Tuesday, April 17, 2007

BigTime Athletics - PROFANE (Michael R. Davidson)
EXPOSING THE WORST IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS. CELEBRATING THE BEST.

A new blog made of the right stuff has appeared. A sample follows:

Monday, April 16, 2007
Grats to the Nittany Lions/Graduation Rates

Many congratulations to the Nittany Lions of Penn State on making the home advantage stick, and taking their NCAA-high 12th National Championship in Men’s Gymnastics. They defeated Oklahoma, Stanford, Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota in the team finals at State College on Friday. This came on the same weekend when police descended upon the campus to interview football players suspected in a burglary and assault. No points for guessing which story received more press.

Penn State also commands a respectable 78% graduation rate in NCAA sports ‘Other’ than Baseball, Basketball, Cross-Country/Track, and Football. It is no great shock that Stanford is tops amongst the participating teams at 89%, followed by Illinois and Michigan at 88% and 81% respectively. Minnesota at 61% and Oklahoma at 60% post respectable graduation rates, but considering the shenanigans that continue to proceed in both athletics departments, it is not surprising that they lag the other schools.

Mr. B. will be following this site with great interest. Hopefully the Athletic Department at BigU will also give it some attention.

My first PhD student was an undergrad at Virginia Tech. Our flags are at half staff at BigU.

A still stunned Bonzo