Since Eric Hyman has become the AD at South Carolina he has really stressed making South Carolina a top Academic and Athletic school. He wants to see our kids succeed on and off the field/court.
At UF, SOS was a big advocate of big $$ athletics providing financial support of the school's academic programs.
It's sort of ironic, a lot of ND fans are upset and would like a change in the way the profits from the Athletic programs are handled. At ND for ever the money earned from TV and Bowls by the football program has been first gone to Academic and scholarhip programs. The result has been that even though the Irish earn a ton of money, certainly in the top 5, on the football program. We let other programs get ahead of us in athletic facilities, coaches salaries (except for Charlie), etc. Many want the Ath program to be independent like it is at Texas where they don't get anything from the University or State of Texas (by law) and they also don't have to give anything back and at Texas the extra money is used to have amongst the best paid coaching staffs around, in most if not all sports. To have amongst the best facilities not just in football but in all the sports in the NCAA. When I say many, of course that doesn't mean all and I'm sure there are lots of Irish fans/alums who like the way we do business. Terry
Its a catch 22. Academics should come first but if you don't give the athletic department a good share then they lag behind in facilities and what not. There has to be a good balance or you will fail in the athletic side.
Terry, I'm glad you included the disclosure in the second quote, because I noticed that's the second time in two days you referred to "a lot of ND fans." I believe the first involved feelings toward a coach and his recruiting. To provide full disclosure, I must reveal that your source probably is NDNation, which has the reputation among "a whole lot" of ND faithful as a dysfunctional band of alumni and fans, many of whom freely tout their dysfunctional opinions and receive oohs and aahs from their dysfunctional brothers and sisters. To be fair, there are several, perhaps many, intelligent and resourceful contributors like you who tend to level the playing field at times, but the board's reputation has been tainted by the loudness of the dysfunctional ones among you and the other sensible contributors. I can only suggest that when you hear opinions like you conveyed in the above post, please take them with a grain of salt. They reflect overthiking and overanalysis by people who need to get a life. They are opinions expressed by a relatively few people of like mind and - trust me - do not represent the mindset of the majority of alumni and fans. Finally, to the suggestion of separating the athletic function from the academic side.........Bullcrap!