Sports Illustrated has rankings for nearly every sport, but for the first time in five years it took on the challenge of ranking America's best sports colleges in its latest issue.

In the magazine's rankings of all 324 Division I athletic programs, it placed Arizona as No. 18.

Texas was picked as the No. 1 sport college, followed closely by Stanford, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina.

According to the rankings, UA is the third-best school in the Pacific 10 Conference, behind Stanford (2) and UCLA (11). The Bruins were donned as the magazines best in 1997. Oregon (20), Southern California (21) and Arizona State (25) round out the rest of the Pac-10's best. Oregon State was the conference's worst at No. 110.

SI gave Arizona the No. 18 ranking because of the school having four top-five women's teams (golf, softball, volleyball and cross country) and for its strong disabled program. Plus, it listed Annika Sorenstam and Trevor Hoffman as the two big alums of the university.

The magazine combined a variety of factors in determining the rankings, which included the performance of the big five sports programs (baseball, football, hockey and men's and women's volleyball) and position in the 2001-2002 Sears Cup NCAA all-sports standings. UA finished No. 9 last year.

It also included the number of varsity, club and intramural sports, range of recreational facilities and whether or not the school held spirit-boosting events like Midnight Madness.