TCU projected to reach playoff on some projections

[GoMustAAngs2007]

Not saying you are wrong at all, but how has all of the above worked out for OK St. and KS St. regarding overall universtiy rankings. They have had the benefit of the Big XII much longer than TCU has.[/quote]

I agree that Big XII membership hasn't helped OSU and JSU but comparing those schools to SMU and TCU isn't apples to apples. I was strictly comparing SMU and TCU side by side. For students who value sports and school spirit as part of their college experience, TCU is light years ahead of SMU right now (at least until basketball season). Over time, they will be able to use the Big XII TV money to upgrade all of their athletic programs. Baylor figured this out and is now rolling out nationally competitive programs in both football and men's basketball not to mention women's basketball. Meanwhile, we will spend the next 5-10 years fighting the other non-P5 schools for peanuts in TV money. Larry Brown won't be around forever so we had better hope the next basketball coach can keep this momentum going, and Rick Hart will have to tell the next football coach that the future of our athletic program rests on how far he can take the football team in a short amount of time.

I applied and was accepted to both TCU and SMU, and I came from out of state so I was not as familiar with the state of the athletic programs at each school. I was aware of the death penalty and knew SMU hadn't enjoyed much success since then, but I chose SMU because of its superior academic rankings. I worry that like minded students now and in the future will find SMU and TCU more similar academically as time goes on and be more inclined to choose TCU because of football and Big XII membership and the school spirit that comes with it.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

If you guys think that the top hs kids will decide to apply to tcu because of their football program, then you don't know how top academic hs students think. there is no correlation between football success and increased level of applicants. Note I put level of applicants.

I don't dispute that it may raise the number of applications, but it is not raising it for the top students. I've said it before, that overall applicants does not mean better quality of applicants. With the average student that gets accepted to both smu and tcu, will football help? Yes. But, these aren't students that move the needle in terms of the reputation of the school. they are over 100 pts lower in sat scores than smu, and they are also less geographically diverse.

Having said that, it does artificially make selectivity better which does reflect better in the rankings, so there is that, but if you think that being good at football will lead to tcu surpassing us academically, then that is just not true, not has it been proved in any studies (which have been done on the subject).

take a look at the top academic rankings and then at the AP football rankings. See any correlations there? I didn't think so.

[NewAgeMustange]

at least with the case of KState the students from rural ks that go there aren't the brightest peas in the pod.

According to TCU's website, their average SAT for 2014 was a 1774, but their ACT was a 27.
SMU's 1300 and 29.

If you guys think that the top hs kids will decide to apply to tcu because of their football program, then you don't know how top academic hs students think. there is no correlation between football success and increased level of applicants. Note I put level of applicants.

Already has more of a volume of applications almost 20,000 compared to our 13ish
And frankly I think top kids are a give and take, depends if they are interested in the sport and who their team is. I know several people that got a perfect ACT and SAT and went to KU just for the basketball team. One went to Wabash because he wanted the experience (he's married to a woman now)

[Mustangs_Maroons]

sorry and don't mean to offend, but you lose a lot of credibility when you are comapring tcu's sat scores of 1774 to smu's average sat score of above 1300.

I suppose you didn't realize that the 1774 includes the writing component as well and the 1305 for smu does not. For 2013, smu's average sat score was 1305. tcu's was 1180 - both apples to apples excluding the writing part. That is 125 point difference. for reference purposes, rice is 1460, 155 points higher than us. So, rice is above us slighly more than we are ahead of tcu, and I believe that does reflect the different in the overall student quality.

now getting back to the topic at hand, tcu has surprised me with their football team this year. And they could just as easily be undefeated as they could to have lost 3 games (baylor, OU and WV). But, WV gave that game to them with unforced TOs. They shoudn't be ranked #6, and they are certainly not the 4th best team in the country to warrant playing in the playoffs.
I do think they are solidly a top 15 team and had WV not given them that game they would be ranked 15-20 right now, which I think would be fair.

[Big12Mustang]

TCU success turning recruits heads.

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blog ... api_public

[Oldmins]

TCU success turning recruits heads.

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blog ... api_public

Sorry, Big12, but you've got to be an Insider and pay $$ to read the ESPN post.

[Nacho]

of the occ schools we played tcu was easily the least impressive.
baylor beat them and yet. yet...yet...yet they are ranked below them.

[ghost]

Of most colleges undergraduate enrollment, what is your guess for the percentage of students whose #1 priority is academic? 10%...20%. I would guess that 70-80% of most "American" students are more interested in the overall experience of a university than just the academic side. So the rise in applications is probably in that 80% category or am I looking at this wrong. For too long SMU has not recruited the well-rounded student who likes it all...academics, extracurricular, etc. So many foreign students and students from other states who will not be active fans and financial supporters for the SMU sports teams after graduation. TCU is more of a large community college now with many well-rounded students who will be the business leaders and donors to TCU for decades to come.

[Nacho]

also tcu is 60% female.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Of most colleges undergraduate enrollment, what is your guess for the percentage of students whose #1 priority is academic? 10%...20%. I would guess that 70-80% of most "American" students are more interested in the overall experience of a university than just the academic side. So the rise in applications is probably in that 80% category or am I looking at this wrong. For too long SMU has not recruited the well-rounded student who likes it all...academics, extracurricular, etc. So many foreign students and students from other states who will not be active fans and financial supporters for the SMU sports teams after graduation. TCU is more of a large community college now with many well-rounded students who will be the business leaders and donors to TCU for decades to come.

Thanks, I needed a good laugh. How you draw that they have more well rounded students and your reach that they will be business leaders is beyond me. Your whole premise is baseless.

[footballdad]

Interesting how a thread titled 'TCU projected to reach playoff' gets diverted once again into a debate about SMU's academic rankings?

This is a football board. In the big scheme of things, it seems pretty clear that TCU is kicking SMU's [deleted] backward, forward, and upside down.

[PlanoStang]

What's funny is we ran off the coach that beat them in Fort Worth just 3 years ago

[SMU2007]

Props to tcu. They have thoroughly kicked our a-ss in all things football related and deserve all their success.

[footballdad]

What's funny is we ran off the coach that beat them in Fort Worth just 3 years ago

Yeah, we probably should have kept the guru, he was such an invaluable asset to the University :ro

[mrydel]

What's funny is we ran off the coach that beat them in Fort Worth just 3 years ago

Yeah. He did accomplish that once in 7 years didn't he.