Potential student-athletes have so much more to consider when choosing what college to attend than the average college student, which inspired Stack.com, a nutrition and fitness website, to form a ranking of the top 50 colleges catered to student-athletes.

Stack partnered with Niche, a popular college ranking service, and together the formed a hierarchy of the top 50 schools for student-athletes in the NCAA. Here’s an excerpt from Stack’s release of the rankings:

“The rankings … reflect averages of Niche’s academic and athletic grades for each school. Their academic grade is based on factors such as acceptance rate, SAT/ACT scores, graduation rate and research expenditures. Their athletic grade takes into consideration student opinions, NCAA championships, sports attendance and percentage of students playing varsity sports.”

Of the 50 schools listed, two of the top 4 belong to the SEC as well as three of the top 11. However, the schools atop these rankings are not only the large, state schools we’ve grown accustomed to seeing dominate the college football and men’s basketball landscapes. The SEC schools near the top of this list share that space with the likes of the Ivy League and other prestigious institutions, indicating the conference has much more to boast about than just football.

Here’s a rundown of the SEC schools ranked in the top 50 among colleges best suited for student-athletes:

  • Florida: No. 1
  • Alabama: No. 4
  • Vanderbilt: No. 11
  • LSU: No. 17
  • South Carolina: No. 23
  • Georgia: No. 27
  • Tennessee: No. 32
  • Texas A&M: No. 34
  • Auburn: No. 37
  • Kentucky: No. 38

Other notables on the top 50 list:

  • Stanford: No. 2
  • Duke: No. 3
  • Notre Dame: No. 5
  • USC: No. 6
  • UCLA: No. 7
  • Texas: No. 8
  • Ohio State: No. 9
  • Michigan: No. 10
  • MIT: No. 13
  • Harvard: No. 14
  • Yale: No. 15
  • Northwestern: No. 25
  • Naval Academy: No. 39
  • Williams College No. 46
  • Oklahoma: No. 47
  • Middlebury College: No. 50

Stack and Niche also created a ranking of the top 10 football schools in the NCAA, not just based on success on the field but instead based on the entire student-athlete experience in the football program at the schools in question. As Stack puts it:

“To get a complete picture of the schools that provide the best overall experience for football players, we also looked at academics, fan interest, bowl game success and alumni who have gone on to the NFL.”

With that in mind, here’s the list of the top 10 football schools in the nation, which features three schools from the SEC.

  • Ohio State: No. 1
  • USC: No. 2
  • Florida: No. 3
  • Alabama: No. 4
  • LSU: No. 5
  • Oklahoma: No. 6
  • Florida State: No. 7
  • Miami: No. 8
  • Texas: No. 9
  • Michigan: No. 10