Mason finally debunks academic restrictions myth

[Stallion]

What will really be interesting is to see what schools do about a month before signing date in Football and Basketball in 2016 when mandatory freshman redshirt for academically marginal qualifiers comes into affect.

I'm not going to name names but say Powerhouse U has 5 scholarships to give and they generally take 5 academically marginal kids. Can they afford to go into a season with only 8 scholarship players likely to be available. What if 2 of the 5 signees are Top 20 NBA prospects and 3 more are Top 100. What if they can't play as freshman because of mandatory redshirt-the standards are reasonably high. The NBA prospects and probably some of the Top 100 kids may just decide to sign overseas because they will be unwilling to sit for a year. Top prospects with good academics are going to be in high demand especially for teams needing immediate help.

Some may go after the JUCOs who can get the enhanced 2.5 GPA (and enhanced core requirements). But I'm absolutely sure some coach from the SEC will find an way to screw the intent of the new rules-its not that far away

If you are focusing on SMU past problems admitting kids you are going to miss the real barriers coming in 2016. SMU Football is about to start recruiting that class-really already is. If Powerhouse U. insists on recruiting the same players-its going to be a bit embarrassing to explain why 70% of the Class has to academically redshirt

[Pony_Law]

What will really be interesting is to see what schools do about a month before signing date in Football and Basketball in 2016 when mandatory freshman redshirt for academically marginal qualifiers comes into affect.

I'm not going to name names but say Powerhouse U has 5 scholarships to give and they generally take 5 academically marginal kids. Can they afford to go into a season with only 8 scholarship players likely to be available. What if 2 of the 5 signees are Top 20 NBA prospects and 3 more are Top 100. What if they can't play as freshman because of mandatory redshirt-the standards are reasonably high. The NBA prospects and probably some of the Top 100 kids may just decide to sign overseas because they will be unwilling to sit for a year. Top prospects with good academics are going to be in high demand especially for teams needing immediate help.

Some may go after the JUCOs who can get the enhanced 2.5 GPA (and enhanced core requirements). But I'm absolutely sure some coach from the SEC will find an way to screw the intent of the new rules-its not that far away

If you are focusing on SMU past problems admitting kids you are going to miss the real barriers coming in 2016. SMU Football is about to start recruiting that class-really already is. If Powerhouse U. insists on recruiting the same players-its going to be a bit embarrassing to explain why 70% of the Class has to academically redshirt

A certain school will either cheat (because a certain coach has literally cheated everywhere he has been before this certain job which happens to be his first job where the certain school is a big enough program that the shoe will never drop) or those kids that are marginal academic but legit NBA prospects will start going overseas for the 1 year NBA waiting period. For everyone else it will make their teams much better (assuming they make it through their red shirt year.

[alyssa]

It's obvious to me as I'm reading through the messages that one does not need to know something as simple as when it is "than" and when it is "then" to earn an SMU degree.

[sail420s]

It's obvious to me as I'm reading through the messages that one does not need to know something as simple as when it is "than" and when it is "then" to earn an SMU degree.

I new some one wood point out that sum people hear have know grammar skills

[PerunaPunch]

I think it's been proven to our general satisfaction that the university is willing to work to get kids admitted.

HOWEVER... that's only step one.

Where the university's academic standards sometime get in the way of athletics are things like:
• our emphasis on liberal arts Core Classes (not really friendly to many low SES student athletes for whom English is essentially a second language)
• foreign language requirement (when English is essentially a foreign language, this would be akin to you or I learning Latin in French)
• limited majors (compared to state/public schools)
• GPA requirements for majors (this wasn't in place when I was at SMU, or I wouldn't be in my current field, I can assure you)
• Very limited number of slots (and having to compete with general population students for these limited slots) in our School of Education

SMU needs to offer "applied" Core alternatives for math, science, performance arts and other majors. They need to get rid of the GPA requirements to get into certain majors (hey, if you're passing your classes, what's the need for GPA requirements?). For student athletes all this does is throw up roadblocks for making progress toward a degree. SMU needs to give some consideration to the fact that student-athletes' schedules are jam packed between practice, workouts, mandatory study halls, etc. and give them priority when signing up for classes (which would have the added benefit of allowing more of them to have a shot at getting one of the limited slots in many of the School of Education classes.

This is not a comprehensive list of "fixes", just some of the potential areas that should be looked at. SMU offers a tremendous education, and it's a blessing for any kid to get that kind of educational opportunity. But... small size and higher academic standards is a two-edged sword if we continue to let it be.

My 2 cents.

[YouKnowIt]

College is about an education and thus I hope standards are kept high. I much rather have my son (SMU student) graduate from a University with a solid academic reputation rather than mostly being known for its football team. Although both would be great! Interesting change coming at Cal Berkley -

http://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/art ... 874282.php

[PerunaPunch]

College is about an education and thus I hope standards are kept high. I much rather have my son (SMU student) graduate from a University with a solid academic reputation rather than mostly being known for its football team. Although both would be great! Interesting change coming at Cal Berkley -

http://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/art ... 874282.php

I TOTALLY agree. But I would make the argument that you could actually rank higher nationally, would draw better students, and graduate more impressive scholars if you had applied Core alternatives.

[YouKnowIt]

PerunaPunch - I agree with your thoughts and fixes. I too think the min. GPA should be dropped along with other ways to help make it a bit easier on them. I agree that its very difficult for a Student Athlete and I don’t think many people realize how difficult it can be with practices, games (travel), homework and some social life. It seems that schools like Stanford still accomplish both, maybe a place to look at for good fixes.

[Stallion]

We are always going to offer a different type of curriculum than a state school-not much we can do about that other than to expand it somewhat which is what we have and likely will continue to do in the College of Education

Every reputable school has GPA requirements for its reputable programs. Name one I'll prove it. Everybody that graduated from SMU should know this and understand the reasons for it. Most of these players would have a difficult time in these reputable programs-so lower GPA requirements for athletes in say Business would be counterproductive.

You can't have different GPA requirements applicable to student athletes than regular student body in any program-got to be available to student body generally. So for example, if you wanted to lower GPA requirements for athletes in Business, Engineering or Science you would have to lower them for the entire student body. That's really not practical.

The core requirement of a liberal arts university is not really the problem because they are entry level courses with remedial programs available. Foreign language is a common requirement even for State of Texas for high school graduation. -I thought I already proved this. In fact, other schools like Tech and A&M and Baylor have entry requirements that we don't-an extra math core course.

Thanks to tens of Millions of donations since in about 2007, we started to address the real issue-expanding the curiculm available by adding the Simmons College of Education. Its a brand new school which required the investments by the Simmons alone of 20 Million in 2007 and another 25 Million in 2013 in Infra-structure(including the building of 2 new buildings), curriculum and Professors. I'm sure as infrastructure in the College of Education expands SMU will continue to expand on the available courses. Its naïve to think this can be done over a couple of years. They started with Applied Physiology (essentially Kinesiology by another name) and Sports Management which are the majors a high percentage of our athletes are majoring in right now. As the new building is opened I would hope that might allow more expansion of the curriculum

Its ridiculous to suggest that this is why June Jones couldn't get the job done. June Jones is a lazy assed, stubborn, has-been coach who pocketed 2 Million a year while doing half his job

[GiddyUp]

Its ridiculous to suggest that this is why June Jones couldn't get the job done. June Jones is a lazy assed, stubborn, has-been coach who pocketed 2 Million a year while doing half his job

Please pass this on to the Rick "Goose" and all those other idiots. Thanks

[SMU2007]

College is about an education and thus I hope standards are kept high. I much rather have my son (SMU student) graduate from a University with a solid academic reputation rather than mostly being known for its football team. Although both would be great! Interesting change coming at Cal Berkley -

http://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/art ... 874282.php

Oh give me a freaking break. So you must not think Stanford, duke and northwestern are good schools because here's some breaking news for you...their athletes are not 1% smarter than the athletes at state U.

[SMU2007]

The football and basketball teams make exactly ZERO impact on the academics of any university.

[RGV Pony]

The football and basketball teams make exactly ZERO impact on the academics of any university.

Other than the [substantial] contribution to the overall applicant pool a successful fb/bball program makes

[SMU2007]

Yea exactly

[SMU89]

It's obvious to me as I'm reading through the messages that one does not need to know something as simple as when it is "than" and when it is "then" to earn an SMU degree.

I new some one wood point out that sum people hear have know grammar skills

You forgot the period at the end of your sentence...slick.