4 colleges ranked by the research strength of their Parks, Recreation & Fitness faculty — a 0–100 blend of bibliometric quality, top-decile stars, federal R&D funding, and academic notability. Research output, not teaching quality. Reference corpus: 280 faculty. Data as of 2026-07-02.
| # | College | Research Strength | Coverage | Median h | FY24 R&D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana University Bloomington Regional · #73 5 matched faculty; median h-index 43; led by Donetta Cothran (h-index 31). | 60 | C | 43 | — |
| 2 | University of Iowa Regional · #98 15 matched faculty; median h-index 26; led by Andrea Babcock (h-index 1). | 59 | C | 26 | — |
| 3 | College of William & Mary Public Ivy · #54 8 matched faculty; median h-index 10; led by Zach Conrad (h-index 25). | 36 | B | 10 | — |
| 4 | Pepperdine University Selective Private · #80 5 matched faculty; median h-index 12; led by Priscilla Gilliam MacRae (h-index 20). | 33 | C | 12 | — |
Research Strength (0–100) blends four components, re-normalized over whichever are available for each college: Quality 45%, Stars 25%, Funding 20%, Notability 10%. Each college's faculty in Parks, Recreation & Fitness are matched to OpenAlex research records; scores use field-relative percentiles across these 192 colleges, not all US institutions. A college needs at least four matched faculty to be ranked.
Research Strength Rankings v1.0 · as of 2026-07-02.