@Sue22 Re: #17 You’re cracking me up!
Yep, no class.
I tend to peek at the Stanford and Cal rosters from time-to-time, for various sports, and you NEVER see that kind of stupidity.
You forgot “Because it is near the beach.” At least half the bios on D’s team mention the beach.
I find it distasteful. And it makes it look like they feel the need to be defensive about choosing Vassar and that they think these other colleges might just be better in people’s eyes. Defensiveness is generally the result of insecurity. I think the better approach is much more positive, as in, “I chose Vassar because of all these wonderful things.”
For those of you who think this is an example of try hard ism, recognize that Alabama football, unquestionably the premier athletic program in the country, does the same thing.
And of course the bios are written by the AD’s office
That’s interesting about Alabama. I do think that football does a few things differently then everyone else. It is kind of it’s own animal, so I guess that some of the accepted norms are different.
I know that I see a lot of bragging on social media about where athletes have been offered scholarships for football, and I don’t see that in other sports Some seem like the kids are just trying to rack up the largest number of offers. I just saw one a couple days ago from a school that I know the kid isn’t interested in. It certainly looks like he is just trying to up the count to be able to say “I got 10 scholarship offers” or something similar. I thought it was weird, but when I mentioned it to S, he said all the football and basketball guys do it, but he didn’t remember seeing it from anyone else. He has a pretty big social network with other athletes around the state and region, and most of his friends are not football and basketball players.
Although other scholarships are a lot harder to come by outside of those 2 sports, so maybe that’s part of it.
Alabama, unquestionably? =))
Stanford has won the Directors Cup for the last 19 years. That’s the premier collegiate athletic program in the country. And their student-athlete profiles don’t have specify, which schools were turned down.
And Alabama wasn’t even the premier football team in 2016-2017. Deshaun Watson hand them their collective butts in the national championship.
Yeah, Alabama unquestionably. Bama is consistently in the top 3-5 schools in revenue generation, based almost entirely on its football revenue. Their conference s the most profitable by a large margin based largely n the Bama brand. Stanford isn’t even close, regardless of the ludicrous amount of love it gets on this board. At the end of the day, it is all about the Benjamins.
And even if you want to define premiere as something other than most fiscally valuable, none of Stanford’s programs even approach Bama football (or OSU, UM, UF, LSU, etc) in terms of popularity or position in the larger culture. A whole lot more people care about who won the Iron Bowl than the Director’s Cup in any given year.
And @dadof4kids, a lot of football and basketball kids at a certain level are subject to a degree of interest and press that is just not present in other high school sports. My own son, who decidedly was not a high level recruit, had pages on a handful of recruiting sites and a number of stringers following him on social media. He graduated with four kids who were consensus four or five star recruits. Those kids operated in a media bubble that made me want to puke. In that environment, pretty much everything becomes public, either from the kid posting directly or because some guy from Scout or 247 pesters him until he gives out an offer list.
It’s about breadth of championships across all sports, including women’s sports, and Alabama is a big fail in that regard, when compared to Stanford.
And outside of Alabama, no cares cares about the Auburn-Alabama game. Also, typically Alabama plays the Little Sisters of Mercy and a bunch of directional schools on their schedule, so we all know their win-loss record is fluffed up.
And the reason why so many people care about Alabama football in Alabama., as well as many of the other colleges you speak of, is because here in the SF Bay Area we actually have professional football (49ers and Raiders), baseball (Giants and A’s), basketball (the NBA Champion Warriors) and a soccer team (San Jose Earthquakes). More sports to compete for that almighty dollar you speak of. Nothing in Alabama, but college sports.
Ya, no. Money is for nothing. Championships or bust!
Not only distasteful…but MISLEADING. Long time lurker here who works in Admission and I was curious, so I went and read some of these bios. Imagine my surprise when I saw a familiar name there, and my institution’s name in the bio. The student in question was interested in my institution but did not receive an offer of admission. So yes, said student chose Vassar, but did not decline an offer of admission from my institution to go to Vassar which the bio is implying. I’ll mention this to my Dean.
A good reminder to question what you read!
Please tell me we are not going to start “doxing” college kids because of an athletic bio written by some intern in an athletic office.
And I am perfectly comfortable with the statement that Alabama football is more prestigious, by any measure, than any athletic program at Stanford, men or women. The idea that “nobody cares” about the Iron bowl, or that Stanford’s schedule is more difficult is objectively false.
Nobody cares outside of Alabama is EXACTLY what I said. And really almost nobody does, objectively or not, unless you’re betting the game or an SEC foe.
As for prestige? Meh. Not exactly the word I’d use for the Alabama program. They play Mercer, Fresno State, Colorado State and Vanderbilt. All home games (except SEC opponent Vandy) and a 4-0 record automatically. That’s prestige for ya. =))
I get into this same argument with my neighbor who from Alabama, but attended Dartmouth.
I’ll let you finish our “discussion,” since I’m done. My apologies to the OP for the tangent.
Until my son started the recruitment process, I had never heard of the Director’s Cup. I am a fan of it, because I want Stanford to care about S’s non-revenue sport. But I think outside of a few elite circles no one cares, and 95% of the country hasn’t even heard of it.
I am also reasonably certain that 95% of the country knows that Alabama football has been at or near the top of the heap for quite a while.
Back to the original post I think it is a bit weird and insecure sounding what they are doing. But saying that they aren’t the 800 pound gorilla in college football, which is the 800 pound gorilla in college sports, is ridiculous.
The only people reading the bios of the team are their parents, and the parents of a team they may be playing against.
First, my point starts from the fact that football drives the bus, and is clearly the primary source of revenue (and consequent interest) in college athletics.
http://www.businessinsider.com/college-sports-revenue-2016-10
Alabama’s athletic department generated the fourth most revenue last year among public schools. Stanford, as a private school, doesn’t appear note list. But since its conference revenue is far below the SEC’s and since it doesn’t draw anywhere near the tv or live audience Alabama dies, it is not likely in a competitive position.
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/
Here are the fifteen most watched college games of last season.
Alabama appears five times, Ohio State four and Stanford once (the Rose Bowl).
On a list of the nine most watched regular season games, Alabama appears three times, Ohio State and Wisconsin twice, and Stanford does not appear
In addition, the iron bowl, which did not make the list, drew 8.2 million viewers.
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/#2016wk14
Alabama is fourth on the list of overall attendance last year, Stanford is fifty second
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As far as strength of schedule, Alabama was first last year, Stanford seventeenth
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other
I would have said the only people reading the bio’s are parents like me, who are trying to decide if their kids are good match for the school. I suppose if he ends up having a bio somewhere, I will read that and the Bios of his classmates. It’ll probably be the last time I read them anywhere.
Here’s the thing. There really is no way to confirm the truth of the information because the recruit may have been offered support by a coach but turned it down for ED at Vassar. Hence there is no acceptance, rejection, or wait list designation from which the information can be confirmed or denied.
The best approach is for the league in question to preclude bios that include school preferences. Or, better yet, perhaps some folks will contact the school to request confirmation.
The bios can be helpful for recruits in that they give you an idea of the prowess needed to be recruited. On the other hand, many contain out and out misrepresentations. I remember seeing some MVPs awards in bios that I know were not true. All County Honorable Mention awards somehow were transformed to First Team All County. In all such matters, a healthy does of skepticism is warranted.
The University of Alabama has 17 varsity sports, which is typical of a public university with a large athletic department. Stanford U has 36 varsity sports (20 for women, 16 for men), including teams in Squash, Synchronized Swimming, Water Polo, etc.
The Directors Cup is based on points generated. You use up to 10 men’s sports and 10 women’s sports to earn points. All sports are equal, so a national title in Synchronized Swimming is worth as many points as a national title in Football.
It’s not hard to figure out why Stanford U constantly wins the Cup, or why most folks don’t even know what the Director’s cup is, let alone care who wins it.
@Sue22 , thanks for the giggle at #17.
Here’s another Cup called the Capital One Cup, which includes most, maybe, all the college sports divided amongst men and women:
Stanford Men #4
Alabama Men #15
Stanford Women #1
Alabama Women #42
And there are public schools ahead of Alabama. BTW, I’m not a Stanford alum.
Again, as for the money aspect, if there’s only Alabama (or Auburn) football, then that’s the center of the universe in Alabama (and Auburn). But here in the SF Bay Area, we have more teams chasing the spectator’s dollar.