The Big Ten, the SEC and Academics

(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.