Athletics: Cajuns 13th nationally in pentathlam

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, July 23, 2017

There was some good, some bad and plenty in between for the UL Ragin’ Cajuns in the 2016-17 school year.

In the end, the winning percentages of the department’s five primary sports were almost identical to the previous school year.

Each year, diehard Ragin’ Cajun fan Glen Raggio compiled a spreadsheet of numbers he calls the Pentathlam, which simply compared the winning percentages of all the Division I schools in the sports of football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball.

A year ago, the Cajuns teams won 68.5 percent of their games in those five sports to finish tied for 13th with Ohio State. This time around, UL is again in the No. 13 spot after winning 68.62 percent of the games.

The Cajuns have basically remained steady with a 12th-place finish in 2015 after the best season ever of No. 3 overall in 2014.

There were no other Sun Belt schools in the top 20 and the only other Louisiana school in the top 20 this season was LSU at No. 20 at 63.89.

Louisiana Tech was No. 23 with a winning percentage of 63.27.

The only UL team to not post a winning record was the football team at 6-7. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams reached  the 20-win plateau, the baseball team won 35 games and the softball team was 47-8.

LSU was hampered some by the 10-21 record of its men’s basketball program.

The next highest Sun Belt team was Texas State at No. 54 (56.63), followed by South Alabama at No. 66 (55.21) and Troy at No. 71 (54.69). No other Sun Belt school was in the top 100.

The next best state school was McNeese State in the 55th spot (56.61), followed by Nicholls State at 92 (51.35). No other state school was in the top 100.

Nationally, the Florida State Seminoles rose from four a year ago to the top spot with a combined winning percentage of 76.78, while Louisville remained in the second spot (73.98).

Louisville also happens to be No. 1 overall over Raggio’s entire 13-year sample size.

The Florida Gators dropped slightly from No. 1 to No. 3 at 73.52. The only newcomers to the top 10 were Baylor, moving up from 11th to fourth (72.64), and Minnesota, going from outside the top 30 all the way to No. 6 (71.43).

Raggio also tabulated a second chart he calls the Septathlam, which adds women’s soccer and volleyball to the table. The Cajuns were No. 23 on that chart (62.29). LSU dropped to 43rd on that list, while Florida State ruled the roost at No. 1 with those two extra sports added as well, followed closely by Florida in second.

PENTATHLAM

(Total winning percentage in the 5 sports of football, basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball in the 2016-17 school year.)

1. Florida State 76.78

2. Louisville 73.98

3. Florida 73.52

4. Baylor 72.64

5. Michigan 72.59

6. Minnesota 71.43

7. Oregon 70.15

8. Arizona 69.85

9. North Carolina 69.71

10. Kentucky 68.93

11. BYU 68.88

12. Oklahoma 68.63

13. Louisiana 68.62

14. UCLA 68.34

15. Texas A&M 66.50

16. James Madison 64.92

17. Washington 64.62

18. Auburn 64.50

19. South Carolina 64.00

20. LSU 63.89

21. New Mexico St. 63.64

22. Tennessee 63.64

23. Louisiana Tech 63.27

24. Ohio 63.08

25. Oregon State 62.89

OTHER SCHOOLS OF INTEREST

30. Notre Dame 61.22

37. Ole Miss 60.10

38. Ohio State 59.68

40. Southern Miss 59.18

41. Alabama 59.09

54. Texas State 56.63

55. McNeese State 56.61

60. Texas 56.06

66. South Alabama 55.21

71. Troy 54.69

92. Nicholls State 51.35

112. Southeastern, La. 48.92

115. Georgia State 48.69

123. Grambling 46.29

127. Southern U. 45.81

158. Northwestern St. 38.89

165. Appalachian St. 36.16

168. UL Monroe 33.16

Septathlam

(Total winning percentage of 7 sports — football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and women’s soccer — for the 2016-17 school year.)

1. Florida State 77.39

2. Florida 75.37

3. Minnesota 74.30

4. North Carolina 72.90

5. BYU 72.80

6. Michigan 71.66

7. Baylor 70.87

8. UCLA 70.36

9. Louisville 68.33

10. Oregon 68.00

11. Kentucky 67.73

12. Arizona 66.67

13. Texas A&M 66.40

14. Oklahoma 66.14

15. South Carolina 66.01

16. Stanford 65.83

17. Washington 65.32

18. Notre Dame 63.52

19. James Madison 63.37

20. Auburn 63.14

21. Coastal Carolina 62.81

22. New Mexico State 62.71

23. Louisiana 62.29

24. Utah 62.28

25. Central Florida 61.89

OTHER SCHOOLS OF INTEREST

30. Southern Miss 61.25

32. Ohio State 60.25

36. Alabama 59.35

39. Texas 59.11

43. LSU 58.56

45. Ole Miss 58.23

56. Texas State 56.56

59. South Alabama 56.38

82. McNeese State 52.20

98. Troy 50.41

118. Nicholls State 47.19

130. Southeastern, La. 44.87

134. Southern U. 44.00

141. Grambling 41.78

145. Northwestern State 40.00

157. UL Monroe 32.92

13-year Pentathlam

(Total winning percentage of 5 sports — football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball — over the past 13 seasons.)

1. Louisville 71.07

2. Florida 70.91

3. Florida State 69.61

4. Oklahoma 69.15

5. LSU 68.33

6. Texas A&M 67.91

7. North Carolina 67.53

8. Tennessee 67.37

9. Texas 67.22

10. Notre Dame 67.18

11. Ohio State 66.60

12. Baylor 66.49

13. Arizona State 66.45

14. UCLA 65.67

15. Michigan 65.45

16. BYU 65.09

17. Stanford 64.71

18. Alabama 64.32

19. Arizona 63.95

20. Louisiana 63.09

21. Connecticut 63.03

22. Georgia 61.94

23. Kentucky 61.90

24. Fresno State 60.80

25. California 60.73

OTHER TEAMS OF INTEREST

52. Ole Miss 55.16

69. Southern Miss 52.67

72. Texas State 52.58

77. Louisiana Tech 52.04

80. McNeese State 51.53

81. Troy 51.52

102. Northwestern State 48.76

104. Southern U. 48.53

109. Southeastern, La. 48.23

136. UL Monroe 41.76

138. Nicholls State 40.88