OT: If College Football's Rankings Were Based on Academics ...

Submitted by gwrock on

Interesting article from the Wall Street Journal listing the Power Five conferences by average academic rank, and then itemizing the individual schools' rankings.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/college-rankings-football-vs-academics-1476…

I was surprised to discover that Nebraska is only ranked 469th (!!) academically.

EDIT:  Apparently this article is paywalled.  I'm not a subscriber and it displays completely for me, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't display for others.

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Mr. Yost

October 13th, 2016 at 4:08 PM ^

Why does this work?

Not complaining, but it seems too easy...do they just do something to the link so it can't be copied and pasted?

Weird. Usually you have to change part of the link or something. Similar doing a Google search and getting by it seems odd to me.

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HarbaughsLeftElbow

October 13th, 2016 at 6:24 PM ^

You do have to change part of the link (the google news link is different from the one that the OP posted). It works because the WSJ doesn't want to cut off the ad views from people who randomly stumble upon their articles but still want readers who frequently read their content/navigate through their site to pay for content. 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja…

 

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oriental andrew

October 13th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^

their women's volleyball team is a perennial power, and won that national championship last season. 

Currently, Big Ten teams are ranked: 

  • 1 - Wisconsin
  • 2 - Nebraska
  • 3 - Minnesota
  • 10 - Penn State
  • 14 - michigan state
  • 18 - Michigan
  • 19 - ohio state
  • 22 - Purdue
  • 24 - Illinois

We have a strong volleyball conference, yo! ohio state hosts the natty this year, according to the googles. 

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Pit2047

October 13th, 2016 at 7:44 PM ^

Nebraska is finishing nowhere near the top 10. Their best win is probably Oregon, a game they won by 3 points at home and Oregon has been revealed to be TERRIBLE. They have also struggled with NW and Illinois in consecutive weeks. They might not even be a top 25 team let alone #10 in the country.

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rc15

October 13th, 2016 at 2:29 PM ^

Really don't understand the point of this article. It doesn't weight ranking and win% or anything. Would be more interesting just to show the AP top and have the academic rankings next to each team...

1) Alabama (398)

2) OSU (71)

3) Clemson (207)

4) Michigan (24)

5) Washington (61)

6) Texas A&M (80)

7) Louisville (360)

8) Wisconsin (67)

9) Tennessee (253)

10) Nebraska (469)

I just wrote a more interesting article, can I work for the WSJ now?

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Everyone Murders

October 13th, 2016 at 2:43 PM ^

You have indeed created better content, so grab a cup of coffee!  Or a beer from the fridge.  Your conceit is intelligible, and thought provoking.  I actually know what I'm reading.

I'm surprised that Alabama is that low, and that OSU (who has improved academically) is that high. 

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bsgriffin1

October 13th, 2016 at 4:35 PM ^

I would love to see ESPN or their "recruiting nation" arm do a piece on this. It would be interesting to see how Bama has benefited from recruits who might not be able to read but can play ball, like at OSU. I am sure on some circumstances every year, there are at least a few recruits who wind up at some of the powerhouses like bama because they know they most likely wont qualify to get into a more intellectually inclined institution like Michigan, NW, USC, or even ND. This HAS to play a part in the recruiting process.

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Wolfman

October 13th, 2016 at 6:13 PM ^

It would upset the order and right now the order is making a lot of money, not just for the schools, but for espn and all networks that televise the games. Greeny from M&M came the closest when he mentioned NW won the academic trifecta last season with victories over both Stanford and ND. 

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Watching From Afar

October 13th, 2016 at 4:00 PM ^

Huh, I was always under the impression that Wisconsin was a better school than MSU. When I was in high school the admittance standards were defintely more difficult for Wisco than MSU.

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Heywood_Jablome

October 13th, 2016 at 4:09 PM ^

There is no god damn way Sparty should be rated higher academically than Wisconsin and Ohio State.  That is a joke. Average ACT score at OSU and Wisconsin is like 28. Sparty is like 23.

Joined: 10/24/2015

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Wolfman

October 13th, 2016 at 6:09 PM ^

I ride shared with a court secruit officer who attended Nebraska on a scholarship while Devine was there, so he was an old fart. He did a lot of bragging on NU and I normally let him just go on, like, "Hey did you know that Eric Crouch was the only qb in the nation with a 1,000 yard passing and 1,000 yd rushing?" I wanted to tell him that amout of passing yardage was about three weeks worth in an actual 1990s offense. He then went on about their number of Academic AAs. I wanted to tell him that there school cost 300.00 a semester and it overcharged. I say wanted to because I didn't want to walk home. 

This was actually the reason Osbourne had such an advantage. Anyone could afford the tuition so if they were good enough it would be picked up  by a booster and they could walk on. Osbourne was able to give his scholarships to TBs, QBs, and defensive personnel. They probably had more walk-on AA OLmen than any school in history. They never gave a scholarship to a FB and this includes the ones that moved onto the NFL. I couldn't understand the fit into the BIG when it was announced. I don't understand it now. 

Like MSU, they've come a long way but MSU looks Ivy compared to NU. 

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