KU’s Big Jay ranks in top 10 of NCAA mascots in national fan survey ahead of tournament
The Kansas men’s basketball team enters the NCAA Tournament after being ranked in the AP Top 10 all season.
KU’s mascot also is ranked in the top 10 as March Madness gets fully underway on Thursday.
Time2play, which calls itself “an independent source of information about online gambling,” asked fans across the nation to rank college basketball mascots.
Big Jay came in at No. 10 in the ranking, which was second-best in the Big 12.
Oregon’s Duck was ranked first, with 3.86 points on a four-point scale. Next up was Michigan State’s Sparty, Georgetown’s Jack the Bulldog, North Carolina’s Ramses and Texas’ Hook ‘Em.
Joe Bruin from UCLA was sixth, followed by Florida’s Albert Gator, Jonathan the Husky from UConn, Louisville’s Louie and Big Jay.
The KU mascot received 3.53 points, just behind Louie (3.54) and Jonathan (3.55).
At the other end of the spectrum, Providence’s Friar Dom was 70th and last in the ranking (1.99 points). Just ahead of Friar Dom was Pistol Pete from New Mexico State and Stanford’s Tree.
Kansas State’s Willie the Wildcat was 65th on the list, registering just 2.40 points.
Here is the methodology of the study from Time2Play: “To determine our ranking, we surveyed 1,490 NCAA basketball fans across all 50 states. We asked them to rate the 70 mascots from the schools whose men’s basketball programs have made the most NCAA tournament appearances.
“Our respondents were 57% male and 43% female. The average age was 38. Note: although Indiana, UNLV, Illinois, and Michigan rank in the top 70 for tournament appearances, they do not have official mascots, and thus were excluded from this list.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 8:59 AM.
