Safety School: noun -- 1) a college or university applied to that is sure to accept the applicant, in case the applicant is rejected by all other schools applied to. 2) Syracuse University.
US News and World Report's 2012 Best Colleges report was released today and it only had good news for the my dear old alma mater, as UConn surged through the rankings, landing at number 58 overall, which was good enough to make it one of the top 20 public universities in the country. UConn was the 27th best public school last year, and as far as I know this is the highest they have ever been ranked.
Knowing that Syracuse, our neighbors to the Northwest have occasionally turned to safety school jokes and academic derision when they failed to matchup with UConn on the athletic field I scrolled to the top of the rankings to see just how much taunting we might be in for this year. However, when I got to the top spot I was surprised to see Harvard and Princeton, but not the Orange. I scrolled down further and further, through the teens, the 20s and so on, but could not find them. No, I started to think to myself, could it be? Could UConn have stolen the last online-trolling liferaft of the desparate Syracuse fan? And then I saw it... gleaming in the midday sun, Syracuse University. Number 62. It was beautiful.
Pittsburgh tied UConn at 58, the highest score for any Big East football program. Notre Dame checked in at 19 and Georgetown was 22, however smaller schools like Villanova are not ranked in the National University category so they didn't chart.
Also of note, the State University of New Jersey checked in at 68. Eat our dust.