(02-27-2017 05:09 PM)Rick Gerlach Wrote:  

(02-27-2017 05:06 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(02-27-2017 03:06 PM)curve Wrote:  

(02-27-2017 12:39 PM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(02-26-2017 11:56 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  Karlgaard is going to have to do a lot of soul searching this summer bout the decline of two of our top three sports under his watch. Still early in baseball, but looks like another season filled with excuses, a regional exit (or potentially missing the tournament entirely, the way we are playing so far) and no tangible action by the AD to stop this decade-long slide.

What are his degrees of freedom? should there be a bigger recruiting budget? do you want a coaching change?

Not sure what all AD's can do except hire coaches, build facilities and run ticket sales.

Our facility is first class
Our coach is a legend
We sell a lot of tickets (and I don't think you are worried about tickets as much as you are about wins and losses).

We are in that perhaps risky zone of a coach approaching old age whom everyone believes is entitled to "go out on his own terms"

I can't think of a situation where that ended well, but there probably is one. Hard to recall now, but John Wooden actually left UCLA at 65. OG was 67 when we won the title in 2003.

What part of our facility makes it first class? Sure, the new scoreboard is great, but our marketing team needs to improve tremendously on making it more fun for the fans.

Take a look at UT, A&M, UH, TCU, or hell even Texas Tech's locker room try to convince youself ours is nicer. Reckling Park needs a lot of updating.

Unfortunately, that is a much greater factor now than it ever has been. If you compare TCU baseball to Rice baseball, I think one of the only advantages Rice has over TCU is education. Obviously in the long run, nothing is more important than that. That is what makes Rice so special. But not all kids are thinking that way when they are being recruited. Luken Baker for example. Why wouldn't he go to a school like TCU when he knows he will be drafted in three years? Go there, have more fun, and enjoy the first class facilities.

EXACTLY! I've been trying to make this point for a while now. This applies to baseball, but is even more true for football and basketball.

Why should I go to Rice when the only thing better is the education? If I go into a interview at age 25 for a consulting or banking job in Houston, and I had a 3.8 GPA in finance at Texas while playing football, nobody is going to be saying "Why did you go to Texas instead of [Rice, Harvard, Yale, etc.]?" Instead, they are going to be like "Damn, I wish I could've played football at Texas, that's every kid's dream growing up [At least before they started sucking]."

Now, whether most athletes at UT, A&M, etc. end up having 3.8 GPAs in finance is a different topic, but I don't think (all things being equal) that Student-Athlete (especially in a revenue sport) in competitive major from big state school is at much of a disadvantage to Rice Student-Athlete with the same major in the work force.

Only in the sense that if you're likelihood of graduating is 90% at Rice, and 55% at UT, or less at other schools, that gets factored in.

But in terms of the point you're trying to make, I agree with you.

I'm sure the LF for SELA has a 3.8 for his General studies degree though because he was on the honor roll! Don't forget a lot of schools strongly discourage tough majors for their athletes.

I'd agree a degree from A&M or UT is perfectly fine for most of these players' selected majors (even TTech or UH or TCU) but you'd have a tough time convincing me For SELA or DBU or SHSU or ULL...