we're not on the 2023 preseason Bottom 10! yay!



Now we just gotta wait for the Bottom 25 to come out!

(08-24-2023 10:59 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(08-24-2023 05:56 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(08-24-2023 05:46 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The historic theory was that you wanted a private school to be a member and be the secretary or whoever kept the records, which at least in theory provided some insulation from FOIA requests. Not sure that was ever tested, or whether it would hold up if tested. With the money where it is now, people may be willing to blow that off unless the private school can hold up its end financially.

Superleague would include Notre Dame, Stanford, Miami among others.

And Southern Cal.

And *not* Stanford, as recent events have made quite clear.

Interesting article on the clearing of house that's taken place within Georgia Tech Athletics over the last year, and the goal of transforming an (urban) institution traditionally known for academics into an athletic power, and the top-down commitment to excellence such a transformation requires. GT has certainly had much more on field success than Rice in recent decades, but the parallels still exist IMO.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...stoudamire

Some quotations that stand out to me:

"[President Angel Cabrera] stepped forward and said, 'Hey, we're going to make athletics as good as the academics of this institution.' And that was truly a huge part of it for me," Batt said

...

"People have a vision of what Georgia Tech is," Key said. "They think engineers and architects and numbers and all this nerdy stuff, and old, and the industrial age of all those things. I said, 'Well, guess what?'

"Imagine the old locomotive going through the tunnel and it busts out the other side, and it's one of those bullet trains coming out going the speed of sound. That's my vision of what Georgia Tech was and is. People walk in here, I don't want to think the old things. I want it to look like an Apple store."

...

"We're looking for partners," he said. "You know, stepping in as the new AD to Georgia Tech, the president stepped forward and linked arms with me and said, 'Hey, we're building this back.' I think it had us looking for people that were going to build it with us.

...

"A lot of people come up with a lot of ideas and sayings and all this kind of crap. He gets things done. He works. And when your boss is working that hard, it keeps you rolling now.

...

"And people talk about playing to a standard and our standard. We have no standard. There's none. We have to create it. Nick Saban didn't have a standard in 2006 at Alabama, he had his personal standard. You have to create those things.

With the Michigan Football program's 1,000th win today, was curious at some Rice all-time Program Records:

Rice's all-time Record: 491-651-32 .430 119th/131 FBS teams

Perhaps surprisingly, Rice has only had three winless seasons in program history so far. Two came in the 1980s:

Year Team Record Coach Conference
1968 Rice 0–9–1 Bo Hagan SWC
1982 Rice 0–11 Ray Alborn SWC
1988 Rice 0–11*# Jerry Berndt SWC
*Lost to 11th ranked Arkansas 21–14 in Little Rock.
#Lost to eventual national champion Notre Dame 54–11 the following week.

Rice has had 9 one-win seasons so far:

Year Team Record Conf Rec. Coach Conference
2017 Rice 1–11 1–7 6th (West) David Bailiff CUSA
2005 Rice 1–10 1–7 T–5th (West) Ken Hatfield WAC
1984 Rice 1–10 0–8 9th Watson Brown SWC
1983 Rice 1–10 0–8 9th Ray Alborn SWC
1979 Rice 1–10 0–8 9th Ray Alborn SWC
1977 Rice 1–10 0–8 9th Homer Rice SWC
1959 Rice 1–7–2 1–4–1 6th Jess Neely SWC
1939 Rice 1–9–1 0–5–1 7th Jimmy Kitts SWC
1918 Rice 1–5–1 1–1 T–3rd John E. Anderson SWC

Those who endured/remembered the 70's/80's versions of Rice football might be more predisposed to judge the football program a bit more harshly than more recent followers. The competition level was arguably much higher (SWC) than what the team typically faces in its present conference environs (AAC) or the immediate two predecessor conferences (CUSA, WAC). Those who may still remember/witnessed the program in the 1960's would have seen the actual initial downfall of the program, from whence it has arguably never realistically recovered to date. Similar can be said of the major sports in the overall program, with the notable exception of Wayne Graham's remarkable leadership of the baseball squad for which the fans and players arguably owe the continued existence of the program itself.

Email from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the importance of athletics for schools 'typically in Division III'.

Have to pay for the article if you aren't a subscriber, but you can get the gist of it from the blurb.

Chronicle of Higher Education Wrote:The Athletics Advantage

For tuition-driven institutions, like small private colleges and regional public universities, sports are often a key recruiting and enrollment tool.

How can these institutions, which typically belong to NCAA’s Division III, invest the appropriate financial and managerial resources into these programs without crowding out or compromising the core enterprise? What are the risks and benefits of bolstering an athletics program? And how do such programs affect campuses?

The Chronicle's newest report, The Athletics Advantage, explores these questions and presents case studies of colleges that have used athletics to drive enrollment.
The report serves as a guide for administrators who are weighing the benefits against the risks of bolstering sports programs.

(02-05-2024 11:55 AM)Grungy Wrote:  Email from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the importance of athletics for schools 'typically in Division III'.

Have to pay for the article if you aren't a subscriber, but you can get the gist of it from the blurb.

Chronicle of Higher Education Wrote:The Athletics Advantage

For tuition-driven institutions, like small private colleges and regional public universities, sports are often a key recruiting and enrollment tool.

How can these institutions, which typically belong to NCAA’s Division III, invest the appropriate financial and managerial resources into these programs without crowding out or compromising the core enterprise? What are the risks and benefits of bolstering an athletics program? And how do such programs affect campuses?

The Chronicle's newest report, The Athletics Advantage, explores these questions and presents case studies of colleges that have used athletics to drive enrollment.
The report serves as a guide for administrators who are weighing the benefits against the risks of bolstering sports programs.

Kids' families are paying at these schools to extend their athletics careers if they can't make it in D1. Money making technique.

Want to raise some more money? Maybe try something like Barry Odom did for UNLV football. No idea how much he raised, but with the rodeo in town, and a Rice day, I'm sure we can find some head coaches tough enough to try this.

Would you commit some money to the department (or football) to see Bloomgren try this?