Paige commits to Auburn- fans elate

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Handsome Pete

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SEC fans are aware their schools are junior colleges, right?
 

The NCAA absolutely NEEDS to fix the academic standards to make the playing field even.
 


C'mon, MN isn't Harvard! I guarantee you we have bent the "rules" some over the years for both Mase and Brew. If we aren't going to go over the top, I'm okay w/that. Based upon who has been admitted over the years, there is a large enough pool of recruits to have our fill of. Lets move on.

I do have a question though - can we spoon feed Roof any more recruits?
 



Does the SEC conference really have standardized admission requirements? If so, can anyone explain what they are and how they differ from the U of M's? That'd be a good research project for someone (not me, but someone).

I know the U of M has raised their admissions requirements for non-scholarship students, and it is a great school, but if someone can play and they want to get that person in and that person still can't get in, that person is a rock-head. I'm sorry, but he/she can go somewhere else.
 

Handsome Pete said:
SEC fans are aware their schools are junior colleges, right?
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Based upon my year in SEC country, I can tell you with absolute certainty that no, they are not aware. They brag about having three straight national titles, and a great record in BCS games, but show them the rankings of the top universities (all Big Ten schools are in the top 75, compared to three SEC schools) and they look the other way. SEC schools have many built-in advantages, not the least of which is the lax standards. After all, the reason why Big Ten schools don't schedule SEC schools isn't because we think we'll lose - it's because we don't respect them.
 

NCAA does have acceptance standards

There are basic acceptance standards set by the NCAA but some schools decide to have their own standards. That said, the schools down south are great places to get an education. Like most college educations it is the student that makes the difference.
 

Jike Spingleton said:
but show them the rankings of the top universities (all Big Ten schools are in the top 75, compared to three SEC schools)
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I would go further to point out that all 10 of our public universities are ranked in US News' rankings of the top-30 public universities whereas only one SEC school is.

Furthermore, nine BT schools are officailly designated as "Public Ivys" by the author that coined that term whereas only two SEC schools are. The only BT school not considered a Public Ivy is the southernmost in our conference.

The Big Ten is, far and away, the BEST conference academically. The SEC is the worst amongst BCS conferences.
 



After it wasn't going to work out here, was there anywhere else he tried before Auburn?
 

TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
Does the SEC conference really have standardized admission requirements? If so, can anyone explain what they are and how they differ from the U of M's? That'd be a good research project for someone (not me, but someone).

I know the U of M has raised their admissions requirements for non-scholarship students, and it is a great school, but if someone can play and they want to get that person in and that person still can't get in, that person is a rock-head. I'm sorry, but he/she can go somewhere else.
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Here's your research: (1) Taikwon Paige doesn't even get to signing day before the U of M tells him he cannot qualify academically based on his JUCO record. He then signs with SEC school Auburn; (2) Anthony Leon turns down the U and selects Oregon (a school lower ranked than Minnesota, by the way). Leon doesn't make it to signing day either before he is informed by Oregon he will not qualify academically for admission to that school. Leon then signs with SEC school Arkansas.

These are just two examples based on intersections with the U of M. There must be several more that I'm not aware of.
 

Like I said,
if someone can play and they want to get that person in and that person still can't get in, that person is a rock-head. I'm sorry, but he/she can go somewhere else.
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I was visiting Oxford, Mississippi when I overheard the local sport talk show. The question was whether an SEC player was bad for making a false insurance claim regarding the contents of the Cadillac he was driving. Both men agreed that having a Cadillac given to him for use was OK, it was the claim that was debatable. It became clear that certain rental houses were put up by alumni for 'general housing needs' of Ol' Miss, etc. The football players who were 'lucky' enough to get these very sweet digs could 'borrow' the family car parked in the garage. This was all the time because the family 'sharing' their house with the recruit was never in that house.

The thing that really impressed me about the whole thing was the general acceptance that this was all SEC normal. I think it is this sort of thing that Michigan did not like when Zook took over at Illinois.
 

A few years back while I was still sports writing, I covered a college baseball team that had two outfielders from Louisiana in their lineup. Over the four years I covered these two players, they told me some absolute horror stories about the SEC and their recruiting practices.

Both said they had high school teammates that were recruited by LSU and a bunch of other high profile SEC schools and that the amount of dirty dealings by these schools on a regular basis is beyond stunning. One described watching the process as "unbelieveable" and said if everybody knew how much wheeling and dealing these schools do on a regular basis in the recruiting game, most of them would be on probation for decades. They also told me it's common knowledge in the south how dirty and unethical SEC schools are in their recruiting practices, but no one cares as long as their school wins football games.

It would seem the NCAA feels the same way. They are, after all, big-time money makers and regardless of what the NCAA says about enforcing fair play, they'll NEVER come down hard core on many of these programs because of that.
 

Well GGR, let's look at the statistics from USN&WR...

Go Gophers Rah said:
I would go further to point out that all 10 of our public universities are ranked in US News' rankings of the top-30 public universities whereas only one SEC school is.

Furthermore, nine BT schools are officially designated as "Public Ivys" by the author that coined that term whereas only two SEC schools are. The only BT school not considered a Public Ivy is the southernmost in our conference.

The Big Ten is, far and away, the BEST conference academically. The SEC is the worst amongst BCS conferences.
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A previous poster stated in effect that the individual student makes his or her own education. Very true. However, it is also clear that SEC schools are not ranked as high as schools from other conferences. According to the latest US News and World Report rankings (I know - you can pick whatever ranking service you want...nevertheless, US News has been ranking undergraduate colleges and universities for quite some time, so I think we all can agree that they have a modicum of credibility...), here is a listing by conference with the US News/World Report ranking of each school (NOTE: I only looked at the top 100 National Universities - I did not look at all schools in the conference).

According to the USN&WR rankings, the Ivy League is the "best conference academically." The race for the second best conference is pretty close between the ACC and Big 10/11, but I have to give the nod to the ACC (take ACC best vs. Big Ten best; ACC wins 9-1-1; only NC State loses to Michigan State; or total all the ranking and divide by 11; ACC wins 43.364 to 49.818...scientific? Heck no, but you probably wondered why I chose ACC over Big 10, so there you have it).

Ivy League:
1- Harvard
2 - Princeton
3 - Yale
6 (tie) - Pennsylvania
8 (tie) - Columbia
11 - Dartmouth
14 - Cornell
16 - Brown

ACC (top 11 schools):
8 (tie) - Duke
23 (tie) - Virginia
28 - Wake Forest
30 - North Carolina
34 - Boston College
35 - Georgia Tech
51 (tie) - Miami (FL)
53 (tie) - Maryland
61 - Clemson
71 - Virginia Tech
83 (tie) - NC State

Big 10/11:
12 (tie) Northwestern
26 - Meeessshhhhhigan
35 (tie) - Wisconsin
40 - Illinois
47 (tie) - Penn State
53 (tie) - Ohio State
61 - Minnesota
66 (tie) - Purdue
66 (tie) - Iowa
71 (tie) - Indiana
71 (tie) - Michigan State

The PAC 10 conference has some outstanding top tier schools, but after Washington, the rest of the conference schools don't come close. Other than Vanderbilt and a nod to Florida (and maybe Georgia), the SEC is pretty weak, as we all suspected.

Pac 10:
4 - Stanford
21 - Cal
25 - UCLA
27 - USC
41 - Washington
96 (tie) - Arizona

SEC:
18 (tie) - Vanderbilt
49 - Florida
58 - Georgia
83 (tie) - Alabama
96 (tie) - Auburn

Interestingly, no one commented about the Big East or the Big 12. According to USN&WR, schools in these conferences aren't rated very high. Here's the rankings for the top schools in these two conferences:

Big 12:
47 - Texas
65 - Texas A&M
77 (tie) - Colorado
89 (tie) - Iowa State
89 (tie) - Kansas
89 (tie) - Nebraska

Big East:
53 (tie) - Syracuse
58 - Pitt
64 (tie) - Rutgers
66 (tie) - UConn
 

who cares

Minnesota needs to lower its standards for athletic recruits, we lose recruits because of our standards to other schools quite often. I would be in favor of not making athletes take classes if they do not want to. If they are going to school to play football and and make it to the NFL then let them do it and if they don't make the pros let them take classes after their football eligibility is up. This way they can concentrate on football during their playing days and education if they have to, after they did not make the NFL.
 


lawrence21 said:
Minnesota needs to lower its standards for athletic recruits, we lose recruits because of our standards to other schools quite often. I would be in favor of not making athletes take classes if they do not want to. If they are going to school to play football and and make it to the NFL then let them do it and if they don't make the pros let them take classes after their football eligibility is up. This way they can concentrate on football during their playing days and education if they have to, after they did not make the NFL.
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Um, okay :rolleyes:
 

not Auburn

I went to a private liberal arts University.
 

some of these kids are going to college to play football, why do we pretend they are here for an education? why do we make them get one? there is no farm league for football like baseball.
 

lawrence21 said:
some of these kids are going to college to play football, why do we pretend they are here for an education? why do we make them get one? there is no farm league for football like baseball.
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I think you should google Byron "Whizzer" White's view on the matter. I can't remember the case but he delivered the opinion in a television contract dispute SCOTUS case many years ago. He said that if college football players are paid (which they would be if they didn't have to take classes but got room and board for free) then college football ceases to exist altogether. The only difference between pro and college ball is the amateur status. Take that away and there is no such thing as college football any more.
 

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