New Rice Coach

Apparently, Tulsa defensive coordinator Todd Graham will be announced as the next Rice head coach. Tulsa, btw, just beat Fresno State 31-24. Here is the weird SMU connection: There is a rumor out there that former SMU QB Ramon Flanigan will be the offensive coordinator.

Rutgers Football

Interesting Article in the New York Times on Rutgers, which goes to a bowl game this year for the first time since 1978, finishing3rd in the Big East. Interesting because it references the less than happy faculty. Those that want to improve football at SMU, this is the kind of attitude you are working against:

Not everyone is as enthused. Norman Levitt, a mathematics professor who supported the Rutgers 1000 movement, said Monday that he still thought success in sports could undermine academic ambitions.

"The prominence of the athletic department and the ridiculous salaries to coaches is demoralizing to most of the faculty," Levitt said in a telephone interview. He called major college football "minor league, semi-pro football" that benefits the N.F.L.

That the team wears the name of the university on its shirts is merely "an interesting sociological fact," Levitt said. When asked about the performance of the Rutgers players in the A.P.R. ratings, Levitt said, "I teach a couple hundred kids a year in second-year mathematics, and I don't recall ever having seen a football player or basketball player in one of my classes."

Graduation Rates

Oh joy. The new graduation rates under the new formula are in. The new Graduation Success Rate is a statistic "improves the federally mandated graduation-rate by including transfer data in the calculation. It was developed in response to college and university presidents who wanted graduation data that more accurately reflect the mobility among students in today’s higher education climate."

Yeah. I am trying to figure out how I could care less.

Anyway, for the years 1995-1998, the GSR for SMU 82%. Under the old govt. formula, that number was 63%. 63% is at least in line with the school graduation rates as a whole.

Let's check out those mean, horrible schools in Texas that lack "academic integrity."
GSR (Fed.)
TCU: 86% (70%);
Tech:73% (65%);
Texas: 40% (31%);
A&M: 63% (59%);
Baylor: 88% (73%);
Houston: 45% (42%);
NTSU: 52% (47%);
UTEP: 37% (32%).

Here are some schools with "academic integrity:"
Duke: 87% (81%);
Northwestern: 92% (81%);
Notre Dame: 96% (85%);
Penn. State: 84% (77%);
Rice: 89% (84%);
Tulane: 77% (75%);
Vandy: 93% (88%).

Look, "academic integrity" is a sham. Look at the numbers. TCU does better than SMU? Baylor? Using the govt. numbers, Tech does better? And we are not winning anyway. I continue to maintain that there is a way to have success on the field and in the classroom. All SMU has to do is admit it is doing it the wrong way and commit itself to doing it the right way. And that means mimmicking the schools that win football games and graduate their players. Period.

SMU returning to the Cotton Bowl?

Heard this the other day. The City of Dallas is trying to have a college football game every week of the State Fair. The source I have for this is pretty good (really good actually). Now the source I have for what is next is also pretty good, though not as good. SMU-TCU. The city is trying to convince SMU and TCU to have their annual game moved to the Cotton Bowl.

Another possibility is the SMU-A&M game in 2012, but I have always believed that game will never actually take placed.

New Commit

I don't post much recruiting news, because what I get is usually on the message board before I get it. But I have not seen this posted anywhere.

Apparently SMu picked up a commitment for another JC lineman, Joe Holmes, Center from Navarro JC. 6'3" 305 LBs.

BCS Rant

Time for my annual rant against the BCS. But what is really wrong with the BCS is not what most people think. To see what is truly wrong with the BCS, all you must do is examine these two websites:

NCAA

NCAA Sports

Now, after reviewing these websites, let me ask you the following questions. Who is the NCAA 2004 Division 1 Field Hockey champion? Wake Forest. Who is the NCAA 2003 Division III Womens’ Hockey champion? Middlebury College. Who is the NCAA 2005 Division I Men’s Basketball champion? North Carolina. Who is the NCAA 2004 Division I-AA Football champion? James Madison University. Who is the NCAA 2004 Division I Women’s Team Gymnastics champion? UCLA. I could go on forever.

Now, who is the NCAA 2005 Division I-A Football champion? The answer is not USC.

There isn’t one. Don’t believe me. Here are pictures of the AP and BCS/Coaches Poll Trophies:



You will notice “NCAA” is not on it. Now, this is the Division I-AA trophy:


Notice the NCAA logo is there. You can inspect the trophy of every NCAA sport and every division and find that the trophy is given by the NCAA, except Division I-A college football.

And that my friends is what is so frustrating. The issue is not that there is no college football playoff; the issue is that the NCAA completely abdicates any responsibility to crown the champion of the most popular sport it oversees.

What is more, the NCAA has no problem with the way things are. In 2004, Gateway Computers offered $10 million to the NCAA for a final playoff game between LSU and USC. Was it a cheap publicity stunt on the part of Gateway? Sure, it was. Was the NCAA ever going to accept it? Of course not. But this was the NCAA’s response:

Gateway Computers has it wrong about who will make the decision regarding postseason football in Division I-A. The decision will not be made by the NCAA staff. It will be made by college presidents in Division I-A. Many of those presidents have not been supportive of a playoff. Coaches are not supportive of a playoff.

Anyone who believes that higher education would jump at a cynical publicity stunt is mistaken and missing the point. This is exactly the type of inappropriate intrusion of commercialism that I warned the membership of yesterday in my speech to the NCAA Convention. It puts all the emphasis on intercollegiate athletics as entertainment and erodes the critical concept that the welfare of the student-athlete is paramount.

—Myles Brand, NCAA President.

Dear Mr. Brand, Shut up! Do your job or find someone who will. For you to assert that the NCAA has no say whatsoever in the crowning of a national championship is disingenuous and only highlights the problem. Playoff or no playoff; BCS or no BCS; bowls plus one or no “plus one”. The NCAA needs to stand up and have its say. There will be no reform of this ridiculous system until the NCAA itself puts its name on the trophy, which means that every NCAA Division I-A school has some say in how the nation champion is decided.