{"id":165918,"date":"2025-09-27T11:41:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/big-ten-academic-rankings-2026-three-schools-fall-outside-top-100-wolverines-wire\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:41:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:41:30","slug":"big-ten-academic-rankings-2026-three-schools-fall-outside-top-100-wolverines-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/big-ten-academic-rankings-2026-three-schools-fall-outside-top-100-wolverines-wire\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten academic rankings 2026: three schools fall outside top 100 – Wolverines Wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten prides itself on being the premier academic conference while also having a strong athletic foundation across all of the major sports. No other conference can boast high-profile academics and athletics the way the Big Ten can. Seventeen of the 18 member institutions are members of the Association of American Universities, an organization devoted to strong academics and research. Nebraska is the only school not in the AAU.
It used to be that all Big Ten schools (but one) were ranked in the top 100 schools in the country. Last year, there were two below the 100-rank line. But this year, there are now three.
U.S. News & World Report has updated its academic rankings for 2026<\/a>. Here is where each Big Ten school ranks against each other, as well as the national ranking, total enrollment, and acceptance rate.
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Lincoln, Nebraska
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a0158 (tie)(previously: 152)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a019,701
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a087%
Learn more about Nebraska at Huskers Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Eugene, Oregon
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a0110 (previously: 109)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a019,963
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a088%
Learn more about Oregon at Ducks Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Iowa City, Iowa
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a0102 (tie) (previously 98)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a022,378
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a084%
Learn more about Iowa at Hawkeyes Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Bloomington, Indiana
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a073 (same as before)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a038,093
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a078%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>East Lansing, Michigan
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a064 (tie) (previously: 63)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a041,234
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a085%
Learn more about MSU at Spartans Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Minneapolis, Minnesota
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a059 (tie) (previously: 54)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a042,303
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a080%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>University Park, Pennsylvania
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a059 (tie)(previously: 63)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a042,619
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a061%
Learn more about Penn State at Nittany Lions Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>West Lafayette, Indiana
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a046 (tie) (previously: 46)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a044,819
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a050%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Seattle, Washington
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a042 (tie) (previously 46)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a040,754
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a039%
Learn more about UW at UW Huskies Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>College Park, Maryland
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a042 (tie) (previously 44)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a031,133
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a045%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>New Brunswick\/Piscataway, New Jersey
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a042 (tie) (previously 41)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a037,985
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a041%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Columbus, Ohio
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a041 (previously 41)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a046,815
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a061%
Big Ten rank:<\/strong> Up from No. 9
Learn more about Ohio State at Buckeyes Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Madison, Wisconsin
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a036 (tie) (previously: 39)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a039,083
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a045%
Learn more about Wisconsin at Badgers Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Champaign, Illinois
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a036 (previously 33)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a037,140
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a042%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Los Angeles, California
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a028 (previously 27)
Total enrollment fall 2024 :<\/strong>\u00a020,630
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a010%
Learn more about the Trojans at USC Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Ann Arbor, Michigan
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a020 (tie) (previously 21)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a034,454
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a016%
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Los Angeles (Westwood), California
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a017 (tie) (previously 15)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a033,471
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a09%
Learn more about the Bruins at UCLA Wire<\/a>.<\/em>
Location:\u00a0<\/strong>Evanston, Illinois
U.S. News rank:<\/strong>\u00a07 (tie) (previously: 6)
Total enrollment fall 2024:<\/strong>\u00a09,060
Acceptance rate:<\/strong>\u00a08% (previously 7%)
There isn’t much change to the 2024 rankings<\/a>, but some schools did move, and certainly there were some changes to some of the acceptance rates.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten prides itself on being the premier academic conference while also having a strong athletic foundation across all of the major sports. No other conference can boast high-profile academics and athletics the way the Big Ten can. Seventeen of the 18 member institutions are members of the Association of American Universities, an organization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}