(12-10-2019 10:24 AM)Alanda Wrote: A non-football improvement is continuing to improve on the National University Ranking. The school finally cracked the list, but it's still something that P5 conferences have used against us.
(12-09-2019 02:01 PM)Stammers Wrote: There isn't a way to fix it, but there are doable ways to make it more fair.
1. 8 team playoff with a spot for 1 non P5 team
2. Two made for TV neutral site games at the beginning of each season with two preseason top 5 P5 schools versus the two top preaseason non P5 schools.
3. Everyone talks about the NY6 Bowls. Let the next highest ranked non P5 have a spot in the next tier of bowls with payouts of $6 million or more. Last year they would include the Citrus Bowl, Alamo Bowl, Outback Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Texas Bowl and Camping World Bowl. Having non P5 schools taking up 2 spots out of 24 shouldn't be the end of the world for the P5.
If you have two non P5 schools playing in meaningful bowls with good payouts, you incentivize playing a tough schedule, which then will allow a great 2 loss team to make a good bowl game.
One of those things that makes sense to the point it would never happen.
We are finally making inroads on the rankings. The other killer is our endowment, which is very low. Having said that, Shirley and now Rudd have made terrific inroads over the last 10 years. The university is showing incredible improvement.
When we made our Big12 bid, Rudd didn't emphasize building an OCS, improving facilities or adding to our athletic budget. He specifically mentioned $500 million would be invested in the university, with a huge chunk devoted to capital improvements.
When I started posting here over 20 years ago, posters complained about light bulbs not working, the library barely having books and being flooded, air conditioning not working in a lot of classrooms, and the school's inability to spend the money needed to attract the best and the brightest professors. The school has come a long way in the last few years, with more improvements along the way.
- Memphis Community Health Building $60 million
- Student Recreation & Fitness Building $62 million (under construction)
- Cecil C. Humphreys move $41 million state funds + $2 million construction retrofit
- John S. Wilder Tower $3.6 million
- Parking garage $24 million
- Land bridge $18 million
- Fogelman College Of Business $800,000
- LB state of the art scoreboard $2.5 million
- LB sound system upgraded to not the world's crappiest
- LB, painted, general renovations $8 million
- LB $12 million, ADA compliant
- LB Tiger Lane $15 million
- LB chair backs $5 million
- FedEx Park $3 million
- Billy J. Murphy locker room, weight room $3 million
- Billy J. Murphy/IPF $30 million (out of $40 million)
I haven't updated the list in over a year, so I am sure there is more, but the transformation has been incredible and it adds up to an infusion of $350 million give or take.
Memphians are weird in some ways. You alternately have huge civic pride while putting down the city. I have to say that this has improved dramatically and exponentially over the last 20 years. The city is amazing and continues to get more amazing, same with the university.