Ten years is a long time in terms of college. That is 2 full recruiting cycles if you include redshirts. In real terms, its more like 3 or 3.5 given that transfers, JUCO and early graduation happens.

To look at the last 10 years for a football team or a basketball team and see continued success is credit to the entire school: the coaches, the players, the athletic department and the athletic boosters. To see success in both football and basketball, well that is where schools become legendary.

According to the NCAA, who looked at the past 10 years [2007-2016 football seasons and 2007-08 through 2016-17 basketball seasons] and used a criteria to determine the the ten best schools in both football and basketball.

Here’s the criteria we used to formulate (and order) this list: Combined overall winning percentage. This isn’t a catch-all stat. If it was, basketball records would be far more important than football because of the number of games. We took that into account. Postseason winning percentage National championships Combined Final Four/BCS bowl game/College Football Playoff appearances Total All-Americans. This tilts the overall winning percentage scales a bit, because schools that are more successful in football have the advantage.

West Virginia made the top ten. Here is what they had to say about the Mountaineers.

West Virginia Mountaineers

Combined overall winning percentage: .656

Postseason winning percentage: .536

National championships: 0

0 Final Four/BCS bowl game/College Football Playoff appearances: 3

Consensus All-Americans: 1

In the first half of the past decade, West Virginia won nine or more football games every season, mostly after the Rich Rodriguez era. The Mountaineers play an entertaining, high-octane brand of football. They were ahead of the curve with their version of the spread offense. The ‘Eers went 2-0 in major bowl games (2008 Fiesta Bowl, 2012 Orange Bowl) and set a record for points in the latter by dropping 70 on Clemson.

In hoops, Bob Huggins has established a culture in Morgantown, summarized in two simple words: Press Virginia. The Mountaineers have won 25 or more games in the past three seasons and reached the Final Four in 2010. Like Cincinnati, West Virginia doesn’t boast the national championship hardware of some of these other schools. But the Mountaineers have been mighty impressive in the past 10 years.

The Top Ten