In today's competitive world of college athletics, it is becoming increasingly harder to compete in both football and men's basketball. In the world of NIL and Transfer Portal, teams can win at the highest level in either sport, but it is hard to do both at the same time. Indiana in football is a prime example. After being down for decades, they went 16-0 to win the National Title this past season. Indiana is mostly known for its basketball team, which has struggled for decades to maintain any level of success. It is very rare to have a college team elite at both football and men’s basketball.
Looking at the final AP top 25 rankings during the College Football season and the latest basketball AP top 25, you see 5 teams that are currently ranked in both. Michigan is ranked 1st in basketball and finished 21st in football. They are currently 24-1 and are having a rebirth in basketball under Head Coach Dusty May. Michigan also won a football title 3 years ago, so they are a program achieving success at the highest levels.
Then, Texas Tech is also a good athletic department. They won the Big 12 in football this past season in football and are currently ranked 14th in basketball. The basketball team won a big game against Arizona on Saturday. Texas Tech's success in football is a new phenomenon, though, because in the previous seasons, they struggled.
The other teams included in both top 25s are Alabama (9th in football, and 25th in basketball), Virginia (16th in football, and 13th in basketball), and Houston (22nd in football, and 2nd in basketball. The only consistent winner in both sports has been Alabama. Under basketball, Nate Oats has done a great job making Alabama a consistent winner. Alabama in football maintained great success under the previous Head Coach, Nick Saban. Alabama's latest head coach, Kalen DeBoer, has not won at a high level, but he has kept them as a top 25 team.
The gold standard of success in football and men's basketball was Florida in the mid-2000s. They won two titles in football and basketball under football coach Urban Meyer and basketball head coach Billy Donovan. In the 2006 season, they won the football National Championship and the men's basketball National Championship.
This is the only time a team has ever done this in college athletics. It is fair to say it probably will never happen again. Looking at Florida today, basketball just won a National Championship last year in basketball, but they have not been able to maintain any success in football since Urban Meyer stepped down.
It is extremely hard to be good at both college football and men's basketball. Is it possible? Yes, as I outlined several programs above. But as I mentioned above, most of the programs I talked about have had more recent success at both, and rarely have maintained at a high level at both sports. It is extremely difficult to be able to compete at the highest level in both sports.