Greetings From The Big 10

Yes, it's true. A certain percentage of places are held for children of alumni who compete against other alumni children for those spots. I haven't followed it so I can't say what the percentage is or how it impacts the statistical averages for each incoming class.

Of course it mathematically would work out that way......for a while......until the university would be forced to reduce its enrollment because the football-related income and the private donations which supplement the tuition payments would disappear.

 

Lol... how true. There are some eggheads out there thought that might welcome that prospect!

 

Terry, it's my understanding that a lot of students who qualify to go to the University of Florida do not get admitted. What I mean by that is that only so many students get admitted from a list of people who are qualified.

It's also my understanding that the football players have to meet the qualifications, but are on a differnt list as to who gets accepted.

I know that's nit picking. But let me say I have no problem with the system that allows football players access to school. While they may not make it into engineering or other schools, I don't think most kids getting admitted to those schools would be able to play football. So in a sense it is similar.

Besides it's just not realistic to suddenly say that all football players coming to UF have to have 1200 on their SAT and about a 3.8 GPA. We would quickly not draw fans to the stadium.

Including this fan.

So things aren't perfect, but what I do want to see is reasonable progression to graduation, and I think Urban Meyer is doing that better than any coach we have ever had.

 

Bill, I think just about any of the top private or public schools all have many more qualified applicants than they can take. Be sure I'm not bitching about that, I would hate to see the colllegiate sports scene radically change where you could not admit athletes who would not otherwise qualify for admission.

There was some bitching on InsideTexas over the failure of the coaches to recruit the top RB in the state because of academics. He will likely meet the min NCAA requirements and go to someplace like a SEC school (probably not Fla, but LSU would be one that would take him) or OU. Some Texas fans would rather Mack take the chance because he is so talented. They are blaming it on the new rules that take scholarships away if your athletic teams don't meet certain standards. I think those new rules are a step in the right direction, some don't see it that way though. You and I are on the same page, we want talented football players that actually go to class and make progress. We don't want mercenaries.

Terry

 

I agree Terry.

Another way to look at this is that the College of Engineering or the College of Business will take as many as they have space for from the list of qualified students. So the Football team takes the most qualified from a talent standpoint that are qualified to go the the University of Florida. Personally i don't see any problem with that as apparently you don't either.

 

Nah I don't. If I did I'd be a Ivies fan, except as I said before even those schools need kids who have played before, so while they don't give scholarships and the probably have a higher bar than the Div 1 schools. They are still taking athletic skill into account when they admit students who will play basketball, baseball, football,etc. If they didn't they would have a hard time field a team that didn't hurt itself when it suited up!

 

Actually, Terry, the Ivies give scholarships, but they don't call them scholarships. They call them grants-in-aid. They attract decent talent, a notch or two below prime D-1 talent and above Div. 2 or 3. There are lots of kids who were pretty darn good in HS who want an Ivy League education. Kevin Carretta was recruited by Harvard, Princeton, Wake Forest, and a couple of other D-1 schools I can't recall. He chose to walk on at ND and eventually won a scholarship in his 4th and 5th years. I know of another like I've described who got a full "grant-in-aid" to Princeton and became a star in the Ivy League. I don't know how they treat the athletes vs. non-athlete students in the admission process.

 

Interesting...I knew they had to do something to fill out their athletic teams!

 

I have no problem with highly ranked academic schools recruiting athletes to play for them and still being proud of their academics.

But having said that... if you recruit and get an athlete whose grade point, SAT, whatever, is less than that for some other kid who you turned down, are you not in some ways doing the same thing that the so-called football factories are doing...just perhaps at a higher level?

 

Until regular students start bringing in millions of dollars to the athletic program and additional related contributions to the academic coffers why in the world should they be given equal consideration with regard to admittance?

There is a definitive positive economic impact when great athletes are admitted to a school provided they meet the NCAA requirements.

Any other approach else is just plain unrealistic and nonsensical.

"He will likely meet the min NCAA requirements and go to someplace like a SEC school (probably not Fla.."

Thanks for cleaning that up Terry.

 

A little bit of tid from Coach Hevesy:

Last semester 45% of the (UF) football team had a 3.0 or better GPA and the cumulative GPA of the team was the highest in school history.


I believe a 3.0 would qualify them for a full Bright Futures academic scholly if they qualified coming our of HS.

Another interesting comment from Coach Hev:

Kirk Herbstreit is credited with helping the Gators win the National Championship according to Hevesy. Thanks to Kirk and ESPN, the coaches job of motivating the players was taken care of. They worried how they'd be able to motivate the players during the layoff and he said all they had to do was turn on ESPN. They posted notes with stuff that Kirk said all over the place. The day of the game they gave everyone a handout from the local newspaper in Arizona that had a position by position breakdown. Except for Linebacker, Ohio State was said to have the advantage at every position. :lol:

 

There is no doubt in my mind that if a University is commited to having their athletes attend class and make academic progress that good things will likely happen. At ND that has been a long time commitment, and the result is that we have a culture that supports the idea that athletes are there to recieve an education and the results are evident everytime grad rates come out. That same culture is evident other places, JoePa is long known for being a coach that doesn't tolerate athletes that just want to play ball and not go to class, as a result Penn State has historically high grad rates.

The key is the commitment of the institution, and not just leave it up to the coaches to make sure it gets done. Coaches are an integral part of the process, but if they are driving force then you will have spotty results or bad results.

 

I agree, Terry, but I would offer one caveat regarding state/public schools. Every once in a while a coach comes along who bucks the comparatively lower grad rates for public institutions and graduates his kids while at the same time achieving great things. Bobby Knight stands out as example of this kind of coach. Unfortunately, his dysfunctional nature has overshadowed his positive accomplishments. JoPa is another example. It sounds like Urban Meyer has initiated the same kind of trend at Florida. It's not a prevalent practice, but it's nice when we hear of this kind of thing happening.

 

It is sacrilege to talk badly about The General! :shock:

 

I don't think that I stated or implied any other approach. I made a mild point that I think is valid...that all schools...Ivy League, Penn State, ND included make some compromises on admissions...I agree that it would be unrealistic to expect anything else.

Any school that does not make appropriate efforts to educate and graduate their athletes can and should be criticized.

 

Kirk Herbstreit's job is to analyze the game and the players and make predictions...a very iffy proposition at best. He tries to do it in an unbiased manner but he obviously is also a fan.

He is generally pretty classy about it and I suspect that he was in this instance as well. There is little doubt in my mind that Coach Hev posted selectively...I'm sure he didn't put up any nice things that Herby said regarding the Gators, but I am sure that they were said.

If you want to credit him with the fine effort that your players put forth, along with the excellent game plan for the game, I have no problems with that.

He tried to objectively analyze the skill and abilities of the OSU players...I am certainly not going to blame him for the fact that they didn't show up.

 

Even I like Herbie, I think he does a good job. But he can't be right all the time.

 

Stu and Terry, I think that you two did not listen to or read about Herbie as much as Gator fans did during this period. He and a couple of other ESPN talking heads not only gave their opinions, they were on an absolute campaign in favor of Michigan over Florida.

In my mind good old Herbie crossed the line between legitimate analysis and down right promotion.

I for one lost a lot of respect for him.

But as Gaterz said it was acutally a help n the championship game.

 

So Gators feel about Herbie like Irish Fans feel about Mark May....I can see where you are coming from then. But still I like him, but understand why you guys might not.

However I don't think in his case he truly hates the Gators, where in Mark May's case he hates the Irish and has spent 2 years trashing us every chance he can get.

 

Herbstreit is a class act. Most folks, myself included, tend to hear what they want to hear and tend to shut out the part that doesn't fit with their agendas. I'm sure that's what is happening here.