Which SEC athletic department is the best?

Thanks to Yahoo! Sports Pat Forde, we now know. Forde released his annual rankings of Division 1 athletic departments.

The Stanford Cardinal finished ranked No. 1 in Forde’s rankings. However, the highest ranked SEC athletic department is the Florida Gators at No. 2, right behind Stanford. Florida is the only SEC athletic department to be ranked in the top 10. The next highest is Texas A&M at No. 12.

Below is Yahoo!’s explanation of the rankings:

The annual Power Five conference athletic department rankings are here. To recap the scoring: This is a five-year average of the national Learfield Cup rankings for all 64 teams in the Power Five conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, Southeastern), plus Notre Dame. So the applicable data comes from the 2014-15 academic year through 2018-19.

Here are Yahoo! Sports full rankings for SEC athletic departments:

2. Florida Gators
12. Texas A&M Aggies
13. Georgia Bulldogs
16. Kentucky Wildcats
18. LSU Tigers
20. Arkansas Razorbacks
27. Alabama Crimson Tide
28. South Carolina Gamecocks
30. Auburn Tigers
32. Tennessee Volunteers
37. Missouri Tigers
44. Mississippi State Bulldogs
49. Ole Miss Rebels
52. Vanderbilt Commodores