(10-13-2021 03:53 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(10-13-2021 03:02 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(10-13-2021 02:54 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(10-13-2021 02:37 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(10-13-2021 02:16 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  Unlike UTSA or sadly even ECU Rice if they just decided they wanted to do it could go drop huge money to hire insert your massive name coach with baggage. They could go pay Rick Pitino or Greg Marshall 3 million a year to come coach at Rice, and Rice would instantly be nationally relevant. The only thing stopping Rice from doing something like that is Rice themselves.

QFT, though, culturally, Rice would also have to challenge its recruiting practices and maybe try for kids it may have previously passed on, too. It’s a bigger lift for the school than it appears, but, yeah, Rice itself put that on its own back.

True there's more to it than just that, but like you said all the issues that make it arguably impossible to win at Rice are self imposed.

Well if Stanford can win, Rice can win.

The pool of kids that can meet those academic standards are tiny, and Notre Dame/Stanford/Northwestern are going to get the cream of that crop, and Rice is going to be behind Duke and Vandy as well in that pecking order. You can't swim only in that recruiting pool at the G5 level and win. SMU doesn't swim only in that pool. Even Tulane no longer swims only in that pool. Rice has to be willing to take the types of kids Tulane and SMU take if they want to win. If they only want to take the types of kids Stanford takes they can't win, nowhere near enough exist and Rice is last choice.

It's crazy to me that, with their resources, they could be a good football team next season if they wanted to be. If they've been reaching out to the Big 12 and AAC, why on Earth haven't they flipped that switch?