Re: Harbaugh Wants to Have a Week of Michigan Spring Practice in FL; SEC Says "Hold U
Well, Alabama's managed to win big and graduate players and maintain the University's commitment to academic excellence--and strengthen it. But if some of you want to worship at the idol of the BIG Ten, don't let me stop you.
Yeah, there seems to be this odd idea by some that a school can only attain excellence in one area.
No, you guys are simply too defensive about my comment. I explained it one way, but let me try another.
Different schools have different admissions standards. Stanford has the highest standard in FBS. They refuse to cave, even if it means missing out on a lot of players. I admire that, but I don't think more of Stanford than my alma mater because of it.
I don't want to discuss B1G vs anyone because I only care about one school in the B1G - OSU. Ohio State sacrificed its integrity for the sake of football during the Tressel era. More recently, we have changed our recruiting policies to make Meyer happy. And now Meyer and our biggest boosters are placing pressure on the administration to lower admission standards for athletes.
Tell me - if Alabama did this, would you be happy? Things like this - they are what concern me.
I don't know or care how Alabama's admission standards compare to OSU's. Saban has done a better job of graduating players than either Meyer or Tressel at OSU. He is also doing a better of turning boys into men. But if Saban started doing things like Meyer has at OSU, I don't think that you guys would be happy. You love football, but you clearly love your University.
It is absolutely possible to excel at both - Notre Dame did it for decades. But for some reason, OSU seems to be willing to consider lowering our standards to win at football. For some reason, they don't think that they can do both. This is not an Alabama problem, it is an OSU problem (and clearly a UM problem, too).