The NC State Wolfpack is by far one of the most all-around talented athletic programs in the ACC, let alone the entire NCAA. While the Pack is not known for being the absolute best at every sport, nearly every single team this season has been in the top 25 of their respective rankings.

The football team, men’s and women’s basketball teams, baseball team, wrestling, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s tennis have all been in the top 25 at one point in their seasons. So why is this never talked about? The best explanation is that other teams in the ACC are known for only a handful of sports, such as UNC-Chapel Hill for basketball or Clemson for football, and that fans only care about hyping the schools up for being great at those sports.

But hardly anyone talks about how great at wrestling NC State has been, the women’s basketball team is rarely discussed in top-tier talents despite being top 10 and baseball is having one of its best seasons, but “bigger” sports schools do not seem to bat an eye. It’s time to give respect to NC State as an all-around beast in the ACC.

Starting with the football team, the team is going to add many talented recruits and is currently the best football recruiting school in North Carolina. Not only this, but the team had a great start to the season and is sending many great players to the NFL such as quarterback Ryan Finley and wide receiver Kelvin Harmon.

In basketball, the men’s team is having great success around coach Keatts and oozes culture. Next season, Keatts is likely going to have a 5-star athlete to work with in Jalen Lecque. The women’s team on the other hand is looking to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament despite battling constant injuries. The women’s team had its best start to a season ever, and was the only Division-1 basketball team, men’s or women’s, in the country to be undefeated for a while.

The baseball team is currently 11-0 which is one of the best starts in school history riding surefire MLB talents, while the softball team is having a good start despite being a relatively young team with a new head coach.

Wrestling is dominating in its matches, men’s and women’s swimming and diving just won the ACC championships and despite not being an NCAA team, the NC State Icepack is going to its first ever national championship.

Only rifle currently has a losing record, and the team’s season is not over yet, lending it a chance to finish with a losing record, which is entirely possible because nearly all of rifle’s losses have come from ranked teams, and the team has usurped ranked teams such as No. 11 Army.

For teams that record a win-loss record, these teams are currently 165-69-7, which is to say NC State teams win 68.4 percent of the time, or a win percentage of .684. This does not count men’s and women’s track, cross country, swimming and diving or golf for NC State. The NC State teams that are included in the percentage include men’s and women’s basketball, football, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, wrestling, rifle, volleyball, gymnastics and men’s and women’s soccer.

If swimming and diving could be included, these numbers would only go up, as the men’s team just captured its fifth straight ACC title, and the women also captured the conference title.

For reference, UNC-Chapel Hill is 149-78-3, good for a winning percentage of .648, in all of the same sports excluding rifle because UNC does not have an NCAA competing rifle team. When you compare UNC’s winning percentage, .648, with NC State’s without rifle, .689, one can see that NC State’s overall combined NCAA record is better than UNC.

Other comparable teams are Clemson and Duke. Clemson does not have a softball, gymnastics, wrestling or rifle NCAA program, and its winning percentage is .598. State’s winning percentage without the aforementioned sports is .586, which is impressive considering Clemson’s football team was undefeated and won the national championship.

Duke does not have a gymnastics or rifle NCAA team, and its winning percentage is .608, while State’s without the same sports is .685, which is much higher.

With overall records, it is clear that NC State is an athletic powerhouse, and the same is true when comparing ACC records. NC State’s overall ACC record is 55-42-4 this season so far, which is a .545 winning percentage.

When comparing UNC to NC State again without rifle, UNC’s winning percentage is .609 while State’s is .570.

Clemson has a .506 ACC record while NC State has a .537 ACC record without rifle, gymnastics or wrestling.

Duke has a .558 ACC record while NC State has a .552 ACC record, which is nearly identical, again without rifle or gymnastics. None of the ACC percentages account for baseball or softball, because ACC play has not yet begun.

While using a combined record does not state anything definitive, because each sport has a different level of competition, it does show that NC State is on equal footing with UNC, Duke and many more when it comes to overall athletics programs. The Pack has not been number one overall in one sport, but it is greatly impressive to have so many teams get into the top 25 in the nation of their respective sport.

NC State and all of its teams deserve far more recognition than it is currently getting, because every athletics squad has endured a level of success this season. It is fair to say that NC State is underrated when it comes to overall athletics, and the reach and scope of its athletics program is as strong or even stronger than every other team in the ACC.