FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[ThunderHead]

It's pretty amazing that 98% of the football players graduate from Mt. Union, but only 52% of the student body finishes their 4 year program.

While I'm sure these types of numbers are common at schools across the board, both large and small, it just goes to show how much of a positive impact athletics can have on people.

SAC - I completely agree with you on the help available to D1 student athletes. They definitely have crazy schedules that the rest of the student body doesn't have to adhere to, but they have grandiose study halls and around the clock tutors to counter that and are afforded every opportunity to succeed that's possible. It's a big advantage over their D3 counterparts. No doubt.

I'm not sure how it is at other programs, but at Trine they do give their athletes as much help as possible. The players grades are all kept under close eye by the position coaches, and mandatory study halls are stocked with numerous tutors, while it's not D1 level stuff, it's better then nothing.

In the end I think it all comes down to the kid, you can lead a horse to water...

Go Trine!!!

[02 Warhawk]

Mr. Ypsi,

Great insight. I didn't know you were a GA at UM, I did my GA at Purdue, small world.

If you guys were not attacking the athletes: I apologize. I took it as you were.

Here are the graduation rates of the of top D1 schools for 2010. I'd say those are pretty good scores at any level for football.

Duke   96%
Notre Dame   96%
Navy   93%
Northwestern   92%
Boston College   91%
Vanderbilt   91%
Stanford   89%
Air Force   87%
Army   86%
Miami (Ohio)   85%
Penn State   85%

Keep in mind transfers, which account for as much 18-32% (probably 1-10% of this group) of some D1 schools overall scores, are counted against the graduation rate of the recruited class. So, I'm not sure this is necessarily the best reflection of the actual graduation rate of each individual player. Most kids who transfer to end up finishing school, at least in my experience.


Go Trine!!!

hmmmmm....funny how none of those schools are perennial BCS threats.

[pradierguy]

Dom Capers and LK as co-head coaches for OSU,you heard it here first.

I laughed.

[sac]

It's pretty amazing that 98% of the football players graduate from Mt. Union, but only 52% of the student body finishes their 4 year program.

While I'm sure these types of numbers are common at schools across the board, both large and small, it just goes to show how much of a positive impact athletics can have on people.

The cynical side of me believes these numbers mean nothing without their major's.  I would venture a guess that even at D3's the general student population has more difficult and demanding majors.  Even some of the best and brightest high school graduates can have difficulty in pre-law, pre-med classes at any school.

[seventiesraider]

For the record St John's regularly outdraws Kent State and Akron, both of whom stay D1 by "selling" $1 tickets to youth football players.

Can we quit with the ridiculous generalizations and made up statistics.


Actually 98.7% of D3 football fans care very little about anything but D3Football (:>)

[emma17]

Actually 98.7% of D3 football fans care very little about anything but D3Football (:>)

Seventies,
Now that's a stat I can grab onto- and now I feel better about my unusual preference to all that is DIII.   

[seventiesraider]

BTW - Since the NCAA lost the designator of Small College Athletics and made the divisions, if you an NCAA All-American you are one for life, no asterisks,  your an NCAA All-American period


When your a coach and you finish your career, half of your records will be wiped out already and the rest will fade over the years. Your legacy HAS TO BE the young men and women you helped learn to try their hardest in everything they did and to be quality students while they are in school to bring positive attention to the school and to be quality people throughout life to bring positive attention to themselves and their families.

Sorry, folks like Tubby and The Sweater Vest lost sight of their real purpose and turned to doing anything to win

[skunks_sidekick]

Up until a few years ago (and this was the last time LK talked about it in my presence), Mount only had TWO (2) four year players that didn't graduate.  One had to leave school suddenly before graduating due to a family situation (he had to run/work the family farm), and the other just dropped out.  LK has said more than once he checks in with both of them to convince them to come back and finish. 

It's certainly a strong testament of LK's influence when you can count non-graduates on one hand. 

[ThunderHead]

Warhawk 02 - not sure what your point is?

Penn State is normally very competitive, and again, my point was that there are D1 programs that have just as much success in the class room as D3 schools. All of those schools have rosters that have plenty of talent, and if you don't think so, I don't think you fully appreciate how hard is to get a D1 scholarship anywhere. None of those schools recruit charity players or let "everyone join the football team."

The point is, recruited athletes can do very well academically.

While I do love D3 football, I also love D2 and D1 football. And having worked in a D1 program, I got the chance to work with a lot of D1 kids, and they aren't that much different then D3 kids personality wise. So - when I though people were taking direct shots at the general D1 athlete, I thought I would chime in.

No doubt a few guys messed up, but a majority don't.

SAC - I agree with you on the majors issue. Pre-law, Pre-med, and the likes are incredibly difficult programs.

And Seventiesraider - I agree that perhaps these guys lost sight of that goal, but ultimately at that level, winning is king. There are several more examples of coaches who have great graduation rates, turn out find young men, and are in it for the right reasons, sadly these guys have a few sub .500 years and they are shown the door.

As nice as it sounds to say your legacy has to be the young men and women, the reality is, at that level, you better win to keep the fan base happy in "now".

Go Trine

[02 Warhawk]

Warhawk 02 - not sure what your point is?

Just that the majority of the top DI football programs have less than fair graduation rates. The blue chip high school athletes go to these schools to show case their talent for the pros. Given the opportunity, a lot would go straight to the NFL if it wasn't for the one year out of high school rule.  I never said ALL football programs are guilty of this.

No one can convince me that Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, etc, etc gives a crap about graduating its football players. All they care about is bringing in the best talent year after year knowing their best players won't last 2-3 years in college. Plus it's starting to come obvious that these same schools are being found guilty of compensating their athletes to attend their program. Pure??? I don't think so.

You don't see this in DIII, b/c they don't have the tallent to play at the next level. Unless your name begins with Cecile or ends with Garcon.  


My apologies to the OAC board. I'm sorry for bogging down your thread with this silliness  

[Knightstalker]

A couple of points.  For all of its ills D1 football and basketball allow most other sports and divisions to exist as we know them.

The four year graduation rate is a misleading stat.  Many students get whst they can done in four years but then go to school part time and finish up in five or six.  The ZNCAA does not track that.

[PurpleSuit]

Back to actual OAC news:
Mount released their schedule today
http://athletics.mountunion.edu/sports/fball/2011-12/releases/20110601vt896x

nice to see a couple of night games in Sept

[Raider 68]

While i follow all of college football, my interest and passion is with D3 football. As a player who found D1 not be be right for me, Mount Union was right, even when we were a
5-5 program!

[ThunderHead]

02 Warhawk- I see your point.

My only counter would be that in any profession, if someone could go straight to the top of that profession after high school, or one year of college, almost all would.

The kid who loves science and has spent his high school years doing extra science labs and competing in the science Olympiad and Robot Wars suddenly gets an full time offer from NASA after his first year at MIT - I'd say he's gone. Goal accomplished.

Just because a kid only plans on spending 3 years playing D1 ball - and then has the opportunity to leave to go to the professional level, doesn't mean he's not as "determined" as other students. If he is talented enough and has worked hard enough, him leaving is fine with me. I wish him luck. Most of the guys I know who left college without a full degree and went into the league, all came back and finished at their respective schools, even if it was years later.

I also won't fault a coach for going after a talented kid like that, even if his development projects him as being professional grade after a few years.  While I don't endorse the things the OSU players did, I definitely don't fault Coach Tressle for recruiting them.

Go Trine!!!

[joelmama]

A couple of points.  For all of its ills D1 football and basketball allow most other sports and divisions to exist as we know them.

The four year graduation rate is a misleading stat.  Many students get whst they can done in four years but then go to school part time and finish up in five or six.  The ZNCAA does not track that.

It certainly is misleading.  My nephew at tOSU redshirted his freshman year.  That is normal for about 2/3 of the freshmen coming in it seems.  He will be there for 5 years and will likely not graduate with his undergraduate degree in 4 but will in 4.5 and will have some work done on his MBA by the time he leaves for the NFL (well that is what he hopes to do first he has to win the starting job this year).

Also the SI article was a total hack job.  I was with my nephew this weekend when it came out.  Two of the new/additional players mentioned as trading memoribillia for tatoos are some of his best friends. and he knows them well.  One has two tattoos.  He had them when he was in high school and has not added to them.  The other one doesn't have any tatoos at all.  I can't speak for the rest of the article other than my opinion is that based on what I know there is very little in the way of facts in that particular article.