The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/ne...state.html

Interesting article about college recruiting. Right in one BT poster's wheelhouse...

How the University of Alabama Became a National Player
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/educat....html?_r=1

To me it's a little bizarre that Alabama's only claim to fame really is the football program. They're somehow pulling people from Berkeley with almost no academic distinction. People always talk about how football is a waste of money, but by golly, it is the only thing keeping Alabama's name in the papers. The only reason its undergraduate rankings are so high is because they 1) service the 'elite' in the state that use Alabama as a place to throw away four years to watch football games before using already-existing networks to gain employment afterwards, and 2) now, are able to pull in high-scoring students due to its name recognition. Football is a great investment.

UAB is a world-renowned medical university with several highly-ranked graduate programs, and is in fact the only R1 in the state. Yet we get short shrift as an undergraduate institution because our sports programs have not competed, generally. And if people want to act like football only matters in the South, many of these students are from Yankeedom or out West, so it's not just that. Football puts your name in ears, and that recognition alone is enough to attract students. The NYT has used Alabama as an example before because they're not particularly exceptional in any other way. It's a great example for how universities are now a business model -- building an exciting brand through nonacademic means.

I'm against wishing harm on Alabama as long as it doesn't conflict with UAB (it seems to often do though, doesn't it?), and I would like to see the UA system become something like the research triangle in and around Durham. But this, like Durham, requires an exciting sports program.

(11-07-2016 09:28 PM)antblazer Wrote:  To me it's a little bizarre that Alabama's only claim to fame really is the football program. They're somehow pulling people from Berkeley with almost no academic distinction. People always talk about how football is a waste of money, but by golly, it is the only thing keeping Alabama's name in the papers. The only reason its undergraduate rankings are so high is because they 1) service the 'elite' in the state that use Alabama as a place to throw away four years to watch football games before using already-existing networks to gain employment afterwards, and 2) now, are able to pull in high-scoring students due to its name recognition. Football is a great investment.

UAB is a world-renowned medical university with several highly-ranked graduate programs, and is in fact the only R1 in the state. Yet we get short shrift as an undergraduate institution because our sports programs have not competed, generally. And if people want to act like football only matters in the South, many of these students are from Yankeedom or out West, so it's not just that. Football puts your name in ears, and that recognition alone is enough to attract students. The NYT has used Alabama as an example before because they're not particularly exceptional in any other way. It's a great example for how universities are now a business model -- building an exciting brand through nonacademic means.

I'm against wishing harm on Alabama as long as it doesn't conflict with UAB (it seems to often do though, doesn't it?), and I would like to see the UA system become something like the research triangle in and around Durham. But this, like Durham, requires an exciting sports program.

You're not wrong in your analysis, but a considerable factor in bringing those out-of-staters in is also the incredibly lucrative (housing, meals, full tuition) scholarships they offer to elite academic candidates. Lots of kids are taking out what are ultimately mortgage-sized loans to go to college and/or graduate studies, being able to avoid that is often a pretty attractive offer.

The case for out of state students, from the parents of 3 coworkers in Pennsylvania whose kids are going to UaT - It is cheaper to send their kid to school here , and pay out of state tuition, than it is to send them to Penn St .

And the coaches don't get rapey in the showers, either.

If, as has been stated, out of state tuition in the UA system is cheaper than instate tuition in other states, where is the UA System saving money? It certainly is NOT getting much from the plush funding of its Athletic Department which only provides what amounts to "leftover pocket change" to the university's administration in its general academic scholarship fund.

Is it holding the salary line on faculty pay like is being done with the state's K-12 academic teachers? What is the median pay of university system academic instructors?