Could the U be too hard academically for football players?

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cards07

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I had a conversation recently with a former U wrestler from the 80's. He mentioned that back then they eliminated the general education program or something along those lines which was one of the really easy majors all the athletes would take.

It may sound dumb, but compared to other schools does the U have a really cake and easy program for pure athletes to take?

I do not support kids going to school for a worthless major but if I was a 5 star athlete and had to choose between a school where I would have to work really hard at school or sluff off, I would choose to sluff off and focus on football, etc.

Just a thought, and be interesting to hear from people who know more about the programs at the U.
 

The U is almost certainly not too tough, even with the elimination of GC. You can challenge yourself in many programs at the U of M, but there are many where there just isn't as much difficulty. Plus with all the extra assistance available to athletes there really shouldn't be an issue.
 

Every big-time university has a soft landing spot for its most "academically challenged" athletes. The names of the majors are just different (creative). Go to any school's media guide and look for the major where the largest percentage of players are, and more often than not there's your answer.
 

Gopher07 said:
The U is almost certainly not too tough, even with the elimination of GC. You can challenge yourself in many programs at the U of M, but there are many where there just isn't as much difficulty. Plus with all the extra assistance available to athletes there really shouldn't be an issue.
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+1. 100% correct. Should not be an issue. Even without the GC, there are a number of majors that, quite frankly, are easier than a lot of the others. Many are challenging but, with the assistance available to atheletes, should not pose a problem at all.
 

i wonder if stanford is too tough? texas? michigan? duke? georgia tech? virginia? cal?
 



Wisconsin and Northwestern have much higher standards. Cal, Stanford, the list goes on. No excuse. Dillon Baxter was just kicked off the USC team for academics. He has been at school 8 weeks.
 

What is too hard anyway? Use your freakin brains and study! Too hard? Got brains?
 




LOL! I almost had my soda come out my nose when I read the OP.

The U of M is a quality education but isn't even in the top half of the Big Ten when it comes to academics.
 

Parski1 said:
What is too hard anyway? Use your freakin brains and study! Too hard? Got brians?
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This is priceless LOL

And no, there are plenty of "cupcake" options. Let's not over-analyze why our football program sucks, academics are very low on the list of our problems, at least as far as what is offered here compared to other institutions.
 

popeyoung5 said:
Wisconsin and Northwestern have much higher standards.
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can you explain exactly what these much higher standards are? from my understanding, they use the same grades as every other university.

both are better schools than minnesota academically (though arguing academic rankings is moot), they do not have higher standards.

if you are talking entrance standards, then you are talking about something completely different. and would again be wrong and without a link to stand on.
 

Every school lowers its standards for athletes, which is a damn shame because it lets in some major dummies.
 



There are players who aren't necessarily dummies, but have been coasting all through school because no one dares fail the star football player. This doesn't do the player any good, because unless they make the NFL, sooner or later football ends, and with it ends the red carpet. There are players who have the ability to study, but there is a culture shock when the come to college and are actually expected to get an education. It's like the player who is used to dominating inferior high school players, and discovers that he actually has to work to play in college.
 

RodentRampage said:
There are players who aren't necessarily dummies, but have been coasting all through school because no one dares fail the star football player. This doesn't do the player any good, because unless they make the NFL, sooner or later football ends, and with it ends the red carpet. There are players who have the ability to study, but there is a culture shock when the come to college and are actually expected to get an education. It's like the player who is used to dominating inferior high school players, and discovers that he actually has to work to play in college.
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There are those, but there are also players who got tons of tutoring and academic help to get through high school because they were star football players, and they don't really belong in a college classroom.
 



The one question I would ask though, do institutions like Michigan and Northwestern have programs that cater to the athletes that Minnesota doesn't have. I have no idea about the answer to this, but Sid has complained about not having a sports management or other programs la di da. Getting rid of GC definately has had an impact I would guess.
 

I played high school football with a guy who went on to play at Northwestern. He was DUMB. I mean DUMB. There was definitely some strings pulled to have him be admitted.

With that aside, there are plenty of majors to choose from (including Sports Management). Surely, there are some that can be easier to handle than others. Something I always wondered was why can't players receive a few credits for playing football.
 

LOL. It's called CEHD. We already have what you are looking for at the U. But I also saw in the Daily people looking into having "Sport" as a major basically. Don't know what to think about that. Good parallels with "Dance" or "Theatre" majors though.
 

It's not that the U is that academically challenging. I took a class from Arthur Caplan, when he first came here from Pittsburgh, I asked him how the students here compared to the students at Pittsburgh?, His reply was that there were less elite students here, but the students worked much harder. I believe that, because the students work hard, athletes often run into culture shock in whats required of them in the class room.
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
can you explain exactly what these much higher standards are? from my understanding, they use the same grades as every other university.

both are better schools than minnesota academically (though arguing academic rankings is moot), they do not have higher standards.

if you are talking entrance standards, then you are talking about something completely different. and would again be wrong and without a link to stand on.
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You just reinforced my point three times. The same grading with much tougher competition. I can assure you the act scores of cal, stanford, ucla, northwestern, vanderbilt, wisconsin athletes are much higher vs. the gophers. The athletes still have to take core classes where they get pounded by the general population. This should be an advantage for Minnesota. The only big city campus in the big ten is another huge advantage. Just use U.S. news and world report on academic ranking.
 

jovs said:
The one question I would ask though, do institutions like Michigan and Northwestern have programs that cater to the athletes that Minnesota doesn't have.
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Michigan apparently does. Commenting on that is what more or less alienated Jim Harbaugh from his alma mater back in 2007.

Harbaugh, in his first year as Stanford coach, told the San Francisco Chronicle in May: "Michigan is a good school and I got a good education there, but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in, and when they're in, they steer them to courses in sports communications. They're adulated when they're playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won't hire them."
 


popeyoung5 said:
You just reinforced my point three times. The same grading with much tougher competition. I can assure you the act scores of cal, stanford, ucla, northwestern, vanderbilt, wisconsin athletes are much higher vs. the gophers. The athletes still have to take core classes where they get pounded by the general population. This should be an advantage for Minnesota. The only big city campus in the big ten is another huge advantage. Just use U.S. news and world report on academic ranking.
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mind if i ask you where you went to school? because i went to minnesota and the u of m grading policy had absolutely nothing to do with competition. zero.

i agree that those schools have higher act scores, but that is not what this thread is about (and i recognized that earlier).

can you post a link to the scores of cal, stanford, ucla, northwestern, vanderbilt, wisconsin athletes being much higher vs. the gophers? (not that that has anything to do with the OP, or any other comment that has been made in this thread).
 

popeyoung5 said:
You just reinforced my point three times. The same grading with much tougher competition. I can assure you the act scores of cal, stanford, ucla, northwestern, vanderbilt, wisconsin athletes are much higher vs. the gophers. The athletes still have to take core classes where they get pounded by the general population. This should be an advantage for Minnesota. The only big city campus in the big ten is another huge advantage. Just use U.S. news and world report on academic ranking.
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Sorry popeyoung, you're drinking the typical UW-Madison Kool-Aid. Good school, yes, but considerably better than Minnesota in admission standards? No. Let's take a look:

2010 admissions ACT scores of incoming classes: 25th percentile at Wisconsin was 26, 75th percentile was 30. At Minnesota, 25th percentile was 25, 75th percentile was 30.
2010 admissions rates: Wisconsin 67%, Minnesota 48%

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/theact/a/big-ten-act-scores.htm

The only serious outlier ACT-wise in the B1G is Northwestern.

And US News is a bogus ranking system. It penalizes Minnesota for lower graduation rates, which are a problem to a certain extent, but also a reflection of the urban environment and, IMHO, a lack of grade inflation (I say this having gone to school in both Wisconsin and Minnesota systems).
 

We need more underwater basket weaving majors. Then football players just need to dive and get solid A. Where is my underwater basket weaving major? Bring it back!
I think it is just pathetic and lame excuse to say academic standard is too tough for any admitted student. If any of the student athletic felt that he/she can’t handle that privilege with all kinds of assistants, they should not be at the U. Some of the colleges at the U have very strict standard and treat everyone equally. But I know one person accomplished that challenge and the student was the first one ever graduated from that college as student athletic. I can’t be more proud to say the U is a university. It is not just mere training ground for pro-sports.
Education itself is a challenge. It is mental challenge. I for the one believe that those who can excel at the education will be smart football players like Kirk Cousins, Andrew Luck. When I look at the players from our football team, I can see very few of them have it. Sometimes I felt that most of them are just plain soft babies. The outcomes of the games are decided by determination and smart plays. Easy approach for players is actually a process of poising their mind and brain. If the players think they cannot handle the classroom workload, they need to put the damn video game consoles and Jack Daniel’s bottle down. Not the books and weights.
I’m really sick and tired of that idiotic complain. It is also shameful thing to encourage the school to do so. Academic is not collateral damage. It is a tool to make players mentally prepared. If one of football player is your family members, will you do it? I won’t! Will you?
 

Spin Your Head said:
LOL. It's called CEHD. We already have what you are looking for at the U. But I also saw in the Daily people looking into having "Sport" as a major basically. Don't know what to think about that. Good parallels with "Dance" or "Theatre" majors though.
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Seriously?? I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I am a CEHD graduate in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise physiology. It wasn't particularly easy, especially with doing biomechanics research as well. My 'sport' major set me up very well for a variety of graduate programs, including pharmacy. Considering the fact I will have my 'sport' degree as well as a damn doctorate, I wouldn't classify it as easy. Your education is whatever you make of it.
 

popeyoung5 said:
You just reinforced my point three times. The same grading with much tougher competition. I can assure you the act scores of cal, stanford, ucla, northwestern, vanderbilt, wisconsin athletes are much higher vs. the gophers. The athletes still have to take core classes where they get pounded by the general population. This should be an advantage for Minnesota. The only big city campus in the big ten is another huge advantage. Just use U.S. news and world report on academic ranking.
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Stop grouping Wisconsin with any of those schools. It's not even comparable.
 

Art Vandelay said:
LOL! I almost had my soda come out my nose when I read the OP.

The U of M is a quality education but isn't even in the top half of the Big Ten when it comes to academics.
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As others have pointed out this is bogus. Research standings in the B1G we are top half (#3 behind Wisc and Mich, barely). Go ahead and pick one college ranking that shows the U in the 6-7th place, but take an aggregate of them all and we are middle to just slightly better.

Student scores coming in as an indicator? In the B1G, our "record" against the other 11 schools in the different scores/percentiles are:

ACT Composite: 25% 5-5-1 / 75% 6-3-2
ACT Math: 25% 5-4-2 / 75% 4-6-1
ACT Reading:25% 4-6-1 / 75% 4-6-1

SAT Math: 25% 7-0-4 / 75% 7-1-3
SAT Reading:25% 5-2-4 / 75% 9-1-1
SAT Writing: 25% 3-2-4 / 75% 5-0-4 (Nebraska and Iowa didn't report writing scores or require them but indications would be they would be below us since they were on EVERY other stat shown here)

If you average out ACT and SAT score records vs the rest of the B1G for 25th and 75th percentile (not 100% fair but I'm using it anyway) is 5.33 - 4.17 - 1.17. That means we are BETTER than over 5 schools, worse than just over 4, and equal to just over 1.

That means we are better than or equal to 6.5 of the B1G schools on incoming freshman statistics. That puts us top half. We hav this syndrome where we believe everywhere is better, smarter, etc than us and for some reason start to believe that Wisconsin's academic standards (to get in) are so much better than ours that several people here were lumping them in with the likes of Northwestern, Michigan, Cal, Stanford, etc. Sorry, they have no-to-slight edge on us in that department and shouldn't be considered in that echelon of school.
 

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