Palpatine
Well-Known Member
That's why superconferences may be a good thing. Get rid of the NCAA entirely, and its rules.
... I know I overdo the Emperor Palpatine schtick, but man, this expansion stuff makes it too easy.
What good becomes of gaining the world, but losing your soul?
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That's why superconferences may be a good thing. Get rid of the NCAA entirely, and its rules.
... I know I overdo the Emperor Palpatine schtick, but man, this expansion stuff makes it too easy.
Bob Dylan sang about it (The Times They are a Changin'"........In Godfather 2, Lee Strasberg spoke about it (I didn't like it, but I accepted it. This is the business we have chosen.").........It's where we have evolved to in life........."Moral fiber" (the ability to do the right thing) has been a diminishing quality in our society for many decades now.
What degrees are worthy? Obviously you have some inherent bias. My communications degree got me six figures and my graduate degree in communications got me a tenure track job, while my friend with a Ph.D in physics had to give up his dream of being a professor after 7 years of post doc work. My communication students also learn quantitative research, focus group research, conflict resolution, management skills, argumentation, critical thinking, persuasion, etc.
As a T.A. at Iowa I taught several football players. Some were Comm majors others were not. No matter what their degrees, most are doing very well for themselves now. Can some people make the least of their Communications degree? Sure. Can some make the least of their Business, Psyche, English, History, Education, Political Science, Social Work, Engineering, etc. degrees? Definitely.
Dude, get off your high horse. Only a very few specialized undergraduate degrees are constructed to put someone directly into a career. That is not the purpose of most undergraduate education. The main purpose of undergraduate education is to equip people with the critical thinking skills necessary for a rapidly changing global economy. A good Communications department can do this as well as any other major. Of course there are bad Communications departments, but there are bad departments for all disciplines. While Iowa's Communication department has taken some hits in the last few years with Faculty changes, there are still several world renowned scholars in that department and their placement of graduate students in faculty positions is still sky high.
As a T.A. at Iowa I taught several football players. Some were Comm majors others were not. No matter what their degrees, most are doing very well for themselves now. Can some people make the least of their Communications degree? Sure. Can some make the least of their Business, Psyche, English, History, Education, Political Science, Social Work, Engineering, etc. degrees? Definitely.
Dude, get off your high horse. Only a very few specialized undergraduate degrees are constructed to put someone directly into a career. That is not the purpose of most undergraduate education. The main purpose of undergraduate education is to equip people with the critical thinking skills necessary for a rapidly changing global economy. A good Communications department can do this as well as any other major. Of course there are bad Communications departments, but there are bad departments for all disciplines. While Iowa's Communication department has taken some hits in the last few years with Faculty changes, there are still several world renowned scholars in that department and their placement of graduate students in faculty positions is still sky high.
NewMexHawk
Well-Known Member
I didn't mean to insult. Players get some degrees that are not going to help them much and we all know it. Of course, regular students get degrees that aren't going to help them much. Perhaps communications is not one of them and was not the best choice? However, many of the classes you speak of although important in life, don't compare in difficulty to calculus, physics, and so on. That is of what I speak. The time drain that more difficult courses take.
High horse? I don't know many players in science majors? There are some but not many? My point was that after reading and listening to numerous players talk about their time in school, they talk about how they planned on taking difficult majors only to have to switch to much easier majors so they could play sports and finish school and meet NCAA requirements.
I don't know how hard a communications major is or how time consuming the major is but there seems to be a lot of players in that major compared to say, a science major? There a lot of unemployed who have many different degrees, including science degrees.
I was discussing degree of difficulty and not particularly picking on communications and why players who had good intentions had to switch majors and why they ended up with majors that might not have been quite what they wanted when they originally started school. And yes, you get what you put into school.
High horse? I don't know many players in science majors? There are some but not many? My point was that after reading and listening to numerous players talk about their time in school, they talk about how they planned on taking difficult majors only to have to switch to much easier majors so they could play sports and finish school and meet NCAA requirements.
I don't know how hard a communications major is or how time consuming the major is but there seems to be a lot of players in that major compared to say, a science major? There a lot of unemployed who have many different degrees, including science degrees.
I was discussing degree of difficulty and not particularly picking on communications and why players who had good intentions had to switch majors and why they ended up with majors that might not have been quite what they wanted when they originally started school. And yes, you get what you put into school.
olivecourt
Well-Known Member
I keep thinking about the Big 12 and the Big East. The Big 12 has been great for the Texas and Oklahoma schools. For everyone else (3/4 of the original Big 8), it has been a disaster. Do schools like Iowa and Purdue really want to take a smaller piece of the pie so schools like Maryland and Syracuse can benefit?
The expansion of the Big East has gotten them a BCS bid but turned them into a laughingstock. It has killed their basketball tradition, which was the best thing about the old Big East. The Big East basketball tourney used to be huge... now it's a ridiculously drawn-out affair (five rounds!) where the 1-seed frequently gets knocked out in their first game.
These conferences thought they were getting ahead of the curve... 10-15 years later they are on the verge of extinction.
The expansion of the Big East has gotten them a BCS bid but turned them into a laughingstock. It has killed their basketball tradition, which was the best thing about the old Big East. The Big East basketball tourney used to be huge... now it's a ridiculously drawn-out affair (five rounds!) where the 1-seed frequently gets knocked out in their first game.
These conferences thought they were getting ahead of the curve... 10-15 years later they are on the verge of extinction.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
I don't think this was all inevitable. If the Big 10 had come out and said "we are going to add ONE team and get a conference championship game", then I don't think we're in this mess. The Pac-10 may have still looked to expand to 12, but the SEC and ACC likely would have stood pat. By throwing out the possibility of going to 14 or 16 teams, the Big Ten threw the entire country into Expansion Fever. And I fear it's going to ruin college football. It's becoming too much like the NFL. The reason I love college football so much more than the NFL is the tradition, the pageantry. That's what makes college sports so special. And if we go to 4 16-team superconferences (which is NOW inevitable), that attraction will be gone.
Palpatine
Well-Known Member
I know I will really miss the tradition of playing Northern Illinois and Ball State. After all, who wants to play Nebraska, anyway?
I will really miss the tradition and pageantry of losing the marching band, Herky, tailgating, the Golden Girl, and ANF stickers. Because all of that will disappear when the Big Ten expands.
It's too bad that adding Maryland to our schedule every three years will ruin college football.
???
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Not being guaranteed of playing our rivals every year because there are just too many teams in the conference to do that? Yeah, what's wrong with that? We'll play Rutgers instead of Wisconsin this year. If you don't have a problem with that, you need to see a doctor.
And Ball State/Northern Illinois? Get used to seeing even more of those kind of schools on our OOC schedule. In the "superconference" model, we'll end up doing what the SEC already does. "Our conference slate is so tough that we don't even need to play tough OOC games, so let's just schedule cupcakes". That's what's going to happen, everywhere.
The pageantry may not leave, but the tradition will take a big hit if we have the 4 superconferences. I want to play ISU (OOC), Minnesota, and Wisconsin every year. I'd love a rivalry with Nebraska too, but there's no way we'd all be in the same division in the 4x4 model. We wouldn't be able to play MN, WI, and NE every year. Since when did die-hard rivals not play every year? You don't think that would hurt tradition?
Billso
Well-Known Member
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Alright, I've just finished trying to figure out if every school would be able to play their rivals every year. And the verdict is......maybe. It depends on how the Big Ten would interpret the "one protected rivalry" thing. If EVERY school gets to pick a rivalry, then it's okay, it should all shake out. So if say Notre Dame, Indiana, and Purdue all in different divisions. Notre Dame could make their protected rivalry be the Purdue game (I have ND in a division with Michigan and Michigan State), and Purdue could then select their protected game as the Indiana game. But if it's just one rivalry per school (meaning that Purdue's protected game is Notre Dame, and vice versa), then there is NO WAY to get every rivalry onto the schedule every year.
