UT Academics not so good? Whaaaaaatt!
by robbedn08 on May 27, 2010 7:57 PM CDT
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Hey guys
I was listening to the Paul Finebaum show today and he had a guy on there named Bob Gilbert. I’m not to sure who this guy is maybe some of you do. They where talking about conference expansion with the SEC and who they should bring in. Mr. Gilbert said that the SEC should really look more for academic requirements more so than TV money, he went on to say that UT academics when compared to a school like Floridast where not that good. I was always under the assumption that UT was one of the best in the country top 50. I'm not sure if he was talking about just student athletes or all, could someone shed some light on this issue for me plz. This guy acted like Texas didnt belong in the SEC I was under the impression IF we went, that UT would be the cream of the crop.
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Texas is nowhere near the academic quality that Mississippi State and Auburn bring to the table
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
by burntorangehorn on May 27, 2010 8:05 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I can’t believe I missed out on a Mississippi St. education. What was I thinking?
by dimecoverage on May 30, 2010 3:59 PM CDT up reply actions
Florida and Texas
Are fairly comparable academically. I think Florida is actually ranked a tad bit higher but it’s not like they are not comparable. Obviously that guy is an idiot.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
UT and Florida are functionally equal
Outside of the agricultural programs, where Florida has a clear and undeniable advantage in program quality and resources. That said, UT has some equal advantage in nuclear engineering graduate programs, law school, etc.
The moral is that Paul Finebaum is an enemy of thought.
proud to swim home
And don't get me started on Bob Gilbert
The man who once said the most important thing offered at the university of Tennessee was “football”, not a degree. You’re sure they weren’t criticizing the other UT?
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 27, 2010 9:09 PM CDT up reply actions
The comments I hear about Finebaum and his show are not favorable. Does anyone in that part of the country have any respect for the man or his opinion?
by dimecoverage on May 27, 2010 9:26 PM CDT up reply actions
Vegas Horn.
It wasnt so much the comparison to FSU that shocked me, it was him saying that UT didnt belong in the sec cuz of academics. That jus stunned me, as far as finebaum he is on the only station on xm radio that talks bout college football most of the day. I dont really care for him myself I think he is a bamma hommer.
FSU?
Florida State is in the ACC….u meant UF right? I really think they meant Tenn (the other UT)….but Tenn is a perfect fit for the SEC and they definitely belong.
FSU is a solid liberal arts school
not as strong as texas, obviously, but they were also an all-female teachers college at one time
There is a reason Florida has the Ag school in the state
The truth--it is actually the polar opposite
http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476
The Association of American Universities (“AAU”) is the group of elite academic instiutions in the country. The AAU consist of the top 63 schools. (Some religiously affiliated schools are not members, ie. Notre Dame and Georgetown)
Texas is probably not interested in the SEC because of the SEC’s lack of academics.
SEC membership in the AAU is pitiful. They are well below Big 10, Big XII, Pac 10 and the ACC. The SEC is not highly regarded academically and they are kidding themselves if they think otherwise. Hell, Florida and Vanderbilt are the only AAU members. They are really one of the lowest conferences in terms of academics.
Texas has been an AAU member since 1929!! Our membership in the AAU, in addition to our strong athletic program, is what makes Texas of interest to the Big 10 and all the other conferences. The lack of AAU membership by SEC affiliated schools is what makes the SEC unattractive to Texas. I don’t think Texas has any interest in the SEC at all.
Texas A&M has only been a memer of the AAU since 2001, which should give you an idea of just how elite this group is; the AAU is the benchmark for quality academics and research.
Every member of the Big 10 conference is a member of the AAU. Texas is considered “worthy” of the Big 10 because we have been a long standing member of the AAU. The Pac 10 has also been interested in Texas because of our AAU membership.
The whole conference re-alignment has been intertwined with AAU membership. Rutgers, Pitt, Mizzou and Nebraska are considered “worthy” of the Big 10 because of their AAU membership. Colorado is a target of the Pac 10 because it is an AAU member.
Florida is one of the few SEC schools that is an AAU member institution, but they have only been a member since 1985. Vanderbilt is also a member.
I would stake my University of Texas education
against the education of any of the SEC schools, with the possible sole exception of Vanderbilt. And I say this completely unbiased by any of the remarks my professors have given me regarding their own Ph.D. programs and research under and with Nobel Laureates.
Every time I feel down and depressed, I think of seven simple words by a true wise man, Matt Leinart: "I still think we're the better team" and I usually end up hurting myself by laughing so hard.
Florida and Vanderbilt
I have a lot of respect for CoachEtch and Learned Hand, but I have never personally felt that Florida holds a candle to Texas in terms of academics. But, before I debate the issue I am going to do some research. Vandy is so small it cannot possibly compare in overall scale—they are like Rice-a great small private institution.
I can only speak for Florida
based off what I have seen of their rankings. I have two friends that went their, one was a football player and the other was an Engineering Major. The football player was, well, a football player and he’s in the league now (very good guy we just never talked academics) and the other is getting his masters in engineering (we never really talk academics either). Either way, by my account or theirs there is a bias so I just went to the rankings. I personally believe Texas is a better school as well but its kind of a futile argument all together.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
Yes, probably futile. Texas fans vote Texas-FL fans would vote FL
“The football player was, well, a football player”—I have to jab you for this.
I recently had the pleasure to serve the Mayor and City of Houston with Judge Dwight Jefferson. He is a UT alum who played football at UT for Coach Royal, and he is one of the brightest guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He was also just appointed to serve on the METRO Board by our new mayor. I noticed his Texas T-ring during a committee meeting and started to freak when he told me he had played for Coach Royal. I recently saw a post on the official website “Catching up with Dwight Jefferson” and I thought that I was going to see some clips of him play—but it was an interview at an alumni Letterman’s celebration. Cool guy, and he is super smart and incredibly well respected in the Houston legal community. His wife is also an attorney.
I had been thinking about posting about Judge Jefferson on here, but I kind of thought that nobody else would find it important to know that a former UT football player under Coach Royal is also now an accomplished lawyer and former Judge in Houston. But, it is important. He is a true success story. He was drafted by the Raiders, but it didn’t pan out—-so he returned to get his law degree. The academic side of a UT degree is important and he is the kind of guy that we should be proud to have representing us.
Great story
Perhaps I misrepresented my friend. He was/is a great student and graduated with a Business/Admin degree before going to the league. It was just clear from our talking that Florida valued his athletic participation more than the value he added to their academic program. He was a very serious student.
I personally believe that former athletes do best in the business world because of their experiences working on an athletic team. Think about it, you have experience working with a diverse group of people and leading them, you’ve learned accountability and responsibility and you’ve been pressured to get things done. I’ve told my boys the same thing many times over and I believe being an athlete helped me better shape and succeed in my academic career.
All that being said, I think athlete’s at any school can truly be successful academically, especially considering the amount of resources available to them. It is just a matter that student-athletes want to.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
Bingo
Judge Jefferson, another lawyer from V&E, and I were the search committee for the new City of Houston Presiding Municipal Court Judge so it was a lot of work. We had very little time to chit-chat, but we are suppose to go have drinks and I can’t wait to hear his stories. However, the METRO board appointment is going to keep him very busy. Keep an eye out for him…..he is sure to be moving into some more high level positions based on this appointment.
Keep me updated
I’d be interested to hear what y’all talk about.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
cant speak for the other programs, but...
McCombs school of business ranks about 40 spots higher than Floridas business schooll
for god's sake people . . .
. . . florida and texas are not equal in quality of education or reputation. with all due repsect to florida, texas is far superior. it seems like everyone, including the people on this site, use the undergrad rankings to compare universities (im guessing because those are the most well known). as you all know, universities are far more than their undergraduate units. florida and texas are roughly equal in quality for undergraduate education. that is where it ends. here are some approximate rankings for various texas and florida graduate schools. florida is not even close in many of these rankings (the admittedly flawed us news rankings have been used to give a rough idea).
TEXAS FLORIDA
undergrad 47 47
law 15 47
engineering 9 30
education 10 53
psychology 13 45
business (mba) 16 39
physics 14 36
biology 26 46
earth science 9 ~40
computer science 8 ~35
poli sci 21 49
economics 25 48
as you can see there is absolutely no comparison. no disrespect to Florida but Texas is one of the best research universities in the world. TEXAS >>>>>>>>>>>>> SEC
Mind if I plagerize?
I was going to do this research….but Thanks!!!! I didn’t think FL could compare.
without a link to your source I can't say for sure
but I suspect cherry-picking here.
Other Receiving Votes: Oklahoma
by pleaseplaykindle on May 28, 2010 10:35 AM CDT up reply actions
Cherry-Picked or not, I find the data interesting
Generally in the grad/post grad context rankings boil down to a simple popularity contest under US news methodology, at least according to the voters I know.
But yes, with the resources UF has, I would be astounded if they’re not much more competitive (and occasionally better regarded) in other fields.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 28, 2010 12:49 PM CDT up reply actions
no cherry picking here
go to us news website for the rankings.
http://www.usnews.com/sections/rankings
i didnt want to spend forever on my post so i selected from among the fields generally considered the biggest / most important. additionally, off the top of my head i know Texas is top 10 in social work, top 10ish in music and top 20 in philosophy, highly regarded in chemistry etc etc on and on and on. im guessing UF has highly ranked programs i just cant find them and they dont appear to be in any of the major fields; law, engineering, business, cs, econ, poli sci, psych, education, physics etc. but supposing i am cherry picking, what fields am i missing? agriculture maybe? underwater basket weaving? med school is the only major field i can think of not included and Texas doesnt have a med school (ut southwestern in dallas is top 20).
Thanks for the research
It does make me wonder what they’re buying with their research budget, outside of a top ag program. I knew UT was about 20 spots higher in Shanghai’s ARWU, but I’m surprised to see the pronounced disparity in US news.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 28, 2010 1:36 PM CDT up reply actions
ha
If Levin graduate tax profs need a budget for that, they’re doing it wrong. We did research just to graduate.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 29, 2010 11:31 AM CDT up reply actions
The reason for my comment was poorly explained.
You have that Texas and Florida are both ranked 47th, which I suppose means that they are tied. Then, you go on to list a bunch of areas in which Texas clearly outranks Florida. What I don’t know is if that is an inconsistency in the US News’s rankings, or if you’ve chosen only those areas in which Texas outranks Florida to display. Maybe you can help clear this up for me.
Other Receiving Votes: Oklahoma
by pleaseplaykindle on May 28, 2010 4:36 PM CDT up reply actions
Different methodologies
The overall rankings are partially based on reputation, but mostly based on things like alumni donations, number of people that graduate in four years, average class size, average SAT score, library size, etc. The individual program rankings are based entirely on reputation.
So Texas has a much better reputation in most areas, but the alumni/student numbers aren’t any better.
by Texas Wahoo on May 29, 2010 10:03 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
47th is NOT an overall ranking, it is an undergraduate ranking
i have listed that Texas is tied with Florida at 47 for UNDERGRAD, the whole point of my post is that Texas and Florida have thousands and thousands of graduate students who attend graduate programs that also help determine how “good” a university is. Texas undergrad is ranked lowly because it is flooded with 9000 plus freshman each year, many of whom only got in because they ranked in the top 10% in high school. its tough to keep the SAT numbers (very influential for undergrad rankings) and reputation numbers high when that is the reality. as far as graduate programs, Texas is amongst the best schools in the world. to be clear, Texas outranks Florida in every single graduate program I checked. Texas is not the 47th ranked University in the country, it has the 47th ranked undergraduate program.
whole heartedly agree
texas doesn’t have a med school but we do have a top 5 pharm school and a pretty good nursing school from what i remember. our business and engineering schools are among the top grad schools. and from what i can see, education is also ranked pretty high. so with all due respect to florida, but texas clearly wins the battle.
US News rankings also tend to be flawed. Our undergrad ranking is deflated by lots of meaningless factors that I can’t remember off the top of my head. Internationally, texas is also far and away more highly regarded. no offense to florida but my relatives in another country have never heard of it.
UT Austin is a great school
School. There is more to life. The point is a degree from UT Austin guarantees you nothing in the real world where you will compete with grads from SEC schools and Sunbelt schools alike. You will compete with personality, good looks, politics, ambition, performance as well as your degree. AAU is a preferred tax payer money grab list and with deficits what they are, that could matter less in years to come. Get over yourself, and get to work!
School is not a place to obtain guarantees for life.
School is a place to get an education.
Get over yourself and stop talking down to us. Some people just might be better educated and worldly than you.
Other Receiving Votes: Oklahoma
by pleaseplaykindle on May 28, 2010 10:37 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Or i could matter more, when the AAU is invariably a part of an economic stimulus package
The point, which you seem to be missing, is that some SEC and Sun Belt schools don’t offer the minimum tools necessary for market entry into some professions.
That’s not a universal slight, UT doesn’t necessary offer all the tools either but the more resources it has the better it can serve its students.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 28, 2010 12:45 PM CDT up reply actions
"it" rather than I
And it’s time for more coffee.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on May 28, 2010 12:49 PM CDT up reply actions
wonderful, wonderful news
i’m guessing this means the sec has gotten the word from texas.
by rumplestiltsglenn on May 28, 2010 10:48 AM CDT reply actions
If you want to listen to the broadcast
If you want go to the paul finebaum radio network site and you can listen to the conversation on the podcast from yesterday in hour 2 Bob Gilbert comes on bout 21 min in. That way you can hear verbatim what he says.
Horns are Everywhere
When I go out of town on business and wear my UT hat (out of office, of course), I get at least one person throwing me the Hook’em Horns in almost every city I’ve been to. (I also got one Land Thief shouting “Boomer!” in the West Coast, but that was just once.) Never saw some random folks with a UF hat, though. Just saying, UT grads seem more loyal to their school.
In-VINCE-able.
You've obviously never been around
large crowds wearing jorts. That is where the gator chomps hide.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
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