I’m not dismissing it. Just questioning whether it makes sense for educational institutions to continue to dump increasingly large sums of money into sports programs.
II live in Carmel, Indiana—an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis. It's interesting to see how schools like Alabama and Auburn actively recruit here, not just for athletes, but for students in general. They make it easy for people from this area to consider attending, and while things like football and those viral sorority rush videos certainly help, there’s a clear effort on their part to draw students from this region. In contrast, schools like Penn State or Virginia Tech, for example, don't seem to have the same presence here.
I understand what you're getting at and don't disagree, but we're talking apples to pears with Alabama and Rice.
Carpetbaggers 😝
It was widely talked about down here that AL focused on getting kids in from out of state (especially the Midwest) and offering them extremely attractive scholarships.
I'm in Huntington, and the package they put together for my son was ultra impressive. We went down for a tour, but he ultimately didn't want to leave his girlfriend. Told him he was a dumbass after seeing what roamed the streets down there
If Arkansas decides to part ways w/ Pittman, I’m sure Lashlee would be their first choice. But SMU has the $ to pay him if they’re serious about competing which they’ve shown to be thus far Post-NIL
We’ve had in kids from lil ole Columbia City and North Manchester go to in the last three years: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Bama, and LSU. None with any family ties down there. Pretty crazy to see the reach from the SEC up across the Mason-Dixon.
I live in Boston and my son goes to a Catholic high school that last year had seniors go to Georgia, Tennessee, Bama and Ole Miss (as well as Notre Dame, BC and Georgetown of course). It's a real thing.
When Butler went to the Final Four in back to back years, they saw a significant increase in enrollment. One of the guys on my staff went to Butler because of that.
The question is, will they? FB has always been more of an after thought, even when Mallory was fielding decent teams. Most of the coaches hired have been on the cheap and the budget hasn't been that great.
Alabama has 5 million people living in it. Chicago has just under 3 million. Indianapolis is close to 900k. Just two examples.
That would be wild but I think Arkansas is a bit too small of a pond for Prime. On a side note, he brought his HS team up from TX during COVID to play Bryant HS & it was a helluva game. Bryant won in a squeaker. Coach Prime came to their locker room to congratulate them after the game. Bryant is still ranked nationally so they’ve had a nice run for almost a decade.
You are probably right.
Bama and UGA have pretty decent academic reputations in the south (not like Tech, Vandy, or Clemson but they get by). For a while Bama was dropping huge scholarship bags too
U of I is also one of the tougher places to get admitted to for a public school, regardless of where you live.
Exactly the way I heard it from some AL friends……offer these better students an attractive package to attend U of AL instead of one of the other universities in the MW. One of my cousin’s kids seriously considered going because the financial incentive was significant.
Very interesting.
My good friend in high school got denied to u of I engineering school but got accepted Michigan. It was kind of crazy considering he was an in state kid with great transcript and test scores. It's way tougher to get in than I ever knew
I think SMU has slowly been doing the right thing for a decade or more to position themselves up in national prestige. I think they have yet to reach the peak of what is possible there.