@twoinanddone, I am not talking about competition by kids for spots/scholarships but competition by teams to win a title. If anything, your argument supports mine. If there are only a limited number of spots/teams, then that surely means that there simply aren’t as many teams competing for the title in a sport, no? And yes, you named a few schools where sports other than football and basketball may be the most popular one (definitely at JHU, but try telling any Syracuse or UMD partisan that you would rather cut their basketball program than their lacrosse program). However, in the vast majority of schools, the Big 2 are the Big 2.