PonyFans.com

Am I to take from the extremely negative and hateful 'letters to the sports editor' concerning SMU in today's DMN, that no positive letters were received?? None??

Twice in a week they've pubished a letter calling for an end of SMU athletics.

Come on! Give me a break. And end to athletics? That is frickin' preposterous. I challenge those of us on this board who give a d*** about sports at SMU to write the DMN.

I thought the one from the faculty member was good - SMU doesn't have a plan in place for the athletic department.

The other one well wonder if he really was a fan

I have a personal crusade against the attitude suggested by teh faculty member. The attitude that the school must be decide between being a football factory and a serious academic institution is just wrong. 100% wrong.

My personal favorite was something to the effect that "Jim Copeland has shown that he is just as inept at firing coaches as he is at hiring them."

SMU Football Blog wrote:I have a personal crusade against the attitude suggested by teh faculty member. The attitude that the school must be decide between being a football factory and a serious academic institution is just wrong. 100% wrong.

My personal favorite was something to the effect that "Jim Copeland has shown that he is just as inept at firing coaches as he is at hiring them."

Well, I'll take football factories for a thousand, Alex.

Someone please point out to the faculty member the reputations of such football factories as:
Cal-Berkeley
Notre Dame
Stanford
Indiana University
etc.

More ironic examples can be found in our own conference. Stallion will be the first to tell you that when it comes to recruiting and signing, UAB will let pretty much anyone in.

Guess who has probably the best medical school in the southeast US?

Guess where you go if you're in the south and want an MD/PhD?

That's right....that bastion of low academic standards, our conference brethren, Ala.-Bham.

SMU Football Blog wrote:I have a personal crusade against the attitude suggested by teh faculty member. The attitude that the school must be decide between being a football factory and a serious academic institution is just wrong. 100% wrong.

Still think the athletic deficit is not important?

As an aside, for us out-of-towners, which faculty member wrote the piece? I can't find Sport letters on the website.

Posted by RGV Pony:

Well, I'll take football factories for a thousand, Alex.

Someone please point out to the faculty member the reputations of such football factories as:
Cal-Berkeley
Notre Dame
Stanford
Indiana University
etc.

More ironic examples can be found in our own conference. Stallion will be the first to tell you that when it comes to recruiting and signing, UAB will let pretty much anyone in.

Guess who has probably the best medical school in the southeast US?

Guess where you go if you're in the south and want an MD/PhD?

That's right....that bastion of low academic standards, our conference brethren, Ala.-Bham.

Indiana University is a weak example of a "football factory" if success on the gridiron is the primary measurement.

Berkeley is possibly the finest public university in America. It modified (lowered) academic standards for football player admissions...and still hasn't won a Pac 10 football championship in a long time.

Is there really a (perceived institutional academic quality) strong relationship between UAB's (graduate) medical school standards and UAB's (undergraduate) football player admissions?

The students who are applying to and graduating from UAB's medical school don't have much in common academically with most of the football players that UAB signs. I think that the public realizes that.

UAB medical school students and undergraduates are in different orbits.

Cheesesteak wrote:Posted by RGV Pony:

Well, I'll take football factories for a thousand, Alex.

Someone please point out to the faculty member the reputations of such football factories as:
Cal-Berkeley
Notre Dame
Stanford
Indiana University
etc.

More ironic examples can be found in our own conference. Stallion will be the first to tell you that when it comes to recruiting and signing, UAB will let pretty much anyone in.

Guess who has probably the best medical school in the southeast US?

Guess where you go if you're in the south and want an MD/PhD?

That's right....that bastion of low academic standards, our conference brethren, Ala.-Bham.

Indiana University is a weak example of a "football factory" if success on the gridiron is the primary measurement.

Berkeley is possibly the finest public university in America. It modified (lowered) academic standards for football player admissions...and still hasn't won a Pac 10 football championship in a long time.

Is there really a (perceived institutional academic quality) strong relationship between UAB's (graduate) medical school standards and UAB's (undergraduate) football player admissions?

The students who are applying to and graduating from UAB's medical school don't have much in common academically with most of the football players that UAB signs. I think that the public realizes that.

UAB medical school students and undergraduates are in different orbits.

Regardless, the point remains the same. You don't have to choose one or the other. There are plenty of respected universities that have managed to find success on the gridiron/basketball court as well. From USC, to Texas, to Georgia Tech, to UVA, to Michigan..........

SMU does not deserve a "good" letter to the morning news after the PR botch job that is the handling of the Tubbs firing. Today starts week three of Burgergate and all you fools who thought the "real reasons" would be forthcoming, guess what? SMU hopes you just forget about it. But never fear, I'll be here to remind you about burgers and Cheer.

jtstang wrote:SMU does not deserve a "good" letter to the morning news after the PR botch job that is the handling of the Tubbs firing. Today starts week three of Burgergate and all you fools who thought the "real reasons" would be forthcoming, guess what? SMU hopes you just forget about it. But never fear, I'll be here to remind you about burgers and Cheer.

Read the Copeland interview on Blog's site.

McClown27 wrote:Read the Copeland interview on Blog's site.

Okay, I did. So? It only reinforces what I said before, if you cannot state your case in public because of the NCAA investigation, you don't fire the guy until you can.

This is starting to look more and more like Copeland taking the bullet for Orsini, a guy, who since you like to read the blogster's site, you already know has never in his career hired a basketball coach....

jtstang wrote:

McClown27 wrote:Read the Copeland interview on Blog's site.

Okay, I did. So? It only reinforces what I said before, if you cannot state your case in public because of the NCAA investigation, you don't fire the guy until you can.

They had to get rid of Tubbs before the middle of the Summer. Otherwise, with a firing mid-summer, next year would be lost. We are still able to do a full search now.

Since the firing, there has been little reason to think that this has been an embarassment to the school. Other than Blackistone's hysterics, no one seems to care--esp. after Sampson signed that ridiculous contract. That ESPN article would have gone after SMU if they thought somethign was fishy. It seems like the only people thinking that the sky is falling are Blackistone, AbeZontar, Hoop Fan, DickerJames, EastStang, and you.

As for Orsini's hiring acumen, he did a pretty good job with their football coach last year.

Well it may not be an embarassment to you because apparently you have no pride, but it certainly shows the lack of spine in the SMU athletic department. If you're firing a guy because he did not improve the program after two years, have the balls to say so. Don't allow the burgers and Cheer story to perpetuate to mythical proportions (yeah, it was on ESPN's front page) and then mysteriously allude to other more serious violations AND THEN pay him his contract. It all adds to the egg on SMU's face.

jtstang wrote:Well it may not be an embarassment to you because apparently you have no pride, but it certainly shows the lack of spine in the SMU athletic department.

I don't see why you have to make this personal. For me, the embarassment stems from the behavior of Tubbs. I guess others can tolerate the cheating, but I am glad that we run a clean program.

Let's hope they hire someone a lot better.

Not making it personal, just an observation based on your attitude toward the whole thing. I guess you advocate firing somebody for burgers and Cheer because it is "cheating" and I do not. I think of cheating as doing something that gives you a competitive advantage over an opponent, and I do not think burgers and Cheer falls into that category. But if you are going to run a "clean program" and fire the coach for burgers and Cheer, then why have I never seen you advocate sanctions against Max Williams, the booster involved in the violations. He is as much a part of the violations as Tubbs, and if you fire Tubbs, you'd have to ban him to be consistent now wouldn't you?

Danny Noonan: My point exactly.

cheezesteak: The IU mention should've have used the word basketball instead of football; one could also interchange Purdue. The Boilers are top 25 consistently since Tiller got there and an excellent research school. The billboard at the Indy airport also touts its business school.

Your statement about athletes and the medical school at UAB reflects my point. Restated, I would differ with the faculty member who suggests SMU must pick one (academic school) or the other (football factory). Someone used the phrase 'mutually exclusive' on here recently; my position is that such applies to academics and football. As you correctly pointed out, Cal does a good job of meeting both goals.