This new new Big East is going to make the SEC look like the Ivy League

[Rumrunner]

Maybe we can call it the Special Needs Conference.

WVU # 164
Louisville #164
USF #181
Cincy #143
Memphis So bad it doesn't have a ranking. Go tigers!

These schools are already the worst among BCS schools.

Proposed Additions

ECU #194
UCF # 177
Temple #132

If you don't think that academics matter, ask WVU how they're feeling right now.

UConn is going to be stuck with the dregs of the dregs.

I sure hope Herbst knows what she is doing.

 

[upstater]

Those rankings are only for people that know diddly squat about academics. While schools like USF and Cincy are among the national leaders in pulling in research grants, they also support their faculty tremendously and thereby draw talent. Then you look at an ACC school like Clemson that's supposedly ranks high, but pulls 1/4 the amount of research grant as the others, loads their faculty and gives them little support, and thereby draws little talent. And yet anyone without knowledge of these facts i oh so willing to believe that Clemson is a better school because of some fly-by-night questionnaire without a lick of analysis behind it.

 

[Rumrunner]

Keep telling yourself that.

 

[HuskyNan]

Keep telling yourself that.

You make Forte look like Suzy Sunshine. Why are you wasting so much time and energy worrying about something that may or may not happen?

 

[upstater]

Keep telling yourself that.

When you don't have anything to counter a statement, just make some short pithy meaningless post.

 

[gars44]

Look, it's not such a bad thing. I personally am not that upset about who we play ball against. We are not a traditional program, watching as our 75+ year investment in major college football goes down the drain, which is what schools like Pitt and Syracuse were facing. Let's just play ball. Let's be VA Tech. They weren't all that 15 years ago. They just won, baby. Let's win football games. Win bowl games. Beat people we shouldn't beat. That's what get's you there. We simply need the political support to keep the aq. There are going to be a lot of people saying we don't deserve it, but in fact, there are a very few programs that are elite enough to deserve it. The rest of the dregs in their conferences are there to pad the win column, that's it.

 

[UCHuskies08]

Dude, the Herbst posts are bordering on creepy from you Rumrunner.

 

[mattp]

Maybe we can call it the Special Needs Conference.

If you don't think that academics matter, ask WVU how they're feeling right now. .

WVu not being admitted into the SEC has nothing to do with academics and everything to do with WV's small population and lack of a desireable TV market.

 

[ctchamps]

You make Forte look like Suzy Sunshine. Why are you wasting so much time and energy worrying about something that may or may not happen?

It looks like you may have to get Tom to get us the ignore feature. Personally the guy doesn't bother me. I just ignore certain posters even when I read their stuff. But some people might prefer the option.

 

[UConnRock]

Is there an "ignore" on the new site. If not, I think Rumrunner will create enough demand for one to be created.

 

[HuskyNan]

Is there an "ignore" on the new site. If not, I think Rumrunner will create enough demand for one to be created.

I hear the Ignore option is included in the next software update.

 

[Mr.Phat]

When you don't have anything to counter a statement, just make some short pithy meaningless post.

The original post is true. The BE is turning into a conference with a collection of academic skanks. Ironically, UConn's US News ranking is the highest it's ever been - 58. Spin it any way you want, these are not prestigious universities academically, they just aren't. Many on this board don't care but a few like myself do.

 

[NittanyHusky]

Those rankings are only for people that know diddly squat about academics. While schools like USF and Cincy are among the national leaders in pulling in research grants, they also support their faculty tremendously and thereby draw talent. Then you look at an ACC school like Clemson that's supposedly ranks high, but pulls 1/4 the amount of research grant as the others, loads their faculty and gives them little support, and thereby draws little talent. And yet anyone without knowledge of these facts i oh so willing to believe that Clemson is a better school because of some fly-by-night questionnaire without a lick of analysis behind it.

No they're not. Even among public universities, they are midpack. Once you include privates like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Hopkins etc, they are pretty small time.

 

[ctchamps]

The original post is true. The BE is turning into a conference with a collection of academic skanks. Ironically, UConn's US News ranking is the highest it's ever been - 58. Spin it any way you want, these are not prestigious universities academically, they just aren't. Many on this board don't care but a few like myself do.

I think most posters care. But some are not willing to cry about the situation if the options are limited.

 

[gars44]

The original post is true. The BE is turning into a conference with a collection of academic skanks. Ironically, UConn's US News ranking is the highest it's ever been - 58. Spin it any way you want, these are not prestigious universities academically, they just aren't. Many on this board don't care but a few like myself do.

Mr. Phat, I don't think anyone disagrees with you. However, this is about football for now. Remember, the reason a lot of programs left the BE is because they look at Uconn pretty much the way you are looking at these so called "academic skanks." That's the reality. I think that's highly unfair, but here you go, doing exactly the same thing. Let's play football, and not worry so much about the US News ranking (whatever the validity) of our opponents. Let's take care of our own business. Now, the academic standing of who you play in football is very important for another reason: admission standards. We can not compete against a Boise State, or an Alabama, because for one thing, they will admit players that we won't. This is the reason that it is a good thing to play against programs with similar admissions standards. The only reason. I am afraid that Uconn is becoming harder to get into, and this will make recruiting more difficult. As such, we need to play against programs with similar admissions standards.

 

[Mr.Phat]

I agree that moaning about how tty the academic rankings of conference members are is a pointless exercise. I was just attempting to refute Upstater's argument that Cincy and the rest are academically desirable for the reasons he outlined when they are not.

 

[cryjeremiah]

RumRunner: Oh so glad you weren't my roommate at UConn. Eight minutes in and I'd be hoping for some "accident" to take you away and bring me a free 4.0.

Also, why'd you have to throw the Iowa State mascot down the stairs? Making us look bad. And no blaming it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol.

 

[upstater]

No they're not. Even among public universities, they are midpack. Once you include privates like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Hopkins etc, they are pretty small time.

Why not try looking up the actual figures? You're wrong.

 

[intlzncster]

Is rumrunner Jeff Hathaway?

I'm sure that joke has already been made.

 

[Dann]

Is rumrunner Jeff Hathaway?

I'm sure that joke has already been made.

maybe, but i thought waquot was???

 

[FfldCntyFan]

UCF really isn't too bad academically (although they have the same problem many tier four schools have in a required open admissions policy) and Temple has some very good programs.

Memphis however is merely a four year community college.

 

[upstater]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...84771531621708.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_3

Someone was just saying yesterday that Cincy and USF couldn't compete, and I suggested that in the research rankings that most academics pay attention to, rather than USNWR, they could compete, and that the view of academics is distorted. So WSJ published a comparison of the rankings this morning. The BE does just fine.


Making the Grade


How each school fared in U.S. News & World Report rankings and federal research expenditures. Plus, the average ranking for each conference.


CONFERENCE AVG.
ACC Boston College (31, 203); Clemson (68, 132); Duke (10, 13); Florida St. (101, 90); Georgia Tech (36, 28); Maryland (55, 40); Miami (38, 62); UNC (29, 17); NC St. (101, 71); Virginia (25, 48); Virginia Tech (71, 69); Wake Forest (25, 66) 59.5
Big East Cincinnati (143, 46); Connecticut (58, 131); Louisville (164, 116); Pittsburgh (58, 12); Rutgers (68, 72); South Florida (181, 60); Syracuse (62, 189); West Virginia (164, 121) 102.8
Big Ten Illinois (45, 32); Indiana (75, 120); Iowa (71, 45); Michigan (28, 3); Michigan St. (71, 65); Minnesota (68, 18); Nebraska (101, 111); Northwestern (12, 34); Ohio St. (55, 21); Penn St. (45, 19); Purdue (62, 57); Wisconsin (42, 8) 50.3
Big 12 Baylor (75, 350); Iowa St. (97, 98); Kansas (101, 138); Kansas St. (143, 139); Missouri (90, 93); Oklahoma (101, 162); Oklahoma St. (132, 159); Texas (45, 23); Texas A&M (58, 38); Texas Tech (160, 209) 120.6
Pac-12 Arizona (124, 29); Arizona St. (132, 75); California (21, 37); Colorado (94, 47); Oregon (101, 134); Oregon St. (138, 86); Stanford (5, 4); UCLA (25, 10); USC (23, 20); Utah (124, 58); Washington (42, 2); Washington St. (115, 101) 64.5
SEC Alabama (75, 190); Arkansas (132, 174); Auburn (82, 136); Florida (58, 44); Georgia (62, 97); Kentucky (124, 64); LSU (128, 114); Mississippi (143, 169); Mississippi St. (157, 96); South Carolina (111, 100); Tennessee (101, 84); Vanderbilt (17, 22) 103.3
Independents Notre Dame (19, 123) 71

Source: US News & World Report; The Center for Measuring University Performance

 

[NittanyHusky]

Your exact quote was these schools are "national leaders" in pulling in research grants. When USF (#60) is ranked next to Kentucky (#64), then I'd say I'm right that they are nothing more than midpack. When you're Duke (#13), Stanford (#4), Michigan (#3), Wisconsin (#8), Washington (#2), then we can talk national leaders.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...84771531621708.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_3

Someone was just saying yesterday that Cincy and USF couldn't compete, and I suggested that in the research rankings that most academics pay attention to, rather than USNWR, they could compete, and that the view of academics is distorted. So WSJ published a comparison of the rankings this morning. The BE does just fine.

Making the Grade

How each school fared in U.S. News & World Report rankings and federal research expenditures. Plus, the average ranking for each conference.

CONFERENCE AVG.
ACC Boston College (31, 203); Clemson (68, 132); Duke (10, 13); Florida St. (101, 90); Georgia Tech (36, 28); Maryland (55, 40); Miami (38, 62); UNC (29, 17); NC St. (101, 71); Virginia (25, 48); Virginia Tech (71, 69); Wake Forest (25, 66) 59.5
Big East Cincinnati (143, 46); Connecticut (58, 131); Louisville (164, 116); Pittsburgh (58, 12); Rutgers (68, 72); South Florida (181, 60); Syracuse (62, 189); West Virginia (164, 121) 102.8
Big Ten Illinois (45, 32); Indiana (75, 120); Iowa (71, 45); Michigan (28, 3); Michigan St. (71, 65); Minnesota (68, 18); Nebraska (101, 111); Northwestern (12, 34); Ohio St. (55, 21); Penn St. (45, 19); Purdue (62, 57); Wisconsin (42, 8) 50.3
Big 12 Baylor (75, 350); Iowa St. (97, 98); Kansas (101, 138); Kansas St. (143, 139); Missouri (90, 93); Oklahoma (101, 162); Oklahoma St. (132, 159); Texas (45, 23); Texas A&M (58, 38); Texas Tech (160, 209) 120.6
Pac-12 Arizona (124, 29); Arizona St. (132, 75); California (21, 37); Colorado (94, 47); Oregon (101, 134); Oregon St. (138, 86); Stanford (5, 4); UCLA (25, 10); USC (23, 20); Utah (124, 58); Washington (42, 2); Washington St. (115, 101) 64.5
SEC Alabama (75, 190); Arkansas (132, 174); Auburn (82, 136); Florida (58, 44); Georgia (62, 97); Kentucky (124, 64); LSU (128, 114); Mississippi (143, 169); Mississippi St. (157, 96); South Carolina (111, 100); Tennessee (101, 84); Vanderbilt (17, 22) 103.3
Independents Notre Dame (19, 123) 71

Source: US News & World Report; The Center for Measuring University Performance

 

[upstater]

Your exact quote was these schools are "national leaders" in pulling in research grants. When USF (#60) is ranked next to Kentucky (#64), then I'd say I'm right that they are nothing more than midpack. When you're Duke (#13), Stanford (#4), Michigan (#3), Wisconsin (#8), Washington (#2), then we can talk national leaders.

The money quote is that academics tend to trust rankings by Carnegie and the NRF over USNWR. I don't care that you don't like Kentucky, but the fact is, Kentucky is within the AAU range of drawing research funding. it means that school has a good amount of money. meanwhile, people around here knock schools like Cincy that are top 50 research schools (again, within the AAU range) and tout schools like Clemson, that are well well below. So yeah, I do think schools in the top 50 range are national leaders if not worldwide leaders in research.

 

[NittanyHusky]

Who touted Clemson in this thread? You're the one on a high horse saying others know "diddly squat" about academics. If it makes you happy to make stuff up to justify your point, please be my guest.

The money quote is that academics tend to trust rankings by Carnegie and the NRF over USNWR. I don't care that you don't like Kentucky, but the fact is, Kentucky is within the AAU range of drawing research funding. it means that school has a good amount of money. meanwhile, people around here knock schools like Cincy that are top 50 research schools (again, within the AAU range) and tout schools like Clemson, that are well well below. So yeah, I do think schools in the top 50 range are national leaders if not worldwide leaders in research.