(Disclosure: my wife and I graduated
from Indiana University. Heck, we even went to high school in
Bloomington.)
In this year's bowl games between teams
from the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten, the SEC won 2 out
of 3. This continues a trend that has held for years.
Those three bowl games generated
$10,550,000 in payouts to the teams and their conferences (source:
http://www.philsteele.com/bowls/13-14/bowlprojections.html.).
Count all bowl games involving a team from these two conferences and
you get an additional $87,620,000. How much more did their team's
successes generate in alumni donations? Division I football and
basketball are about money. Every other factor eats money's dust.
The smallest school in either the SEC
or the Big Ten is Vanderbilt, with 12,795 students (source:
http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/#enrollmentfall2012). Most
of them have at least 35,000. I can personally attest that students
approach college with a wide—and often, wild—variety of
motivations. Some of the best research and teaching happen in big
schools, though often not for undergraduates. Nevertheless, I admit
that I am about to engage in wide—and possibly,
wild—generalizations. So here goes.
The SEC uses the NCAA's minimum
academic eligibility requirements. Find them here:
http://www.ncaa.org/initial-eligibility.
The Big Ten has higher standards. It also gets higher results.
Last year its schools produced three academic All-Americans in the
major sports. This is an average year for the conference. The last
two major sport academic All-Americans from the SEC were Tim
Tebow and Peyton Manning, who graduated from Tennessee in 1997. The
aggregate GPA for SEC major sport athletes in 2011-12 was 2.35. For
the Big Ten it was 2.87. (I had to compile these statistics from each school's compliance page. If there is a single source for this I could not find it.)
Generally speaking,
the Big Ten has got it right.
Could
you find exceptions, stories of Big Ten athletes who cannot spell NFL
and of SEC athletes who make superb use of their educations? Of
course.
Should students with sketchy high
school transcripts be permitted to play NCAA sports? I say
yes—especially if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It gives them a chance to get an education.
Does the stereotype of the SEC
as a bunch of cheating dunces have validity? Some. But for every
Kentucky basketball program the conference can boast a number of
success stories. The Blind Side movie tells one with great heart and
power.
But we must understand that in the NCAA's Division
I it's about the money, not the learning. Some places (especially
the Big Ten) do a better job of giving their athletes an honest
education. Given the size of the potential monetary reward if you
cheat, I find that admirable.
