What’s up everyone? Hope things are well for you.
Sports Illustrated had an interesting article on its Web site about the top-25 Division I schools in athletics for the 2007-08 season. Here it is: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/01/2008-top-25-ncaa-rankings/index.html?eref=T1
It was similar to the Director’s Cup which is compiled by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which uses a complicated point system based on how each school’s athletic team places in its respective national championship. Of course Stanford won the Cup for the 14th consecutive year.
The Cardinal finished second in the SI standing while Arizona State took the title. The article does a good job of breaking down how they came up with the standings so I won’t repeat it here.
The article did get me thinking about some of the schools on the list and made me wonder how some of these programs dominate everything and some are lacking.
I’ve never been to Stanford but I heard it’s an amazing place. The crazy thing about that program is that they win at everything, have such high academic standards and are a private school. Usually high academics and private school equals struggles in some sports (see Rice, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and some others). In the last 15 years, Stanford has been to a baseball College World Series, a men’s basketball Final Four and a Rose Bowl. That’s incredible.
I’ve actually been to UCLA, North Carolina and Georgia, the number 3-5 schools on the SI list and I understand why they do so well. UCLA is like a college heaven on earth. Amazing weather, beautiful people, tons of things to do, I didn’t want to leave. The campus was also so beautiful and I saw every type of hot woman possible.
UNC and UGA were just as majestic with a southern twist. I wanted to sit on a bench, grab a cup of iced tea and just chill. Hot women there too.
The rest of the list has typical schools. I was glad to see Virginia on there because first my cousin went to law school there, I got wasted there when I visited there as a high school student and it’s a fun place overall.
I think about these types of things (not the drunken nights) when I look at colleges that I may work at in the future.
I’ve had this conversation with some of my fellow grad school classmates. What type of athletic department do you want to work for? Sometimes the bigger the school you work at and the bigger the financial stakes, the potential for the abuse of integrity is higher. I’ll put it this way. The stakes for a team in the Pac-10 or the SEC is a lot higher than a mid-major conference like the Atlantic Sun or the SoCon.
I’m not saying that all schools in major conferences cheat or that mid-major teams don’t bend the rules.
The thing is that when there are such high financial stakes in place, things can happen. I’ve spoken with people in compliance departments at schools and they’ve told me that they couldn’t work at certain big schools because they know that some illegal things are going down.
When the difference of millions of dollars for your athletic department comes down to winning a BCS bowl game, a conference championship or making it to the Sweet 16, that can be a recipe for bad things.
I know that personally, I would like to work at a school that is competitive in as many sports as possible. As much as I like college football, I like “Olympic” sports as well. However, if the school that I’m working for compromises it integrity to win championships, I’ll have a problem with that.
I know this was a random post. I’ll expand on some of these thoughts another time.
Here’s some John Fruciante, guitarist from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. As much as I love Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from the Mars Volta, John is on another planet guitar-wise. It’s funny that those two men collaborate on musical projects all the time.
The thing I like about John is that he’s versatile. He can give you heavy guitar riffs, acoustic melodies, soul, blues, jazz and everything in between.
I want to work for an athletic department similar to John. Versatile, flexible, willing to compromise and able to play anything, anytime well.
Good fight, good night.
Sports Illustrated had an interesting article on its Web site about the top-25 Division I schools in athletics for the 2007-08 season. Here it is: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/01/2008-top-25-ncaa-rankings/index.html?eref=T1
It was similar to the Director’s Cup which is compiled by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which uses a complicated point system based on how each school’s athletic team places in its respective national championship. Of course Stanford won the Cup for the 14th consecutive year.
The Cardinal finished second in the SI standing while Arizona State took the title. The article does a good job of breaking down how they came up with the standings so I won’t repeat it here.
The article did get me thinking about some of the schools on the list and made me wonder how some of these programs dominate everything and some are lacking.
I’ve never been to Stanford but I heard it’s an amazing place. The crazy thing about that program is that they win at everything, have such high academic standards and are a private school. Usually high academics and private school equals struggles in some sports (see Rice, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and some others). In the last 15 years, Stanford has been to a baseball College World Series, a men’s basketball Final Four and a Rose Bowl. That’s incredible.
I’ve actually been to UCLA, North Carolina and Georgia, the number 3-5 schools on the SI list and I understand why they do so well. UCLA is like a college heaven on earth. Amazing weather, beautiful people, tons of things to do, I didn’t want to leave. The campus was also so beautiful and I saw every type of hot woman possible.
UNC and UGA were just as majestic with a southern twist. I wanted to sit on a bench, grab a cup of iced tea and just chill. Hot women there too.
The rest of the list has typical schools. I was glad to see Virginia on there because first my cousin went to law school there, I got wasted there when I visited there as a high school student and it’s a fun place overall.
I think about these types of things (not the drunken nights) when I look at colleges that I may work at in the future.
I’ve had this conversation with some of my fellow grad school classmates. What type of athletic department do you want to work for? Sometimes the bigger the school you work at and the bigger the financial stakes, the potential for the abuse of integrity is higher. I’ll put it this way. The stakes for a team in the Pac-10 or the SEC is a lot higher than a mid-major conference like the Atlantic Sun or the SoCon.
I’m not saying that all schools in major conferences cheat or that mid-major teams don’t bend the rules.
The thing is that when there are such high financial stakes in place, things can happen. I’ve spoken with people in compliance departments at schools and they’ve told me that they couldn’t work at certain big schools because they know that some illegal things are going down.
When the difference of millions of dollars for your athletic department comes down to winning a BCS bowl game, a conference championship or making it to the Sweet 16, that can be a recipe for bad things.
I know that personally, I would like to work at a school that is competitive in as many sports as possible. As much as I like college football, I like “Olympic” sports as well. However, if the school that I’m working for compromises it integrity to win championships, I’ll have a problem with that.
I know this was a random post. I’ll expand on some of these thoughts another time.
Here’s some John Fruciante, guitarist from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. As much as I love Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from the Mars Volta, John is on another planet guitar-wise. It’s funny that those two men collaborate on musical projects all the time.
The thing I like about John is that he’s versatile. He can give you heavy guitar riffs, acoustic melodies, soul, blues, jazz and everything in between.
I want to work for an athletic department similar to John. Versatile, flexible, willing to compromise and able to play anything, anytime well.
Good fight, good night.
