Via Phi Beta Cons, here’s a ranking of the Top 50 schools for successfully combining athletics and academics. PBC wants a ranking of the bottom 50 schools using these criteria. I’d be happy if the original article would have stopped to consider that their rankings only include NCAA Division I universities and that there is more to a ranking like this than combining existing academic rankings with existing sports rankings. Small colleges, particularly Division III schools like mine and some of the NAIA schools, often do a very good job of combining athletics and academics, probably moreso than most of the Top 50 schools ranked here. The NCAA’s own web site says:
Colleges and universities in Division III place highest priority on the overall quality of the educational experience and on the successful completion of all students’ academic programs. They seek to establish and maintain an environment in which a student-athlete’s athletics activities are conducted as an integral part of the student-athlete’s educational experience.
But you’ll never hear about it because we don’t participate in the BCS circus and don’t have massive research budgets.
Filed under: Education, Higher ed, Life in academia , academics, athletics, division III, ncaa, rankings, sports
Here’s a sport I didn’t see in your rankings. If you want an ultimate macho sport this is it. This is a great video.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KylUHdDXuCg
To coin a phrase — holy cow!
I think it was Hemingway that said there are really only three sports — mountain climbing, auto racing, and bullfighting, and everything else is just a game.
It makes bullfighting with a cape and a sword seem too easy when all you need is a cowboy hat and some guts.