A dynasty tees off?

With its victory in the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships at the Washington National Golf Club last Friday, Duke won its sixth national championship in school history.

Kudos!

My hat goes off to the team. What's even more impressive is that they did it in style, capping off a spring run where they won every single tournament they played, including this come-from-behind victory.

Not only did Duke revenge a horrific final day collapse in last year's tournament, but they also may have started something bigger:

A dynasty.

Wait, no, that can't be right. We already have one of those at Duke. I mean, coach Mike Krzyzewski and the men's basketball team are a dynasty right?! They've won three national titles since 1991.

Yes of course, but for the first time in modern Duke history, there may be two dynasties. Surely, men's basketball will always rule the Blue Devils athletic world; it is the heart and soul of the program--popularity-wise, publicity-wise and money-wise. But contrary to the popular belief of many Duke students, other Blue Devil sports exist.

Just consider: If coach Dan Brooks can lead the women to another championship next season--and early returns say he probably has a better shot at it than Krzyzewski does with his team--he would tie the Polish wizard for most national titles by a Duke coach.

Truth be told, for a school that not only prides itself on academic excellence, but is also known as an athletic powerhouse--especially for a private institution--the number's a little low.

Actually, it's a lot low.

According to NCAA statistics from February of this year--and do not include Division I football, because they do not conduct an official championship--UCLA leads the way with 86 titles.

Private schools Stanford and Southern California are next, with 81 and 77 titles respectively. The gap then widens to Oklahoma State, 43, and Arkansas, 37. North Carolina has the ACC lead with 29, behind 16 women's soccer titles.

And if the argument is that "we can't win as much because we have academic standards," even schools that are considered Duke's peer institution's academically top the Blue Devils.

Obviously Stanford is astronomically high, but Yale clocks in at 27, Princeton at 20, Columbia at 13 and Harvard at 8.

However, the good news for Duke fans is that, in an age where college athletics have become competitive to the point of absurdity, Duke's number of titles is growing--and at a fairly optimistic rate in recent years.

The Blue Devils did not win their first national championship until 1986, when the men's soccer team beat Akron 1-0 to win the title. Then came the back-to-back men's basketball titles in 1991 and 1992, as well as one in 2001. Finally, the two women's golf wins round out the school total at six.

"It's hard to say exactly what is possible," Brooks said. "Arizona State won seven [women's golf national championships] in the 90's, so what we've done so far is considerably less.... I don't think we have illusions that we're doing something beyond belief, but we will try to keep on top every year."

The common thread in all of the national title factories is that they have or had an Olympic sport (meaning any sport but football, and both basketballs) dynasty. In other words, they had one lesser-known sport that has racked up tons of titles--like UNC and women's soccer.

In Yale's case it was men's golf with 21. The Trojans have won 26 track and field titles. Stanford has brought the men's tennis title back to Palo Alto 17 times. UCLA has done it 18 times in men's volleyball, 15 times in men's tennis and 11 in, well, men's basketball.... Anyway, you get the picture.

Now, after winning titles in 1999 and 2002, as well as a should-have-won in 2001, Duke women's golf is ready to have a go.

So yes, the six is subject to change. Drastically.