SFA beats Duke...at Duke.

Transformational.

(11-27-2019 11:15 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Transformational.

Well, I'll bet people around the country that follow college sports paid attention; and some of them probably looked into SFA, where it is and what it's about. Perhaps their applications will go up this year. Donors too, somewhat.

That's a heckuva win, and a good start.
It seems we're watching the rest of Tejas pass us up, slowly but surely.

Signature wins aren't all of the picture, but they are an important and necessary part. Good for SFA. Congrats.

Free throws - Duke 24-40; SFA 11-17

I watched from the under 8:00 timeout through the end of the game and SFA did not get the benefit of one call and there were some really questionable calls in favor of Duke.

SFA really handled the post-game interviews very well. A really nice performance.

Ironically, transformation is a 6.5 point favorite this week, although incrementalism has a 53.4% chance of winning according to ESPN’s FPI.

No more Dolphins:

Jacksonville University Discontinues Football

Keep their statement on file, it might well come in handy as a template in a few years, but I certainly hope not:

Quote:"...the University announced it will no longer play football and will discontinue its Division I program, effective immediately. The University has participated in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League since 1998.

This was a difficult decision," said Athletic Director Alex Ricker-Gilbert. "Our student-athletes and coaches in the football program are talented, tenacious and hard working. We respect them immensely. Reinvesting these resources into our other Division I programs better positions us to enhance the experience for all 450 student-athletes."

“We took a comprehensive approach, examining how we invest across the entire department,” said Ricker-Gilbert. “All options were on the table through this process and we made a commitment to hold off on any premature conclusions until we had a complete picture. Ultimately, one option stood out as the best path forward for Jacksonville Athletics as a whole. When you consider all that we commit to coaching, recruiting, advising, facilities, conditioning, nutrition, and academic counseling, it’s clear the resources required to support our football program outweigh the benefits to the overall Athletics Department and the University.”

Exceed Expectations, unconventional wisdom.

(12-03-2019 01:16 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

No more Dolphins:

Jacksonville University Discontinues Football

Keep their statement on file, it might well come in handy as a template in a few years, but I certainly hope not:

Quote:"...the University announced it will no longer play football and will discontinue its Division I program, effective immediately. The University has participated in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League since 1998.

This was a difficult decision," said Athletic Director Alex Ricker-Gilbert. "Our student-athletes and coaches in the football program are talented, tenacious and hard working. We respect them immensely. Reinvesting these resources into our other Division I programs better positions us to enhance the experience for all 450 student-athletes."

“We took a comprehensive approach, examining how we invest across the entire department,” said Ricker-Gilbert. “All options were on the table through this process and we made a commitment to hold off on any premature conclusions until we had a complete picture. Ultimately, one option stood out as the best path forward for Jacksonville Athletics as a whole. When you consider all that we commit to coaching, recruiting, advising, facilities, conditioning, nutrition, and academic counseling, it’s clear the resources required to support our football program outweigh the benefits to the overall Athletics Department and the University.”

JU is a small private university in Jacksonville, Fla. (Total enrollment: 4,213, including 2,292 full-time undergraduates) ... not to be confused with the smallish state university in Jacksonville, Ala., Jacksonville State U. (Total enrollment: 9,021, including 5,942 full-time undergraduates).

The JU announcement also noted:

Quote:With the goal of recruiting top-quality student-athletes who exhibit excellence on and off the field, Jacksonville Athletics also has focused its investment on enhancing the student-athlete experience with projects like the Jacksonville Lacrosse Center, upgrades to the baseball stadium and, just this fall, announcing a new basketball training facility.

Founded in 1993, the Pioneer Football League says it's the NCAA's only non-scholarship D-1 FCS conference. Jacksonville was 1-7 in conference play the past two seasons.

Actually, they say they are the only non-scholarship, football-only (emphasis added) D1 FCS conference.

That football-only makes a difference. Because I'm pretty sure the Ivy League is non-scholarship.

(12-03-2019 03:40 PM)gsloth Wrote:  Actually, they say they are the only non-scholarship, football-only (emphasis added) D1 FCS conference.

That football-only makes a difference. Because I'm pretty sure the Ivy League is non-scholarship.

Only as a technicality - they are really at a huge advantage in the "non-revenue" sports, in that they can recruit so many more athletes, and "rightfully" claim that they don't have athletic scholarships.

(12-03-2019 03:40 PM)gsloth Wrote:  Actually, they say they are the only non-scholarship, football-only (emphasis added) D1 FCS conference.

Thanks for the correction.

(Geez, I'm on quite a negative roll for inaccurate posts lately. Can't even copy/paste correctly. Grrr.)

Not hard to guess who's #1....

ESPN's The 150 greatest coaches in college football's 150-year history
Dec 10, 2019

Also:

Quote:30. John Heisman, 186-70-18
Oberlin (1892, 1894; 11-3-1), Buchtel (now Akron) (1893-94; 6-2), Auburn (1895-99; 12-4-2), Clemson (1900-03; 19-3-2), Georgia Tech (1904-19; 102-29-7), Pennsylvania (1920-22; 16-10-2), Washington & Jefferson (1923; 6-1-1) and Rice (1924-27; 14-18-3)

The namesake of college football's most revered individual award won 186 games in 37 seasons at eight different schools. His best work was at Georgia Tech from 1915 to '17, when his teams had three straight unbeaten seasons. His 1917 team went 9-0 and outscored opponents 491-17.

Quote:150. Bill Yeoman, 160-108-8
Houston (1962-86)

Yes, Yeoman practically built Houston into the successful program it is today {edit: with a big hand from Rice, who got them into the SWC--thanks, Coogs for not reciprocating us out of CUSA}, winning 160 games, including four Southwest Conference titles and four top-10 finishes, in 25 seasons. But he has another, perhaps more indelible distinction: He invented the veer formation, which is the bedrock of option-based offenses today.

nope...Jess Neely didn't make the list. That's a shame:

Neely compiled a career college football record of 207–176–19. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971.

Neely was also the head baseball coach at the University of Alabama (1929–1930), at Clemson (1932–1938) and at Rice (1945 and 1948), tallying a career college baseball mark of 109–108–5.

(12-13-2019 11:24 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Not hard to guess who's #1....

ESPN's The 150 greatest coaches in college football's 150-year history
Dec 10, 2019

Also:

Quote:30. John Heisman, 186-70-18
Oberlin (1892, 1894; 11-3-1), Buchtel (now Akron) (1893-94; 6-2), Auburn (1895-99; 12-4-2), Clemson (1900-03; 19-3-2), Georgia Tech (1904-19; 102-29-7), Pennsylvania (1920-22; 16-10-2), Washington & Jefferson (1923; 6-1-1) and Rice (1924-27; 14-18-3)

The namesake of college football's most revered individual award won 186 games in 37 seasons at eight different schools. His best work was at Georgia Tech from 1915 to '17, when his teams had three straight unbeaten seasons. His 1917 team went 9-0 and outscored opponents 491-17.

Quote:150. Bill Yeoman, 160-108-8
Houston (1962-86)

Yes, Yeoman practically built Houston into the successful program it is today {edit: with a big hand from Rice, who got them into the SWC--thanks, Coogs for not reciprocating us out of CUSA}, winning 160 games, including four Southwest Conference titles and four top-10 finishes, in 25 seasons. But he has another, perhaps more indelible distinction: He invented the veer formation, which is the bedrock of option-based offenses today.

nope...Jess Neely didn't make the list. That's a shame:

Neely compiled a career college football record of 207–176–19. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971.

Neely was also the head baseball coach at the University of Alabama (1929–1930), at Clemson (1932–1938) and at Rice (1945 and 1948), tallying a career college baseball mark of 109–108–5.

pretty sad on Jess-not sure how Meyer gets in and Jess does not

Two fun facts about Heisman...
1) he had a winning percentage above .500 at all of his 8 stops EXCEPT FOR RICE

2) even at .443 he still ranks in Rice’s top five career winning percentage in the last hundred years.

Wondering what it might look like on South Main in the future? Here's a possible preview, based on our current trajectory. Whaddaya think?

Division III Washington University passes up big money, big problems
By Ben Malcolmson, sports editor of The Daily Trojan at the University of Southern California

I remember briefly considering Wash U in St. L back in the day in my initial survey of possible schools. Found out they were not Div I and quickly said no thanks. Hence, Rice (at the time).

Quote:This school’s teams face a unique challenge that no big-time university has ever faced or has ever wanted to face.

“It’s hard to match up a 1400 SAT and a skilled baseball player,” Washington University baseball coach Ric Lessmann said.

A 150-year-old private school situated in a tree-lined section of St. Louis, Division III Washington University doesn’t have athletic scholarships. The athletic department doesn’t get help from admissions for a star recruit. And the athletic budget might as well be pennies in comparison with those of some Division I athletic programs, including USC.

This is no normal athletic program.

“You’re talking about a different world between Division I and Division III,” Washington University Athletic Director John Schael said.

The admissions department of Washington University doesn’t grant the athletic program any leeway in terms of academic credentials for recruits and athletic scholarships are nonexistent at the Division III level, so it is pretty difficult to win.

“I don’t recruit related to baseball,” said Lessmann, who has coached 11 years at Washington University and 39 years total, compiling a 1,204-410-1 all-time record.

The athletes at Washington University might be the ones performing surgery on you in 10 years, but they do not fit into the nerd stereotype. Washington University has 18 varsity teams in the University Athletic Association, an athletic conference featuring “eight leading universities committed to academic and athletic excellence,” according to the UAA’s Web site.

Getting in might be the most competitive part – more than 20,000 people apply each year for only 1,300 spots in the freshman class, so recruiting is a bear.

“If you don’t have a 1400 SAT, a 30 to 31 ACT and if you’re not in the top 5 to 7 percent of your class, I throw (the recruit’s interest form) in the waste can,” said Lessmann, who added that he has no influence in the admissions office like Division I programs allegedly do for players who do not meet the university’s academic criteria.

At a university where tuition runs at a USC-esque $41,000 a year, Lessmann’s pool of recruits shrinks after high school players learn of the rigid academic standards and the cost of attending the school.

“There are two hurdles: You’ve got to get in and what type of financial aid package are you going to get,” said Lessmann, who played in the New York Yankees’ minor-league system at age 17. “But, we don’t have tons of full-pay players. The average academic scholarship is from $10,000 to $11,000.”

Players are not the only ones hit with money woes. Washington University’s athletic department as a whole has to deal with a diminutive budget compared to the likes of USC’s and other major universities’.

The Washington University athletic department spent slightly more than $2 million during the 2002-03 school year, while USC’s athletic department spends nearly $47 million, 23 times more than Washington University, in that same time period. USC’s expenses for its 19 sports are about average for a major university’s athletic program with a similar number of sports (Notre Dame’s is $38.5 million; Texas’ $49.4 million; Florida’s $54.2 million).

“(USC is) in the money game and we’re not,” Lessmann said.

And consider that USC and Washington University have a similar number of athletes (593 for USC and 528 for Washington University), sports (19 and 16 teams, respectively) and operating expenses for their respective universities as a whole ($1.52 billion for USC and $1.35 billion for Washington University).

USC’s male head coaches, on average per position, were paid nearly seven-and-a-half times more than Washington University’s ($245,046 to $32,786).

USC’s operating expense for football is $1.96 million. Washington University’s is $106,519.

Washington University athletics do not have the professional feel – the Bears don’t have a 92,000-seat football stadium or Nike swooshed on them from head to toe – that has become all too apparent in college sports these days.

“Here, we don’t have that attitude,” Argo said.

On a warm mid-March day, the Washington University baseball team lost, 5-2, to Elmhurst College, another small Division III school. A win’s only a win and a loss is merely a loss. Boy, are we missing out.

(12-24-2019 01:32 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wondering what it might look like on South Main in the future? Here's a possible preview, based on our current trajectory. Whaddaya think?

Division III Washington University passes up big money, big problems
By Ben Malcolmson, sports editor of The Daily Trojan at the University of Southern California

I remember briefly considering Wash U in St. L back in the day in my initial survey of possible schools. Found out they were not Div I and quickly said no thanks. Hence, Rice (at the time).

Quote:This school’s teams face a unique challenge that no big-time university has ever faced or has ever wanted to face.

“It’s hard to match up a 1400 SAT and a skilled baseball player,” Washington University baseball coach Ric Lessmann said.

A 150-year-old private school situated in a tree-lined section of St. Louis, Division III Washington University doesn’t have athletic scholarships. The athletic department doesn’t get help from admissions for a star recruit. And the athletic budget might as well be pennies in comparison with those of some Division I athletic programs, including USC.

This is no normal athletic program.

“You’re talking about a different world between Division I and Division III,” Washington University Athletic Director John Schael said.

The admissions department of Washington University doesn’t grant the athletic program any leeway in terms of academic credentials for recruits and athletic scholarships are nonexistent at the Division III level, so it is pretty difficult to win.

“I don’t recruit related to baseball,” said Lessmann, who has coached 11 years at Washington University and 39 years total, compiling a 1,204-410-1 all-time record.

The athletes at Washington University might be the ones performing surgery on you in 10 years, but they do not fit into the nerd stereotype. Washington University has 18 varsity teams in the University Athletic Association, an athletic conference featuring “eight leading universities committed to academic and athletic excellence,” according to the UAA’s Web site.

Getting in might be the most competitive part – more than 20,000 people apply each year for only 1,300 spots in the freshman class, so recruiting is a bear.

“If you don’t have a 1400 SAT, a 30 to 31 ACT and if you’re not in the top 5 to 7 percent of your class, I throw (the recruit’s interest form) in the waste can,” said Lessmann, who added that he has no influence in the admissions office like Division I programs allegedly do for players who do not meet the university’s academic criteria.

At a university where tuition runs at a USC-esque $41,000 a year, Lessmann’s pool of recruits shrinks after high school players learn of the rigid academic standards and the cost of attending the school.

“There are two hurdles: You’ve got to get in and what type of financial aid package are you going to get,” said Lessmann, who played in the New York Yankees’ minor-league system at age 17. “But, we don’t have tons of full-pay players. The average academic scholarship is from $10,000 to $11,000.”

Players are not the only ones hit with money woes. Washington University’s athletic department as a whole has to deal with a diminutive budget compared to the likes of USC’s and other major universities’.

The Washington University athletic department spent slightly more than $2 million during the 2002-03 school year, while USC’s athletic department spends nearly $47 million, 23 times more than Washington University, in that same time period. USC’s expenses for its 19 sports are about average for a major university’s athletic program with a similar number of sports (Notre Dame’s is $38.5 million; Texas’ $49.4 million; Florida’s $54.2 million).

“(USC is) in the money game and we’re not,” Lessmann said.

And consider that USC and Washington University have a similar number of athletes (593 for USC and 528 for Washington University), sports (19 and 16 teams, respectively) and operating expenses for their respective universities as a whole ($1.52 billion for USC and $1.35 billion for Washington University).

USC’s male head coaches, on average per position, were paid nearly seven-and-a-half times more than Washington University’s ($245,046 to $32,786).

USC’s operating expense for football is $1.96 million. Washington University’s is $106,519.

Washington University athletics do not have the professional feel – the Bears don’t have a 92,000-seat football stadium or Nike swooshed on them from head to toe – that has become all too apparent in college sports these days.

“Here, we don’t have that attitude,” Argo said.

On a warm mid-March day, the Washington University baseball team lost, 5-2, to Elmhurst College, another small Division III school. A win’s only a win and a loss is merely a loss. Boy, are we missing out.

That article is 15 years old -- WUSTL has gotten a lot harder to get into (as have all elite schools) and I highly doubt that their athletics department is still walled off from admissions. Given the very low admission rate and relatively small incoming class size, if they simply left it up to admissions, they'd be in danger of literally not having enough kids who played varsity basketball or baseball or whatever in HS to even field teams, nevermind competitive ones. The Ivies pass athletic recruits through admissions (as the recent scandal made crystal clear) and so do Div. III schools.

went to Texas Bowl last night. A highlight was Jarett Dillard being one of the Gridiron Legends. Really fun game-aggies played great after working really hard to give the game away early. Every time I hear the Aggie band, it reminds me of the SWC (sorry northeast vermont tech school-burlington branch just doesn't have the vibe) and sadly the grim reaper of conferences (SWC, WAC, and soon the Big 12) DeLoss Dodds was somehow also a Legend. Megalomaniac would be more correct. Not sure what could possibly be said that he did for the greater good of college football.

(12-28-2019 10:46 AM)texowl2 Wrote:  went to Texas Bowl last night. A highlight was Jarett Dillard being one of the Gridiron Legends. Really fun game-aggies played great after working really hard to give the game away early. Every time I hear the Aggie band, it reminds me of the SWC (sorry northeast vermont tech school-burlington branch just doesn't have the vibe) and sadly the grim reaper of conferences (SWC, WAC, and soon the Big 12) DeLoss Dodds was somehow also a Legend. Megalomaniac would be more correct. Not sure what could possibly be said that he did for the greater good of college football.

Great to hear Dillard was honored. Still love the memory of him throwing the TD to Chase in the Texas Bowl win.

As for Dodds, agree with your assessment, except he’s still a legend. For many of the reasons you mention.

Well, things have certainly Transformed quickly...but perhaps it will give the Athletic Dept some time to plan anew for upcoming seasons. Who knows, maybe in the long run things can get better. There will be lots of logistics work for the Dept short term, but the good news for our athletes is that they have a real school to attend once classes start back. Can't imagine what some others at other schools will do when it actually dawns on them the purpose of college is to go to class. Maybe some will begin attending just to see what it is like.

Still, sorry for the Women's Basketball team because it would have been fun see what they'd do if they got the autobid to the Tournament. Glad they at least won the CUSA championship title outright.

(03-13-2020 07:32 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  the good news for our athletes is that they have a real school to attend once classes start back. Can't imagine what some others at other schools will do when it actually dawns on them the purpose of college is to go to class. Maybe some will begin attending just to see what it is like.

This is exactly what makes people hate Rice fans.

(03-13-2020 11:39 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  

(03-13-2020 07:32 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  the good news for our athletes is that they have a real school to attend once classes start back. Can't imagine what some others at other schools will do when it actually dawns on them the purpose of college is to go to class. Maybe some will begin attending just to see what it is like.

This is exactly what makes people hate Rice fans.

It's cute that you think anyone cares enough to hate Rice fans.