UCLA women’s soccer, Oregon men’s and women’s indoor track and field, USC/UCLA women’s basketball, UCLA women’s gymnastics, Oregon women’s golf and UCLA men’s golf.
Another indicator is U.S. News & World Report’s latest 2025 academic rankings. Unsurprisingly, the Big Ten again delivered terrific results:
18. University of Nebraska — Lincoln
University of Oregon
University of Iowa
Indiana University
Pennsylvania State University — University Park
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota
University of Washington
Purdue University — Main Campus
University of Maryland
Rutgers University
The Ohio State University
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Southern California
University of Michigan
University of California
Northwestern University
