(01-28-2019 09:13 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 08:27 PM)Antarius Wrote:  I do want to come back to the scholarship part though - why would a Rice level player who can get in independent of athletics bother with Rice Football (or other sports) anymore? The majority of players aren't going to the pros, and our guys generally recognize that. Why subject your body and time to this when you can get your tuition covered and move on to the same life you'd be going to anyways?, but if

Similarly, you can try football, but if the season is shot and the cap to your success is unprecedented at most, you can just walk away and be a normal student.

I do wonder if we basically shot ourselves in the foot, for the last time. Not that we did the wrong thing, but finally hitting a rationalization that we're pretending to play in a game we really shouldn't be in. Why risk CTE to end up with a desk job debt free when you can... end up with a desk job debt free?

A couple flaws with this line of thinking:

-Most Rice football players (I’d say >80% of scholarship players) would not stand a chance of getting into Rice without football. Honestly, it gets harder and harder to “stand a chance” each year (for anyone but especially someone with qualifications of most D1 football players) When I matriculated, the acceptance rate was 17% I think... It’ll be half that this year, and I only matriculated five years ago...
-Despite the fact that you (and many others) view Rice as a pathetic level of football, the truth is that most of the guys on our team were the best of one of the best on their high school teams. They worked hard to get to Rice, love the game, and that’s tough to give up.
-There’s a non-insignificant chance of making lots of money with a pro career. If we get our roster to where it needs to be, I don’t think it’s unrealistic that we could place three guys per year on an NFL roster. Say that those three players average 1 million in earnings per year... If 18 players are finishing their careers at Rice every year, that’s a $~166,666 “expected value” of a professional football career at Rice football. Not bad.

I get what he is saying.
Let's say football gets you into Rice when your academic record alone might not have. Once at Rice, you are in. If football sours, just switch to a regular student and get the financial aid a regular student would get. You get the Rice education without having to put in the long hours of football. Especially if the treatment you receive from the football program is less than pleasant.

(01-28-2019 07:09 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Different era.

Oh

Maryland: “toxic culture” 2018

And connecting dots: Durkin-Stanford

(01-28-2019 09:19 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 09:13 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 08:27 PM)Antarius Wrote:  I do want to come back to the scholarship part though - why would a Rice level player who can get in independent of athletics bother with Rice Football (or other sports) anymore? The majority of players aren't going to the pros, and our guys generally recognize that. Why subject your body and time to this when you can get your tuition covered and move on to the same life you'd be going to anyways?, but if

Similarly, you can try football, but if the season is shot and the cap to your success is unprecedented at most, you can just walk away and be a normal student.

I do wonder if we basically shot ourselves in the foot, for the last time. Not that we did the wrong thing, but finally hitting a rationalization that we're pretending to play in a game we really shouldn't be in. Why risk CTE to end up with a desk job debt free when you can... end up with a desk job debt free?

A couple flaws with this line of thinking:

-Most Rice football players (I’d say >80% of scholarship players) would not stand a chance of getting into Rice without football. Honestly, it gets harder and harder to “stand a chance” each year (for anyone but especially someone with qualifications of most D1 football players) When I matriculated, the acceptance rate was 17% I think... It’ll be half that this year, and I only matriculated five years ago...
-Despite the fact that you (and many others) view Rice as a pathetic level of football, the truth is that most of the guys on our team were the best of one of the best on their high school teams. They worked hard to get to Rice, love the game, and that’s tough to give up.
-There’s a non-insignificant chance of making lots of money with a pro career. If we get our roster to where it needs to be, I don’t think it’s unrealistic that we could place three guys per year on an NFL roster. Say that those three players average 1 million in earnings per year... If 18 players are finishing their careers at Rice every year, that’s a $~166,666 “expected value” of a professional football career at Rice football. Not bad.

#1 - Can't argue with that.
#2 - That is true now. But youth participation is dropping and the guys who aren't locks to try to make it big will see a decline. But again, see #1.
#3 - I would argue the lifetime earnings of a professional trump the short term earnings the average 3 year guy would get. Rice has some exceptions who made a career in the pros, but as the P5 - us divide grows, IMO, 3 NFL players a year is wishful thinking.

That said, #1 by the numbers trumps all, therefore the show will probably go on.

I will say, unless the athletes really want to pursue a degree with significant time constraints that football won't allow for (and therefore they need to switch their major), being a D1 athlete, especially in football, is a HUGE leg up in the interview process.

Any time I see an athlete's resume with decent grades, I immediately understand that they are more than skilled at time management, understand how to work on a team, are VERY hard workers, etc. and their resume gets significant consideration. And I know a number of friends who have the same opinion.

So to a certain extent, if you can get into Rice on your own and want to play football, but don't want to say, be a chemical engineer, playing at that level can be good leverage in your future professional career.

In short, most smart football players (and athletes for that matter) absolutely crush it - and showing that you played D1 sports is a way for an employer to know that.

I think Zach played his arse off for us, and the one-time I briefly spoke with him at one of those pre-season field days he was very engaging even as a true freshman. And, as a unique wrinkle I got a letter from him a week ago thanking me for providing endowed football scholarship funding so I'm invested. He was a good Owl. I'm not happy he's leaving but I have no deep seeded animosity toward anyone legally exercising their free will.

The flip side of it is this -- my perception is given our mission to graduate a high percentage of incoming players we are essentially awarding a 4-5 year scholarship while the rest of the college football universe fires a large number of scholarship athletes every year.

It's already harder for us to find suitable student athletes, and by not playing this side of the equation at the same accepted level as peers we pay by looking at 40-50+ fewer potential players over 4-5 years. This contributes to some extent to poor performance and further fuels the transfer issue. I don't really want to play that game, but if we're getting worked on the transfer front then our value proposition isn't playing out so maybe we need to take a look at being a true year to year renewal system. The situation sadly also hurts us because there is no way I'd fund a fresh scholarship unless we addressed this gap somehow.

If someone has better information and can verify that we are being cut throat about year to year renewals I'd be interested. But the fact that our recruiting classes are always half the size of State U says otherwise (and letting guys flunk out is the same as non-renewal IMO).

Emmanuel Esukpa to BYU.

Heard this past weekend that Abercrumbia is going to SMU.

(03-27-2019 08:17 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Heard this past weekend that Abercrumbia is going to SMU.

Not much of a “promotion”.

(03-27-2019 09:01 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 08:17 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Heard this past weekend that Abercrumbia is going to SMU.

Not much of a “promotion”.

Thought he wanted to be closer to home for family reasons? Doubt we would allow UNT so TCU/SMU were the options I’d guess.

(03-27-2019 09:04 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 09:01 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 08:17 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Heard this past weekend that Abercrumbia is going to SMU.

Not much of a “promotion”.

Thought he wanted to be closer to home for family reasons? Doubt we would allow UNT so TCU/SMU were the options I’d guess.

You can't block like UNT like used to be able to... That said-yes-can confirm there is/was a legitimate personal circumstance causing this transfer.

I would guess he had no better choice and that is the disadvantage of the transfer system like Bloom said.[/align]

(03-27-2019 05:12 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I would guess he had no better choice and that is the disadvantage of the transfer system like Bloom said.[/align]

Could be worse, SMU is a well respected school in Texas and certainly won’t hurt his resume.

Story on Abercrumbia heading to SMU.
https://247sports.com/college/smu/Articl...132090734/

(03-27-2019 05:16 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 05:12 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I would guess he had no better choice and that is the disadvantage of the transfer system like Bloom said.[/align]

Could be worse, SMU is a well respected school in Texas and certainly won’t hurt his resume.

https://images.app.goo.gl/96GULDkU78Nhewyy6

(05-17-2019 11:38 AM)Swede Owl Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 05:16 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 05:12 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I would guess he had no better choice and that is the disadvantage of the transfer system like Bloom said.[/align]

Could be worse, SMU is a well respected school in Texas and certainly won’t hurt his resume.

https://images.app.goo.gl/96GULDkU78Nhewyy6

That one's worth displaying...

(05-17-2019 11:49 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(05-17-2019 11:38 AM)Swede Owl Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 05:16 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(03-27-2019 05:12 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I would guess he had no better choice and that is the disadvantage of the transfer system like Bloom said.[/align]

Could be worse, SMU is a well respected school in Texas and certainly won’t hurt his resume.

https://images.app.goo.gl/96GULDkU78Nhewyy6

That one's worth displaying...

If only I knew how! Worthless academ.....

I'd rather talk about the 7 (8?) graduate transfers we have coming in.

I enjoy how Bloom has made Stanford and Harvard prime hunting grounds for his grad transfers.\

4 total from those two IIRC.