Yeah they are. All the B1G schools except maybe Nebraska are elite academic and research institutions. There are justified reasons to criticize the U, but it's a very good school.
Im not criticizing the U. They are a very good school. They aren't elite. Princeton is elite. The only BIG school that can hang with schools like Princeton is Northwestern.
All I'm going to say is that mistakes have consequences, and success isn't free. That circles us back to the theme of the OP. The thing I question is whether Minnesota knows what they're missing by having middling to poor revenue sports. Imagine being so prominent in the national pop culture that Smith of Minnesota is made today.
Tour the Athletes Village and then let us know what you think. The basketball, and especially football, facilities FAR surpass other sports. Sure, probably still behind other schools. But compared to what it was before and compared to our other sports, it's not even close. Seriously though, schedule a tour, it's really fun.
Ironically, the UoM, with all their focus away from athletics has also fallen in college academic rankings. National University overall ranking # 53, behind (in order): Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Purdue, Illinois.
This is what he confirmed in the article:
This is from EG#9 on GopherHole in the same thread but not part of Shama's piece.
I think Michigan is considered pretty close.
Calling Shama a journalist is like calling me the pope.
Not exactly....he has been earning a living as a journalist for 40-50 years. You may dress up in your pope custome on Halloween and we'll all call you the pope for a day but it's unlikely you'll earn a living doing it.
Cosplay Sid is not making a living off his Geocities-era website.
Yep. They are almost always ranked 2nd best in the conference. We are usually in the middle.
I deflected nothing. I have no stake in defending the U of M for their stupid actions...I was just pointing out that their stupid actions are not that out of whack with what happens at colleges all over the place. That doesn't make it better, just a worthwhile fact.
So your problem with the U of M as a college, the reason you "hate" them, is because they (again as a COLLEGE) want to have a high degree of education and be thought of or have the ability to rub shoulders with some of the best known and highly respected universities in the country/world? Am I reading that correctly?
Sid got paid longer and was wrong all the time. Reusse has been around forever and he is wrong quite often. Jim Souhan, Judd...need I go on.
If the link goes to EG#9 my apologies...it was not my intention. I linked the top of the thread or intended to.
Yes, when you have encountered this behavior and it negative impacts you, then you do remember it... vividly.
If you are going to ask donors for millions of dollars to build stadiums and practice facilities because they support the U, then follow through and do things in a way that would facilitate winning on the court/field etc. A university benefits hugely from fielding really good athletic teams.
I am not disagreeing with any of that. I just find it bizarre that someone would complain that a major research university is hoping to be thought of as a high class research institution. The job of of the U of M is to educate students and do research first...a very distant second is have winning sports teams.
The Ken Keller era
My school years. I tell people I got my diploma signed by a Groucho Marx impersonator.
This was around my father's years he didn't attend UMN or U Chicago. He graduated from Augsburg. He told me what a blunder U Chicago made because they lost a disproportionate amount of donors to the school when they dropped football in 1939. They added football back in 1969, btw.
First you have to pick a winning president and pay for it. You can't bring in the provost from from the University of South Carolina who made her bones at Mizzou and expect great things.