\"My awful saturday night\" by Dooby

[Dooby]

So Mrs. Dooby (who looks nothing like Kathy Bates) drags me to a get together in the park cities on saturday for a party. While the shiner was free and the NCAA tournament was on, the party was downer from an SMU perspective for 2 reasons.

First, I start talking to a guy who is one of the few people at this party I know. He went to Tech, but his folks are big SMU supporters, so he likes SMU. But that is not the story. He works for [Big Accounting Firm]. It is the same firm that one David Page works for, and they just finished a project together. And we were talking about how if Page had stayed, I thought Bennett's first season would have been a little better than it was. So my fried says: "It isn't like he had a choice." Which had me confused. This is the story as he told it:

Page actually wanted to play out his last year of eligibility. Page went to the dean of Cox school of business and says he wants to get his MBA. The Dean said, "No. You have to have 2 years of work experience before you can get into Cox business school." But Page wanted to play football and wanted to get his MBA at SMU, and the Dean said "No." Now, hey. This could all be BS, but my friend added that Page had an MIS degree and didn't have the requisite accounting hours to sit for the CPA exam. So [Big Accounting Firm] paid for Page to go to Virginia to get his MBA so he could get the hours and sit for the CPA exam. So, while Page wanted to play football and was actually in no hurry to get to the exciting world of auditing, as evidenced by the fact that he still had to go to school for his job, SMU, in its infinite athletic wisdom, said "Thanks, but no thanks."

Now, could this be BS? I guess. But my friend seemed to have too many details. He clearly talked to Page a lot. He knew everything about Page's career at SMU, and Cal before that, and the Mississippi junior college.

This is just another instance that makes me wonder what kind of Mickey Mouse athletic program we are running around here.

Oh, and the other thing that bit. There was an SMU psychology professor at the same party. Who really wanted to can the football program to keep the track team. But she was so screwed up and had so much information, she just pissed me off. She clearly hadn't even bothered to read the article in the Daily Campus, much less the Dallas Morning News.

[Cheesesteak]

Posted by Dooby:

Page went to the dean of Cox school of business and says he wants to get his MBA. The Dean said, "No. You have to have 2 years of work experience before you can get into Cox business school." But Page wanted to play football and wanted to get his MBA at SMU, and the Dean said "No."

This is just another instance that makes me wonder what kind of Mickey Mouse athletic program we are running around here.

If this story about Page is even remotely accurate then good for SMU!

If SMU's Cox School had/has a policy that requires two years of work experience before entering the MBA program then an important standard existed/exists.

A two-year work policy or any other significant departmental policy that applies to the general student body/applicants (assuming there is such a policy) should not be customized ad hoc to suit the desires of athletes or musicians or historians or anybody.

[Dooby]

OK. Fine. Then be honest about it. Because that certainly wasn't the story going around that spring.

[Cheesesteak]

Good to hear that people are talking about SMU Football at parties.

[BUS]

I think the story that you heard was correct. Our favorite wide receiver was told the same thing abd chose to get a marketing degree on top of first Bachelor Degree.
Do I wish that there could have been some exceptions - Yes.
But for one of the top B schools in the NATION - you have to have standards.

[gostangs]

Bolderdash. If you don't think the B school breaks their own rules every year for certain students for a variety of reasons then you are hopelessly nieve. The problem is that each of these schools starts thinking of themselves as silos within a (to them) less important university. Cox is among the worst - they don't even advertise they are par tof SMU - usually its the "Cox School". They are are great MBA program to be sure - but a little help to the athletic dept. from time to time should be a no brainer.

[Cheesesteak]

Posted by gostangs:

If you don't think the B school breaks their own rules every year for certain students for a variety of reasons then you are hopelessly nieve.

Of course the B-school bends/breaks their own rules on occasion as does just about every organization/entity in America. But, not every organization/entity bends/breaks every rule. Is the "two-year rule" one that they have flexibility with - I don't know.

I do know that rules are often bent/broken in private so as not to attract attention. Bending/breaking a rule for a starting quarterback would draw a lot of attention - as not bending/breaking it did in the case of Dooby's original post.

The problem is that each of these schools starts thinking of themselves as silos within a (to them) less important university. Cox is among the worst - they don't even advertise they are par tof SMU - usually its the "Cox School".

Cox is not among the worst - they are completely in sync with the leaders in business school branding. U. of Pennsylvania sells Wharton, Duke sells Fuqua, U. of Virginia sells Darden, etc.

[Dooby]

Posted by gostangs:

If you don't think the B school breaks their own rules every year for certain students for a variety of reasons then you are hopelessly nieve.

Of course the B-school bends/breaks their own rules on occasion as does just about every organization/entity in America. But, not every organization/entity bends/breaks every rule. Is the "two-year rule" one that they have flexibility with - I don't know.

I do know that rules are often bent/broken in private so as not to attract attention. Bending/breaking a rule for a starting quarterback would draw a lot of attention - as not bending/breaking it did in the case of Dooby's original post.

I'd rather draw attention and let a guy that is otherwise qualified to get in, then let some kid in that wasn't just because daddy tossed some money SMU's way. Apparently, Virginia didn't see the lack of work experience as a problem. Their rankings are, at the very least, "comparable" to SMU's.

[Mike Damone]

If he wanted to play that bad, he could've spent the fall semester taking 6-9 hours of history classes or somehting else that interested him enough to pass for one semester. Then he could go and do the accounting thing.

I'm not sure, but I think it is common practice that MSA students cannot get thier MBA's from the same university.

[ponyte]

It is rare that we need a post graduate program to admit a player. What is more concerning is the bit about the psychotic psychologist and her desire to end football. If that is the prevailing attitude among the elite educators at SMU then football is in deep trouble.

When faced with a SMU educator that wants to drop one sport that is near and dear too many of us, simple remind them that one's contribution to the University is tied to that sport. Remind the educator that the University has to sell the contributor on the product and simple going back to the old Organic Chemistry lab for homecoming isn't going to cut it.

I doubt that any of the educators (outside the School of Business) will understand those simple market dynamics but they make take pause to realize that their security as an educator is related to the monies WE give.

[Dooby]

It is rare that we need a post graduate program to admit a player. What is more concerning is the bit about the psychotic psychologist and her desire to end football. If that is the prevailing attitude among the elite educators at SMU then football is in deep trouble.

When faced with a SMU educator that wants to drop one sport that is near and dear too many of us, simple remind them that one's contribution to the University is tied to that sport. Remind the educator that the University has to sell the contributor on the product and simple going back to the old Organic Chemistry lab for homecoming isn't going to cut it.

I doubt that any of the educators (outside the School of Business) will understand those simple market dynamics but they make take pause to realize that their security as an educator is related to the monies WE give.

Trust me. My wife had to apologize for me when I was through with her.

[ponyte]

One never has to apologize to a psychologist. One just has to feel sorry for them.

[EastStang]

Change the facts slightly and say SMU law school instead of Business school get the picture? Graduate schools have competitive admissions standards, which are only rarely waived. You think UT lets football players start at their medical school just because they're football players who want to use up another year of eligibility? Page could have forgotten to take one pre-requisite to graduate, then taken all the upper level accounting courses he wanted to take for his bachelor's and gotten the extra year of eligibility and got his CPA courses out of the way as well. You know that 5th year of eligibility does require some planning on the player and the player's advisor, too.

[Dooby]

Change the facts slightly and say SMU law school instead of Business school get the picture? Graduate schools have competitive admissions standards, which are only rarely waived. You think UT lets football players start at their medical school just because they're football players who want to use up another year of eligibility? Page could have forgotten to take one pre-requisite to graduate, then taken all the upper level accounting courses he wanted to take for his bachelor's and gotten the extra year of eligibility and got his CPA courses out of the way as well. You know that 5th year of eligibility does require some planning on the player and the player's advisor, too.

Again, we are talking one kid maybe every 4 or 5 years. And we are obviously talking about a bright kid, because Page managed to get an MBA from Virginia. But to answer your question, I think UT would absolutely let a kid into a graduate program that was otherwise qualified to get in do this. It is not uncommon for some students to work on graduate degrees in their fifth year of eligibility, but SMU is too good for that.

I like how you try to pin this on Page. Punish the kid for working hard towards a degree. That makes a lot of sense. "Stupid kid! Went and got a degree! Why couldn't he have scraped by on 12 hours like everybody else? That selfish b@st@rd!"

[abezontar]

SMU does allow athletes to work on graduate degrees in their fifth year of elegibilty. Kevin Garrett did it his fifth year, granted it was a Masters of Liberal Arts, but it can be done.