Golfweek 2025 college coaches survey: Which ranking system do coaches prefer?

The Golfweek College Golf Coaches Survey is back!

For some time, Lance Ringler would survey college golf coaches about the happenings in college golf and publish the results. It has been a few years, but that changed last month. Ringler and Cameron Jourdan gathered emails and sent questionnaires to every Division I men's and women's college golf coach, asking four questions about the current landscape of college golf.

All answers were collected anonymously, meaning Golfweek has no idea how a coach answered the questions, nor were any coaches directed to answer questions a certain way. This survey was done to gauge coaches on what they thought about the state of college golf.

Golfweek will release the results of the survey over the course of this week. On Tuesday, the results of the first question were released: do coaches prefer match play or stroke play to determine a champion? And on Wednesday, coaches answered whether they preferred the national championship to stay in one location or rotate and travel.

In the third part of our College Golf Coaching Survey, we asked which ranking system coaches preferred for college golf. Coaches were asked to pick between the NCAA golf rankings (Mark Broadie rankings), the old Golfstat rankings or the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Here are the results:

Men's coaches results

Golfstat: 55 (36.2%)

Golfweek/Sagarin: 49 (32.2%)

NCAA golf ranking: 48 (31.6%)

The results: Not a lot of separation from the men's coaches on their preference. Golfstat is the favorite, and often comes up in conversation as something coaches wish they could go back to, but the NCAA golf ranking has grown on some coaches since it was introduced in the 2023-24 season. However, it's also behind the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking, which was never used officially by the NCAA but was a favorite among coaches.

Women's coaches results

Golfstat: 39 (39.8%)

NCAA golf ranking: 32 (32.7)

Golfweek/Sagarin: 27 (27.6)

The results: Similar to the first two surveys, the women's coaches didn't have as many responses as the men, but the favorite is still Golfstat by a slightly wider percentage. The NCAA golf ranking is above the Golfweek/Sagarin for the women, but based off the survey results of those coaches who responded, Golfstat was their favorite and preferred ranking system.

Editor's note: If you are a Division I college golf coach and didn't receive a survey, please email Lance Ringler (lringler@golfweek.com) or Cameron Jourdan (@cjourdan@golfweek.com).