Miami (OH) has long been regarded as the "Cradle of Coaches" among those in the football profession. Notable coaches that have passed through Oxford include legends such as Earl Blaik, Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schmebechler, Jim Tressel, Randy Walker, and the newest inductee, John Harbaugh.
Alright, so there's obviously only one real program that can stake claim to the "Cradle of Coaches" crown, but there's some new research that shows that one school has a legit claim to the top alma mater of successful college coaches. Perhaps we can crown them the "Bassinet of Coaches"?
KTTFAN, a Reddit/CFB poster and overall college football enthusiast, decided to take a look at every college coach that had coached a game dating back to 2000, compile their records, research their alma mater, and figure out which school could stake claim to graduating the most successful college football coaches (undergrad only).
When the dust settled, Cincinnati was the program that stood head and shoulders above the rest with an impressive 84% win percentage (141-27-0 overall) record thanks to the records of Urban Meyer and Dana Bible. Every single one of those wins belongs to Meyer, as Bible went 0-1 as the interim head coach at NC State in the 2012 Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.
Below is a look at the top ten alma maters for college coaches who have coached since 2000, based on win percentage.
Remember, only head coaches who got their undergrad from the school count toward the program's wins. So Baldwin-Wallace picks up wins from Jim Tressel, and Samford gets wins from Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Bowden (since 2000).
Of the entire list, only a handful of programs can boast more than 100 wins. Iowa, the alma mater of Bob Stoops (168 wins) and Bret Bielema (78 wins), leads the way. Followed by Kent State, the alma mater of Nick Saban and Gary Pinkell, and then Alabama which boasts Dabo Swinney, David Cutcliffe, and Mike Riley.
As the author of the research states in the Reddit/CFB comments, he thought the research was pointless at first, but ended up learning a lot from it, and was able to formulate some additional questions as well.
"To be honest, I thought it was pointless when I compiled, it but, like most of these stats, you learn things from what stands out in them. Like, what has Alabama and Iowa done to produce coaches who have coached over 600 game each? Why is Kent State #3 on the list of most games coached? What makes Cincinnati #1 on the list? The pursuit of those answers were interesting to me."
In all actuality, I'm not exactly sure what can be learned from this, but it's interesting nonetheless. Big props to KTFFAN who logged the tedious research.
Take a look at the full thread here.