If this is public record, I would LOVE TO KNOW the majors of every ETSU athlete. How many math, science, Pre-Law, Pre-Med, nursing or Pre-Pharmacy students play sports at ETSU vs. the b.s. majors.
Here's the Link.

Major if declared is usually listed in the online bio for each athlete.

At one time, I understand the ETSU men's tennis team had the highest GPA of any sports team in NCAA D1. That may still be true. Olivares is a management major.

Andrew Reed was a pre-pharmacy major. I believe Nuckles completed his MBA before leaving ETSU. I believe Fields was a finance major...

From the bios, Tiggs, Davis, Hamlin, and Smith are business majors. Hubbard a social work major. Ward is an accounting major. Williams and Pigram are sports management majors and Coy is an elementary ed major. Tara Davis is pre-nursing. Shannon White is pre-pharmacy. A couple of the Lady Buc basketball players are criminal justice majors.

Remember ETSU's College of Business is AACSB accredited, so that's not a chump major.

Given the time spent on the road, not shabby majors for this group of young folks. Someone else might have time to explore other past player's majors.

(01-06-2009 06:35 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  If this is public record, I would LOVE TO KNOW the majors of every ETSU athlete. How many math, science, Pre-Law, Pre-Med, nursing or Pre-Pharmacy students play sports at ETSU vs. the b.s. majors.
Here's the Link.

Yeah, why don't you go check those majors Lover, I think you would be surprised. Truth is the academic advisement staff and support has been excellent over the last three years, and the efforts of the student-athletes are obvious in the numbers released today.

Why the sour grapes? You should be proud of these numbers as a fan of the program.

Buc2002, have the academics of the athletes at ETSU improved since around 2001-2002, or are we about the same?

(01-06-2009 08:07 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  Buc2002, have the academics of the athletes at ETSU improved since around 2001-2002, or are we about the same?

The advisor in that time period was advising approximately 100 more student athlete (football).

I'm just trying to judge the difference from when I was in school. So since there were football players, does that mean it was worse then?

(01-06-2009 08:34 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  I'm just trying to judge the difference from when I was in school. So since there were football players, does that mean it was worse then?

There were more students prior to 2003 as BucDoctor suggests due of football, and I don't think anyone would argue that this would have made for lower academic success simply because of sheer numbers, especially because academic support was something that was "underfunded" just like the rest of the entire athletic program prior to 2003.

However, I don't want to suggest or diminish what has been accomplished by the current academic advisors and their staff (which is what I think some may be implying with the above posts). The report states some "specific" records and numbers that have not ever happened in the programs history for teams that have been around for years, so that is something that -- regardless of whether you have football -- is still a record and commendable. For instance, if you have 13 of 14 teams above of 3.0 GPA for the first time ever, those are the same programs that were here in 2003 and so they've improved to levels never before seen.

Truth is, this is another example of something being done correctly in the program. It's something to be proud of, and once again some people -- like Lover -- are so angry over football that they continue to find issue with any positive coming out of the program. That's just unfortunate.

Id like to have the stats on overall GPA of all students, whether they are an athlete or not.

From my perspective being an undergrad student then a grad student with a teaching assistantship to now an adjunct teacher, I would imagine GPA's across the board are higher than they were 10 years ago. I believe:
1. students as a whole are much less interested in challenging classes; and
2. the academic requirements have adjusted and are far lower than what they were

That has nothing to do with athletics, sorry. Just my soapbox

Well, as a student myself I have had many classes with many of the players...

Basketball speaking, the players are some of the BEST in the class, they always have their stuff together and are always the ones that I want in my group because I know they are doing their part so I don't have to..

Seth Coy-Business
Tommy Hubbard-Business
Adam Sollazzo-Business
Isiah Brown-MCom
CP-BSIS-BS
Davis-BSIS-BS
Greg Hamlin-BSIS-BS
Jarvis Jones-SALM-BS
Kevin Tiggs-BSIS-BS
Micah Williams-SALM-BS

The budget has TRIPLED from what I've been told, along with more employees to deal with less athletes.
Next off, look at our sports. Tennis, Golf, and soccer players in the U.S. typically have a higher socio-economic status of participants than that of football and basketball, so yea I would expect them to do well. And don't bring up the foreign thing, the athletes we have in those sports didn't grow up in mud huts playing their sports barefoot.
As for basketball, Interdisciplinary studies are you FREAKING KIDDING ME! Sports and Leisure Management? Why don't we have a degree in lawn mowing like Va. Tech? Those programs at the undergrad level are a JOKE, and most of the time those are supposed to be used for Juco transfers to try and keep them eligible because their community college counselors had them sign up for remedial dribbling. It has nothing to do with sour grapes, but don't toot your horn about academics when the bottom line is our athletes don't come close to measuring up to the schools in our current OR former conference.

I agree that Sports Management is a joke, and the athletes certainly know that, but while watching the BCS title game Thursday night, I noticed a Florida player that had a major in 'Recreatonal Events Planning.' No kidding - he's getting a degree to learn how to plan parties!

I've had ETSU athletes in class. No men's b-ball players, but every other sport. The best students? The baseball players & golfers. Tracksters weren't too bad. The worst, surprisingly, were volleyballers, but of course, it depends on who you have. Compared to athletes at other institutions I've taught & had contact with (all of which are major players on the D-1 circuit), ETSU athletes are actually pretty good students and pretty good citizens. However, I also think that in general, athletes at the major programs have a bigger spotlight, and often get into bigger trouble, or at least it seems that way.

Golf is also a higher income level sport. Most if not all of the golfers at ETSU went to private school or had private tutors while they went to golf academies. And yes, I get that every school has these majors that athletes are steered toward, but guess what? Most, if not all of our student athletes have zero shot at playing their sport professionally and making legit money. ETSU is doing these kids a disservice by not helping them get a real education, if we're "winning the right way" or "building winners for life" then Interdisciplinary studies should just go away.

First of all, not all of those golfers had private tutors, etc. Second, FAR from all of the major D-1 athletes are playing professionally, but the difference is, ETSU is graduating their athletes, and at least some these major programs are not. For example, Kelvin Sampson, while at Oklahoma, had a 0% graduation rate in the first 10 years he was there. Only a handful of those guys went on to play anywhere professionally.

I compared ETSU to the majors, but this does happen everywhere. What would you suggest? Not giving them an opportunity to at least earn a degree?

Kelvin Sampson is also out of coaching, and rightfully so. I know the stats on student athletes going pro in something other than the sport that they play in, but an Interdisciplinary Studies degree will get you a job pouring coffee at Starbuck's or possibly delivering pizza. And yes, college golfers had some educational advantages that those of a less fortunate socio-economic status have had. My beef isn't with them, they're great guys and the country club sports carry their weight in legitimate academic programs. I just take issue with the university championing how much better they're doing academically when they've tripled the budget only to have more and more athletes being steered toward elective based degrees that really won't help you get a legitimate job based on your own merits. Some of those degrees are what the waterhead that washes cars at the Cadillac dealership would be able to get.

(01-11-2009 08:20 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Kelvin Sampson is also out of coaching, and rightfully so. I know the stats on student athletes going pro in something other than the sport that they play in, but an Interdisciplinary Studies degree will get you a job pouring coffee at Starbuck's or possibly delivering pizza. And yes, college golfers had some educational advantages that those of a less fortunate socio-economic status have had. My beef isn't with them, they're great guys and the country club sports carry their weight in legitimate academic programs. I just take issue with the university championing how much better they're doing academically when they've tripled the budget only to have more and more athletes being steered toward elective based degrees that really won't help you get a legitimate job based on your own merits. Some of those degrees are what the waterhead that washes cars at the Cadillac dealership would be able to get.

I agree with GoBucsGo on this. What would you have them do, Lover? Not educate them and graduate them? And so what if the budget goes up for the ACADEMIC part of their ACADEMIC experience as a student-athlete. I mean, they are coming to ETSU to earn a degree.

And I wouldn't be pointing at others degrees. How's the saying go "Those that leave in glass houses ... " I think you get it.

Sorry for butting in, but I wanted to add a comment. I really hate how the conference has an Academic trophy (which Belmont seems to win all the time). There's no standard for it. ETSU could actually have smart guys, and so could Belmont. We never really know for sure how a grade is attained (easy teacher, actual intelligence, or easy subject). GPA is pretty meaningless in life as it is anyways.

And hey - since Belmont is a private liberal arts school, I tend to think there's a bit of hand holding over there, especially for the athletes. Yes, I know, we all 'hand hold' for the athletes but don't you think Belmont does a bit more of it with the resources they are able to obtain charging the tuition they charge?

This is pure speculation and a Belmont fan could slam me here and I couldn't retort. But I haven't seen many of them in these parts...

you can make a numerical grade of 79.6 at Belmont and get a B and at ETSU you get a C+

As long as athletes maintain the GPA required to play sports then who cares what kind of GPA they have. Anything beyond what is required is completely up to them and I for one could care less if their major is criminal justice or basket weaving. Beyond what is required by the NCAA is none of our concern.

I'm saying get these guys a REAL education. Quit pushing guys to Interdisciplinary Studies or Underwater basket weaving or Sorority girl chasing 101 and steer them towards beneficial, real world degrees.
And yes, I'm happy that the athletic department is spending more on academics, but are the dollars being spent matching the results? Example: Tony Skole makes 67,000 dollars base salary according to the latest release, how many winning seasons has he had? He got the full load of scholarships when football got dropped and a 20,000 dollar raise. Academic dollars have tripled and the amount of student athletes coming in as freshman majoring in these paper champion degrees has as well. It only hurts our reputation.
And as for Belmont, we aren't even close academically, don't bring that argument up. There's a fair amount of ETSU students that couldn't make it at Belmont, major for major. It's not throwing stones, it's demanding bang for the buck.



I agree with GoBucsGo on this. What would you have them do, Lover? Not educate them and graduate them? And so what if the budget goes up for the ACADEMIC part of their ACADEMIC experience as a student-athlete. I mean, they are coming to ETSU to earn a degree.

And I wouldn't be pointing at others degrees. How's the saying go "Those that leave in glass houses ... " I think you get it.
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