FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

Ferric, your statements about the overall state of Millsaps health are interesting.  Do you have hyperlinks to databases that can give us a more complete understanding of the situation?

What is the percentage of students who return after year 1?  Year 2?  Etc.?

What is the percentage that graduate after 5 years?

Were any majors or courses of study that were dropped apart of any "curriculum self-study program" as one might see with SACS (Southern Assoc. of Colleges and Schools)?

How much of a drop was there in the various "beauty contests"?  Practically speaking, much of the fluctuation in those rankings are just like manuevering we see in a peloton in the Tour de France.

If Millsaps is losing favor with high school graduates who are seeking a liberal arts education, has Millsaps identified where those prospective students have gone?  B-SC? Miss College? Rhodes; Vandy; Tulane; Ole Miss; Miss State; Southern Miss; another SEC school?  Have they lost a pipeline of grads out of Dallas or Houston?

Thanks

[exmajor]

Exmajor,

"Despite what you say, the college is still ranked high academically (see here: http://www.millsaps.edu/get_to_know/awards.shtml) and has had a very good year in recruitment.  In fact it is a five year high, with the freshman class numbering 297 compared to the past 4 years' final numbers as follows:  '06 = 232, '05 = 258, '04 = 279, '03 = 260 students.  The freshman class also has very good test scores and come from a variety of different places." -Exmajor

Perhaps a more telling statistic would be to look at those students that remain in school at Millsaps (total enrollement, or total students transferring out of Millsaps or not returning).  While freshmen recruitment numbers are slightly on the rise, as I indicated by the success of the baseball team and recent success of the football team, the entire school enrollment is falling.  Moreover, let's avoid a little bit of bias by not going to the Millsaps website to find out about its academic credentials and accomplishments.  The school has dropped in a number of the categories within which it was listed, and has fallen out of others in which it had previously been listed. 

Ferric,
I would be interested to see the stats on your point as well.  I realize you graduated in '05 and know that there has been alot of grumblings the last 2-3 years about the administration and the changes they have implemented that have not sat well with the student body.  I assume this is the source of your frustration, but please correct me if I am wrong.  I have been involved in the alumni recruiting effort the last two years and it is no secret that their are issues that must be addressed (there are alot of people working on it) and I will also reserve my judgement for the school's leadership to be discussed offline.  I agree that retaining those freshmen is key, but a five year high is a healthy start to hopefully improving alot of the issues at hand that the school faces.  I only pointed people to that site because it is all in one place, did not want to add 15 hyperllinks to my post.  Am I biased, certainly, but not to the point I don't recognize problems and issues when they arise.

I do have to say and Consultant and Frank may agree, this is the most Millsaps has been posted about in a very long time and I am glad to see we have fellow Majors posting with us.  Let's hope that Coach Dubose and the Majors can retain the championship they won last year for a long time, but like I said, I am a little biased 

[Just_that_kid]

Exmajor,
I like what you have to say, but don't assume anything... but I certainly don't owe him for the ring that is not on my finger.

Ferric
I do apologize. I did assume you were someone that you're obviously not. Regardless, it's likely that we crossed paths.
You make some very valid points, but, like ExMajor, will leave my grumbles of the school's administration out of the blog realm, unless it's pertinent to football. This, though, is not to say I disagree with anything that you said.
Chris Jackson was five steps ahead of any competition that he saw at Millsaps. I would imagine it's not difficult to become apathetic when you must hardly to not only compete, but simply dominate. I don't condone lowering you work ethic to anything less than one's best, but can surely understand it.

ExMajor
To say there are "plenty" of people working on it wouldn't be entirely accurate. In my opinion, there are a sufficient number of individuals present, but some have too much responsibility, while others don't do enough. I, too, agree that these matters should be discussed offline, if they're to be discussed at all.
Further, like ferric stated, a large number of the students that make up this five year high are directly related to athletic recruitment. If you'd like these statistics to be proven, return to the athletics website, and simply count the number of freshman and sophomore on the rosters. I'm sure you have the class size information, and can do the division from there. Ferric's statement about the retention rate isn't far from true. As much as I do hope the school continues to expand, the school is going to have to lend more support to the athletics department.

[FerricMajor82]

I only brought up the administration to emphasize the fact that much of Millsaps's freshmen numbers are due to Coach Wise, DuBose and Page.  If the administration can't please DuBose in essence they are damning themselves to smaller freshman classes.  I talked with a Coach yesterday and they were going to have problems out-fitting all of the new men b/c the administration wouldn't pick up the dime.  They were asking the athletics budget and the 4th and 1 foundation to do it.  Needless to say, after enough grumblings, etc. the school picked up the check as they should have.
All I wanted to say was that the administration needs to begin to please the right people.  Obviously they aren't.  Thus, we get DuBose's remarks in a Florida newspaper.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, except for at Millsaps.
I'm done complaining about my glorious alma mater. 
For what it's worth, I'm extremely glad I went there, and received my B.S.  It is a great school and the faculty is absolutely top notch.  I just wish good attitudes and logical thought could trickle-up.  I suppose we have gravity to blame.

I promise to not complain about the administration.
I promise to not complain about the administration.
I promise to not complain about the administration.  (I feel like Bart Simpson writing on the chalk board).

[frank_ezelle]

I ran across a Sports Illustrated story about the Saints training camp and one section that fits in with the current topic caught my eye:

"Millsaps is a Division III school with a non-scholarship football program, but you have heard of their head coach: Mike DuBose, who not that long ago held the top job at Alabama. From the Crimson Tide to the Millsaps Majors. Now there's a career nosedive for you."

Ouch!  While Millsaps certainly isn't the University of Alabama, the writer didn't have to be so brutal in his accessment.

Link to story:  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/08/07/saints.postcard/index.html

[Uncle Jessie]

Hey D3 fans. I have a Yahoo league set up for D3 fans only. Everyone is welcome. I have 6 spots left open. All I ask is that you name your team after your fav. D3 school. Here is all the information you will need. Again. everyone D3 fan is welcome from all leagues.

League ID#: 9077
League Name: FANS OF DIVISION 3 FOOTBALL
Password: usasouth

Draft Type: Live Draft 
Draft Time: Sun Aug 19 7:00pm EDT 

[INQBScout]

"Millsaps is a Division III school with a non-scholarship football program, but you have heard of their head coach: Mike DuBose, who not that long ago held the top job at Alabama. From the Crimson Tide to the Millsaps Majors. Now there's a career nosedive for you."

Exactly. I promise you the writer went into the interview with his storyline already in his head. He could have traveled to Jackson and found a world class program with a multi-million dollar budget...and he would have still written the woe is me big school to podunk BS... 

[FerricMajor82]

Agreed.  Writers are such clowns at times.  Perhaps Mike DuBose stayed in Alabama for two or three more in order to be eligible for his in-state retirement.  Oh wait, that is exactly what he was doing.   

[TigerDad]

I promise to not complain about the administration.  (I feel like Bart Simpson writing on the chalk board).

or, here's a larger version (too big for the message board limits):
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/610/bartsimpsonmillsapschalsk1.jpg

or, use this to generate your own version:
http://bart-chalkboard.txt2pic.com/

[Ralph Turner]

I ran across a Sports Illustrated story about the Saints training camp and one section that fits in with the current topic caught my eye:

"Millsaps is a Division III school with a non-scholarship football program, but you have heard of their head coach: Mike DuBose, who not that long ago held the top job at Alabama. From the Crimson Tide to the Millsaps Majors. Now there's a career nosedive for you."

Ouch!  While Millsaps certainly isn't the University of Alabama, the writer didn't have to be so brutal in his assessment.

Link to story:  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/08/07/saints.postcard/index.html

When the University of Arkansas left the Southwest Conference and moved to the Southeastern Conference, they raised the average of the SAT scores of the incoming freshman classes of member institutions in both conferences.

My prayer for Don Banks is that he never goes through the career vicissitudes that Coach DuBose has experienced only to end up at what he currently perceives as a "Millsaps".  On the other hand, it might the thing that "saves" his life.

(I wanted to find out more about Mr Banks, so I googled "Don Banks Biography Sports Illustrated".  What a let-down!  I don't think that he is really Tyra Banks' father, Donald Banks!     )

I think that Millsaps has spent its most recent $31 Million on more apporpriate things than Alabama has.

[etg]

(El Tea Gray---re: Biased Statements?)


exmajor,
Agreed that your comments are a "little biased", but you are correct that there has been more Millsaps chat on the board than perhaps ever before.
Now for my always biased prediction; on Oct. 27th all of this Millsaps chat ends.

                                                   

[consultant]

Ole Don Banks got my blood boiling a little bit with that dig at DuBose.  But it was not so much that he targeted DuBose.  Rather, I was disappointed that he would suggest that Division III is somewhat unworthy of having high profile coaches or players.  So I wrote the rascal:

Don,
In your training camp postcard about the Saints on August 8, you make the statement that Millsaps' head football coach Mike DuBose has suffered a career nosedive because he was once a division I head football coach at Alabama and is now a division III head football coach.  I understand that you probably know very little, if anything, about division III football or division III athletics in general.  If you want to make a dig at a coach for past indiscretions, that's one thing.  But suggesting that Division III athletics is worthy of nosedive career coaches is absurdly unfair.  Millsaps College is one of the finest schools in the nation, and it fields highly competitive athletic teams.  As a former student-athlete at Millsaps, I am terribly disappointed that you would slight Millsaps College and Division III schools nationwide with such unsubstantiated statements.   It's also worth noting that Mike DuBose can coach.  After all, he was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1999, and he was named Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2006 after leading Millsaps to its first conference title since 1996.

[Ralph Turner]

Ole Don Banks hasn't learned one thing...

Division I players aspire to play in the NFL.

Division III grads aspire to run the whole thing.

[wabashcpa]

I think that Millsaps has spent its most recent $31 Million on more apporpriate things than Alabama has.

Are you saying the $$ spent on Lynn Lang to get Albert Means was inappropriate? 

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps football players are reporting today and have their first practice tomorrow.  The overlap with the Saints isn't too bad since the last Saints practice is Wednesday morning.

Story:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/football/081007story.shtml