(08-10-2018 08:35 AM)monarx Wrote: For those who don't see much of a connection between athletic success and academic prestige I give you this from a recent article on FAU. "FAU president John Kelly enjoys the attention Kiffin has brought the school, as ESPN reported a 35 percent increase in out-of-state applications." In one year out of state apps went up 35%. Thats incredible. I know the F4 appearances by GMU and VCU helped push their reputations past the Monarchs, but perhaps the impact was even greater than I expected.
https://sports.yahoo.com/drama-major-pow...00345.html
You're talking to me. I'm in camp that good academics are not required to follow a good athletic team. I also don't think good athletics lead to good academics. We've talked about this im the past and shared to studies and evidence that support both sides of the discussion.
Aside from my personal opinion, my experience also doesn't agree with the good sports result in good academics.
I have family that are applying for school next year and the next few years, as well as volunteer at Granby highschool for a robotics team.
Of schools you just listed GMU is the only school many of my out of state family have heard of. When I was helping kids find and apply for colleges this past spring at Granby, not one discussed FAU or VCU. But i suppose that data pool is skewed due to the quality of the student. They were applying to and/or got accepted to Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd, MIT, RIT, Swarthmore, Tufts, Williams,, Virginia Tech, W&M, Washington Lee, and AMU and a few more i can't recall at moment.
Most of these schools are not.or never have been athletic power houses, yet they are highly ranked academically.
Liberty has HUGE numbers of applicants every year and have had some athletic success. But many people consider them to be a diplomia mill. Infact I have met with some people that refuse to hire their graduates.(Just interviewed with on in Lynchburg last week.) I doubt their football team is going to change their image of being a school only slighly better then Devry or ECPI.
Hope this was coherant, typed this out on my mobile.