Week 0 rankings: which college football schools actually lead in deep tech

Week 0 rankings: which college football schools actually lead in deep tech research

TL;DR

Which school ranks first in deep tech research among the Power Four and Notre Dame?
Stanford takes the top spot with a perfect 100 out of 100, built on an unusual combination of AI, semiconductor, robotics, and biotech research tied directly into the Silicon Valley economy.

Which conference has the strongest deep tech research base overall?
The Big Ten leads with an average score of 84.7 across 18 schools and eight programs scoring 90 or higher, more than any other conference.

Does this ranking use US News rankings or general academic reputation?
No. The model excludes US News rankings, undergraduate selectivity, and reputation entirely, and scores schools on federal R&D spending, patents, commercialization output, and research infrastructure instead.

What matters more in this model, research spending or commercialization?
Commercialization and deep tech depth combine for 40 of the 100 points, more than raw research spending, which is why several schools with smaller budgets still outscore bigger-spending programs.

Does a big football brand or high tuition guarantee a strong deep tech score?
No. Several private schools with well-known football programs and some of the highest tuition rates in the country land in the bottom third of this ranking because their research budgets are a fraction of the biggest public research programs.

Which school scored lowest among the 68 programs measured?
TCU finished last with a score of 43, a result driven mostly by its FY2024 research budget of roughly $28 million, small compared to programs spending well over $1 billion.

Does endowment size factor into the score at all?
No. Endowment is intentionally left out of the 100-point model because a large endowment does not automatically translate into active semiconductor, biotech, or aerospace research spending.

Why deep tech and not just engineering rankings

Week 0 means college football is back, and along with it comes the annual wave of preseason power rankings. Most of those rankings are built on recruiting classes and returning starters. This one is built on something else entirely: which of these schools are actually doing the research that drives the next generation of chips, AI systems, aerospace platforms, and biotech.

The schools included here are the Power Four conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC) plus Notre Dame, 68 programs in total. Some of the results land exactly where you would expect. Stanford, Michigan, and Berkeley at the top will not shock anyone who follows research funding. Others will. A handful of schools with modest football brands quietly run some of the country’s most productive commercialization engines, while a few big football names post surprisingly average research numbers once reputation is stripped out of the equation.

How the scoring actually works

This is a 100-point model built from eight weighted categories. The primary data source is the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey for FY2024 (the most current available), the federal government’s annual census of university research spending. Patent data comes from the National Academy of Inventors’ 2025 rankings, and commercialization figures draw on AUTM licensing survey methodology along with each university’s own technology transfer disclosures.

The eight categories:

Research scale, 15 points: total R&D expenditures and federal research intensity, scored primarily off NSF HERD data.
Deep tech depth, 20 points: breadth and strength across AI, semiconductors, quantum, aerospace, robotics, biotech, energy, materials, and advanced manufacturing.
Commercialization, 20 points: products launched, licenses executed, invention disclosures, and evidence that research is actually reaching the market.
Patents and IP, 10 points: utility patents and sustained patent productivity.
Ventures and spinouts, 10 points: university-founded companies, startup formation, and venture funding tied to campus research.
Major research infrastructure, 10 points: national labs, fabs, reactors, test facilities, and supercomputing centers.
Industry and federal integration, 10 points: substantive research relationships with agencies like DoD, DOE, NASA, NIH, and NSF, not just physical proximity to them.
Innovation ecosystem, 5 points: research parks, incubators, and how deeply a university is embedded in its surrounding tech cluster.

Endowment was tracked as background data but never entered the score. A school can sit on billions in endowment funds without spending meaningfully on active R&D, and NSF HERD data reflects what institutions actually spend, which matters more here than what they hold.

One guardrail worth calling out: university systems that report patents at the system level, like the University of California and University of Texas systems, were not credited entirely to their flagship campuses. Berkeley and UCLA were not simply handed all 571 UC system patents, and UT Austin did not absorb the full 229 attributed to the UT system.

The programs everyone expected to see at the top

Stanford’s No. 1 finish comes from genuine breadth. The university scored a perfect 100 by combining elite research across AI, chips, robotics, and biotech with direct commercial ties to companies like NVIDIA and Google, sitting inside the Silicon Valley ecosystem rather than near it.

Michigan came in at No. 2 with $2.11 billion in FY2024 R&D spending, the highest raw dollar figure of any school in the dataset. Its FY2025 numbers back up the ranking: 673 inventions, 31 startups, and $633 million raised by university-linked startups in a single year.

Berkeley rounds out the traditional top tier with a commercialization record that goes well beyond “located near Silicon Valley.” The university reports more than 310 IP-based startups that have collectively attracted over $31.3 billion in venture funding, a number that stands on its own regardless of geography.

The surprises, good and bad

Several mid-major research budgets punch well above their weight once commercialization and specialization get counted properly.

NC State is a good example. Its FY2024 R&D spend of $717 million is modest next to the billion-dollar programs above it, but 214 commercialization agreements and 14 startups in FY2025, plus a long-term record of 265-plus spinoffs and 2,500-plus patents, earn it a strong No. 22 finish, ahead of several schools spending far more.

UCF may be the most underrated program in the entire dataset. Its CREOL center is a legitimate global leader in optics and photonics, covering lasers, biophotonics, and quantum photonics, and the school logged 67 US utility patents in 2025, tied for 34th nationally among all US universities. That specialization carries UCF to No. 30 despite a research budget well under half a billion dollars.

Florida State shows how a single piece of infrastructure can outweigh a school’s overall research size. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is a 500,000-plus-square-foot, NSF-funded facility spanning FSU, the University of Florida, and Los Alamos, with more than 500 in-house researchers and over 10,000 published papers to its name. That single asset earns FSU infrastructure credit that its overall R&D ranking alone would never suggest.

Georgia belongs in this group too. This is not primarily an ag-school story. UGA has generated more than 1,200 research-derived products and over 200 companies, and AUTM’s most recent survey placed it No. 1 nationally for new commercial products for the fourth consecutive year, with 58 new products in FY2025 alone. That record pushes it to No. 28 with a score of 82, on a research budget smaller than many of the schools it passed.

The disappointing surprises tend to cluster among private schools with strong academic reputations and some of the highest tuition in the country. Wake Forest charges close to $69,000 a year in tuition alone, on par with the country’s most selective research universities, yet its FY2024 R&D spend of $345 million and a score of 63 land it in the bottom third of the entire dataset. Boston College tells a similar story: tuition above $72,000 a year, a respected academic brand, and a FY2024 research budget of just $96 million, good for a score of 48 and a No. 66 finish. SMU sits right beside it at No. 67, with a research budget of only $63 million despite a comparable price tag and reputation. None of these are bad schools. They simply aren’t built around the kind of large-scale, federally funded research infrastructure that drives this particular ranking, and a high price tag or a respected name doesn’t change that.

On the conference side, the biggest drag on any single average comes from that same cluster. Boston College, SMU, Louisville, and Syracuse pull the ACC’s average down even as Stanford, Berkeley, and Georgia Tech push its ceiling higher than any other conference in the country.

Master ranking: all 68 schools

Rank	School	Conference	Score	FY24 R&D	Primary deep tech strengths
1	Stanford	ACC	100	$1.642B	AI, chips, robotics, biotech, quantum, energy, aerospace
2	Michigan	Big Ten	99	$2.111B	Robotics, autonomy, batteries, chips, AI, biotech, manufacturing
3	Texas	SEC	97	$1.144B	Semiconductors, AI, quantum, robotics, energy, aerospace
4	California-Berkeley	ACC	97	$1.127B	AI, chips, quantum, nuclear, robotics, climate, materials
5	Purdue	Big Ten	96	$932M	Semiconductors, hypersonics, aerospace, nuclear, manufacturing
6	Wisconsin	Big Ten	95	$1.933B	Biotech, nuclear, materials, computing, quantum, medtech
7	Washington	Big Ten	95	$1.691B	AI, biotech, computing, quantum, robotics, medicine
8	Maryland	Big Ten	95	$1.540B	Quantum, AI, cybersecurity, autonomy, aerospace
9	Georgia Tech	ACC	95	$1.529B	Aerospace, robotics, AI, chips, defense, materials, manufacturing
10	Florida	SEC	95	$1.272B	Semiconductors, AI, biotech, medtech, agriculture, materials
11	UCLA	Big Ten	94	$1.896B	AI, biotech, chips, quantum, nanotech, aerospace
12	Northwestern	Big Ten	93	$1.258B	Nanotech, advanced materials, quantum, biotech, AI
13	Arizona State	Big 12	92	$1.003B	Semiconductors, AI, advanced manufacturing, energy, space
14	Texas A&M	SEC	91	$1.394B	Hypersonics, nuclear, aerospace, robotics, energy, biotech
15	Illinois	Big Ten	91	$907M	Semiconductors, quantum, AI, computing, photonics, materials
16	Ohio State	Big Ten	90	$1.582B	Chips, aerospace, manufacturing, batteries, AI, materials
17	Pittsburgh	ACC	89	$1.505B	Biotech, biomedical engineering, AI, materials, robotics-adjacent
18	North Carolina	ACC	88	$1.599B	Biotech, gene therapy, pharma, computational biology
19	Duke	ACC	88	$1.581B	Quantum, biotech, gene editing, AI, photonics, medtech
20	Vanderbilt	SEC	88	$1.328B	Biomedical engineering, robotics, biotech, AI, medtech
21	Colorado	Big 12	88	$718M	Quantum, aerospace, climate, photonics, space science
22	NC State	ACC	88	$717M	Wide-bandgap semiconductors, nuclear, materials, manufacturing, agtech
23	Minnesota	Big Ten	87	$1.410B	Medtech, biotech, robotics, materials, computing
24	USC	Big Ten	87	$1.264B	AI, aerospace, robotics, computing, quantum, biotech
25	Utah	Big 12	85	$789M	Biotech, medical devices, AI, computing, robotics
26	Arizona	Big 12	84	$1.012B	Optics, astronomy, space, photonics, quantum, bioscience
27	Penn State	Big Ten	82	$1.303B	Materials, nuclear, aerospace, additive manufacturing, defense
28	Georgia	SEC	82	$628M	Ag biotech, genomics, infectious disease, materials, environmental tech
29	Virginia Tech	ACC	80	$657M	Autonomy, robotics, aerospace, wireless, power, manufacturing
30	UCF	Big 12	79	$285M	Optics, photonics, lasers, space, defense, simulation
31	Michigan State	Big Ten	78	$932M	Nuclear physics, accelerators, isotopes, materials, agtech
32	Rutgers	Big Ten	78	$837M	Pharma, biotech, materials, wireless, biomedical engineering
33	Virginia	ACC	77	$814M	Biotech, AI, medtech, materials, aerospace, national security
34	Tennessee	SEC	76	$387M	Nuclear, supercomputing, quantum, materials, advanced manufacturing
35	Iowa State	Big 12	75	$462M	Materials, advanced manufacturing, agtech, bioenergy, computing
36	Houston	Big 12	75	$239M	Energy, hydrogen, carbon management, materials, space
37	Cincinnati	Big 12	73	$740M	Aerospace, additive manufacturing, materials, biotech
38	Missouri	SEC	73	$509M	Nuclear, radiopharma, biotech, materials, agriculture
39	Notre Dame	Independent	71	$346M	Semiconductors, nanotech, materials, bioengineering, AI
40	Clemson	ACC	71	$339M	Automotive, advanced manufacturing, materials, mobility, energy
41	Indiana	Big Ten	70	$897M	Biosciences, genomics, AI, cybersecurity, nanoscience
42	Iowa	Big Ten	70	$703M	Biomedical imaging, medtech, bioscience, AI
43	Kentucky	SEC	70	$528M	Batteries, materials, manufacturing, biotech
44	Auburn	SEC	70	$394M	Additive manufacturing, aerospace, materials, automotive
45	Nebraska	Big Ten	69	$657M	Agtech, materials, bioscience, manufacturing
46	Kansas	Big 12	68	$546M	Pharma, drug discovery, bioscience, materials
47	Florida State	ACC	68	$461M	High-field magnets, superconductors, materials, energy
48	South Carolina	SEC	68	$277M	Advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, materials, energy
49	Oklahoma	SEC	67	$474M	Radar, weather tech, aerospace, energy, AI
50	Kansas State	Big 12	67	$265M	Biosecurity, animal health, food science, agtech
51	Miami	ACC	66	$559M	Medtech, biotech, marine tech, AI, climate
52	LSU	SEC	66	$431M	Energy, carbon management, materials, coastal engineering
53	Arkansas	SEC	66	$231M	Power electronics, semiconductors, logistics, ag and food tech
54	Mississippi State	SEC	65	$342M	UAS, aerospace, autonomy, manufacturing, agriculture
55	Wake Forest	ACC	63	$345M	Regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, biotech, medtech
56	West Virginia	Big 12	62	$259M	Energy, carbon capture, mining technology, robotics
57	Texas Tech	Big 12	62	$257M	Pulsed power, wind, energy, materials, agriculture
58	Alabama	SEC	62	$221M	Automotive, materials, batteries, manufacturing
59	Oklahoma State	Big 12	60	$254M	Drones, autonomy, aerospace, energy, agriculture
60	BYU	Big 12	58	$158M	AI, robotics, computing, aerospace, medical devices
61	Baylor	Big 12	58	$135M	Biomedical science, materials, computing, health tech
62	Ole Miss	SEC	57	$190M	Pharmaceuticals, natural products, chemistry, materials
63	Louisville	ACC	56	$225M	Additive manufacturing, medtech, logistics, advanced manufacturing
64	Syracuse	ACC	56	$199M	Radar, RF, defense electronics, autonomy, cybersecurity
65	Oregon	Big Ten	55	$175M	Optics, materials, neuroscience, semiconductor-adjacent science
66	Boston College	ACC	48	$96M	Quantum materials, nanoscience, energy materials, engineering
67	SMU	ACC	47	$63M	Quantum photonics, computing, defense, 3D printing
68	TCU	Big 12	43	$28M	Health technology, materials, data science, energy

How the conferences stack up

Conference	Schools	Avg. score	Schools scoring 90+	Character
Big Ten	18	84.7	8	Deepest overall research bench
ACC	17	75.1	3	Highest ceiling, driven by Stanford, Berkeley, and Georgia Tech
SEC	16	74.6	3	Strongest hard-tech and industrial mix
Big 12	16	70.6	1	Specialist conference: chips, quantum, optics, energy, space
Notre Dame	1	71	0	Solid broad research and commercialization program

The Big Ten wins this comparison by a wide margin. Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Washington, Maryland, UCLA, Northwestern, and Ohio State all clear 90 points before you even get to Minnesota, USC, or Penn State further down the list.

The ACC’s ceiling is the highest of any conference thanks to Stanford, Berkeley, and Georgia Tech, backed up by Pitt, UNC, Duke, and NC State. Its average gets pulled down hard by Boston College, SMU, Louisville, and Syracuse, all of which run legitimate but comparatively small research operations.

The SEC carries more hard-tech weight than a software-first definition of “tech” gives it credit for. Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri, and Auburn combine for serious capability across semiconductors, nuclear, aerospace, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing.

The Big 12 is the group’s specialist conference. Arizona State owns chips, Colorado owns quantum, Arizona owns optics and space science, Utah leads in biotech, UCF leads in photonics, Houston covers energy and space, Iowa State runs Ames National Laboratory, and Kansas State anchors biosecurity research. None of those programs top the overall list, but each holds a genuinely important national niche.

Where does the STEM Search Group team land?

Every team building a ranking like this has skin in the game, and STEM Search Group is no exception. Here is how the roster shakes out, alma maters and true colors included.

Blake Coleman, Co-Founder: University of Georgia. He will tell you he bleeds red and black, but every basketball season the Kentucky Wildcat gear comes out of the closet. That is the team he grew up on, and old habits die hard.
Penn Sanders, Co-Founder: Clemson University. Studied materials science on campus, still bleeds orange, no divided loyalties to speak of. The only member of this team without an identity crisis.
Jason Mitchell, VP of Customer Success: University of South Carolina. Except Jason is a Tennessee Vol through and through, which makes for some interesting conversations around the office every fall.
Sam Sanders, Head of Research & Innovation: Clemson University. A physics background from Clemson, but a proud South Carolina Gamecock at heart. The household rivalry writes itself.

Half this team cannot agree on who they are rooting for on a given Saturday, and that is exactly the kind of chaos that makes Week 0 worth the wait.

Sources

Recruiting redefined; built for high-tech,
high-growth teams

Hire Talent

Job Board

Stream of Consciousness