What If Our Athletics Were Graded By State’s Academic Standards? (11am Update)

AD & Department General NC State Administration Non-Revenue Rankings & Lists48

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I’ll make this short and sweet and let you add in your thoughts in the comments:

What if NC State’s athletics were graded and a GPA built using essentially the same standards that each student at NC State faces in their classes?

I think that overall, the Athletics Department’s GPA would hover around a 1.0 and would be on Academic Warning II.  They would probably have to write the dean a letter every semester explaining why they should be re-admitted to school.

I’m pretty busy with work today, but if someone wants to build a GPA for the Athletics Department, please do so and post it, and we’ll add it to the article.  A last place finish would be an F, and first or even second (let’s be generous) would be an A.

Could Lee Fowler’s athletics results earn a “degree”?  I really doubt.  Shout me down if you think I am wrong.

Though none of the following rankings should be much of a surprise to you since we told you in August how “Coach” Fowler’s 9th year in Raleigh was shaping-up, but here are the Directors’ Cup standings as of 1/13/2009 (since we are grading):

ACC:

4. UNC
5. Wake Forest
9. Maryland
11. UVA
15. FSU
18. Duke
27. BC
63. VT
68. Clemson
91. NC State
93. GT (has a new AD)
94. Miami (has a new AD)

State of North Carolina:

4. UNC
5. Wake
18. Duke
79. UNC-G
87. App State
91. NC State
94. UNC Charlotte

Looks like the NC State Athletics Department is tracking along the exact same lines as last season when we finished the year #56 in the country (the exact ranking the program earned during Lee Fowler’s FIRST season in Raleigh. Must be the fuh-cilities.

NC State finished 53rd of all 66 BCS (major conference) institutions. The Wolfpack bested 13 schools – Iowa State, Vanderbilt (Lee Fowler’s alma mater who does not have an actual Athletics Department), Ole Miss, Boston College, Kansas State, Washington State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Oregon State, South Florida, Mississippi State, Rutgers and Cincinnati.

Related Statistical Links:

(1) Comparison of NC State Athletics Directors (Link Here)

(2) All Sports ACC Comparisons (Link Here)

AD & Department General NC State Administration Non-Revenue Rankings & Lists

48 Responses to What If Our Athletics Were Graded By State’s Academic Standards? (11am Update)

  1. pack44fan 01/26/2009 at 4:40 PM #

    In Yahoo’s power rankings for ACC basketabll, NCSU is 10th in the league, “the 5th best team in NC”.

  2. Greywolf 01/26/2009 at 4:54 PM #

    choppack1
    “It’s truly sad to me that Powers That Be continue to allow Fowler to steer this ship on a path that doesn’t appear to lead to anywhere but mediocrity at best, and just downright awful at worst.”

    To call out LF for steering the ship toward “mediocrity at best” is like calling out the helmsman on the Titanic for steering the ship into an ice berg. LF is steering the ship in the direction he is told to steer it. It’s why MAF is not here. She was telling LF to steer toward greatness in athletics. (We had no way of knowing how Chuck was going to turn out and if we did, procedure — oblingers procedure — had to be followed in releasing him. We can only wonder how that would have gone had MAF still been here.) IMO all immediate movement toward greatness took a left turn when MAF left and Oblinger put on the collar.

    It’s all a little too personal for my tastes.

    Anybody got any cites for Lee’s gaffs? I don’t mean the interpretations, I mean the actual reported material.

  3. whitefang 01/26/2009 at 5:09 PM #

    If LF is steering where Oblinger wants it steered, than that really is scary. Because its not like we have turned into an academics before athletics type of school which you would think would be the result from the chancellor giving direction.
    More likely is no one is steering because the chancellor really doesn’t give a crap one way or the other. And I think Fowler is a big load mouth screw-off who really doesn’t do shit so steering is something he doesn’t know about. Still it is hard for me to believe that the chancellor doesn’t catch hell from high impact donors and the BOT, SOME of which are State athletic fans.
    So the truth is I can’t figure out why it looks like no one in power even cares that we suck. What optimist is left in me still believes the shoe has to fall on LF soon. The money train has to be slowing in a hurry. There is no reason why a school the size of and with the resources of State can’t put a competitive product out in most sports. It is not like our academic requirements are higher than Wake or Virginia

  4. BJD95 01/26/2009 at 5:18 PM #

    It is much more accurate to say that Oblinger and friends are indifferent to athletic performance. Not actively hostile like Monteith.

  5. whitefang 01/26/2009 at 6:36 PM #

    Sure Oblinger may try to be indifferent. But I have to believe that Oblinger is catching it from the money people.
    For example I was talking to a good friend who is high in the faculty at UVa at a fb game last fall. We were talking about UVa’s fb struggles and she said she was in a meeting with UVa pres Casteen and he excused himself early saying he was on his way to meeting to discuss why “their football team can’t win.” I have met Casteen a couple of times and if ever there was a pres who seemed to be “above” caring about athletics, he would seem to be the one. I mean they get enough accolades about academic crap that you would think that wouldn’t be on his radar. But I am SURE he was catching it from the money guys about how their fb program has gone backward.
    He may not care himself, but surely to God Oblinger is hearing it about State’s overall athletic futility from the same kind of people.

  6. highstick 01/26/2009 at 7:19 PM #

    During HWSNBN, we could refer to ourselves as “mediocre”. We are no longer mediocre, we just plain “sucK” and there’s no relief in sight that I see.

    Sad thing is that I see you younger guys accepting it(because you don’t know any better and that is truly sad), but for some of us remaining “old farts”, we remember and we know better!

    I had lunch with a former Tar Heel athlete the other day and he was telling me how “we ran off a good coach”, yada, yada. I asked him, would you have settled for HWSNBN and his answer was a resounding “NO”. Well, why should we settle for mediocrity or failure?

    I’ve said it for several years now, but you guys ignore me. If success doesn’t count in sports, why would you think this bunch of faculty and administration would expect that much more on the academic side. At some point, academic standards also start to deteriorate! Then what do you have?

  7. Alpha Wolf 01/26/2009 at 7:25 PM #

    ^ That post is a great point to paste in a comment made by YANCSSB:

    “After a three-year rebuilding process, Gottfried took Alabama to the NCAA Tournament in 2002, beginning a streak of five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Crimson Tide’s best finish came in 2004 when UA advanced to the Elite Eight.

    Five straight NCAA Tournament appearances!?!?!?!
    And Elite Eight appearance!?!?!?!?

    What the f*ck was Alabama thinking?!?!?!?!?!OMGOMGOMG

    Don’t they know that Duke and Carolina are located just three states away?”

  8. TheCOWDOG 01/26/2009 at 8:24 PM #

    Hamlet Highstick….I’ve dropped the same dime on the BOT for no less than the last 2 months of this year. But in here no one seems to freakin’ give a damn.

    I want to see posts calling out those that Fowler takes his directive from. I want to know the names and faces of those behind the curtain that escape the raking that Fowler gets in here.

    Who are these shadow sabatours? And why do we not call them out?

  9. john of sparta 01/26/2009 at 9:40 PM #

    Athletics Department is on it’s 5th academic probation.
    if an D in MBB equals a D in MS, then there’s the rationale.
    if, however, Money-Making sports (mandatory courses within major)
    are weighted, then the AD gets a C. we all know there are ONLY
    two…men’s BB and football (baseball has contributed $205K,
    and bass fishing pays its own way). bottom line:
    Student shows significant football acumen, and lacks the
    fundamental skills necessary for men’s basketball.
    Recommend student drop double-major program for
    continued progress toward graduation in two years.

  10. 61Packer 01/26/2009 at 10:06 PM #

    highstick- academic standards DID deteriorate- 3 seasons ago, when NC State officials hired a head basketball coach who had failed to graduate from NC State 25 years prior and then e-mailed it in from elsewhere to get the job.

  11. JeremyH 01/26/2009 at 11:08 PM #

    is Archie Miller busy? perchance the apple did not fall far from… the other apple that fell off the tree.

  12. JeremyH 01/26/2009 at 11:36 PM #

    why did we end our search with someone that has never coached in college?

  13. turfpack 01/27/2009 at 12:10 AM #

    LEE- why ya’ll so pissed I got ya’ll a coach in lest dan a month,the search was hard.
    PLUS I KNOW BASKETBALL and FURRRCILITCES.
    I’LL BE AT MY LAKE HOUSE IF YA’LL NEED ME.
    BOYS IT’S GONING TO BE PURRRITY TOMORROW LET’S PLAY SOME GOLF.

    ALL of this while NCSTATE is in flames as an atheltic department.

    WAY TO GO LEE-KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK BUDDY.

  14. Greywolf 01/27/2009 at 1:22 AM #

    Whitefang says,
    “More likely is no one is steering because the chancellor really doesn’t give a crap one way or the other. And I think Fowler is a big load mouth screw-off who really doesn’t do shit…”

    WF, he may not do it well, but he does a lot of shit. 😉

    “Still it is hard for me to believe that the chancellor doesn’t catch hell from high impact donors and the BOT, SOME of which are State athletic fans.”

    WF, are the “high impact donors” that much smarter than we are? Most of us here appear to be in denial that the BOT and the Chancellor calls the shots since we are still blaming the AD for everything.

    Our prime candiates for AD would not take the cut in pay to be our AD. And more importantly they are not the kind of people who could put up with the BS that they would have to put up with out of the BOT and the Chancellor’s office.

    WF, from another thread you say, “After all our AD is only a symptom of our disease – not the cause.”

    What our AD does that keeps him in his job is his people skills with the coaches who work for him. Publicly supported, as it should be IMO, until they leave or are terminated. Taking the brunt of the complaints and criticism hoisted on the Chancellor and BOT — never once saying, wait, that’s not me or such stupid remark.

  15. JeremyH 01/27/2009 at 3:30 AM #

    you guys should start a booth at the brickyard

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 01/27/2009 at 8:28 AM #

    What it athletics were graded by State standards?

    Most likely they would a change in venue for some athletes and bus them to Raleigh to equalize the grades. Or better yet they would designate a school “gifted and talented” and change the grading structure.

  17. Wolf Dog 01/27/2009 at 8:47 AM #

    As the state’s largest university and one of the largest land grant schools in the country, we should lead the state and that should be the expectation. We also service more NC residents in more ways than any other state university. We should be held accountable as the state’s flagship university!

  18. BJD95 01/27/2009 at 9:32 AM #

    I don’t fault the BOT as much, because: (1) It’s certainly not their primary responsibility; and (2) They have acted in the past (they forced Chuck Amato out).

    Once we go from regional embarrassment to national embarrassment,l the BOT will probably get involved. Sadly, they stopped just short of removing Fowler when Amato got his walking papers.

  19. whitefang 01/27/2009 at 9:44 AM #

    Grey,
    I think we agree on most things – especially that the BOT, large donors (some of which may be the same), and the chancellor are the ones that put up with it and are ultimately responsible for the results.
    However as to whether the “high impact” donors are that much smarter than us, then of course the answer is no, but they surely get listened to more than I do. I am certainly not in denial as to where the real responsibilities lie because I answer ALL calls from State by “call me back when Fowler AND/OR Oblinger are gone.” Sure I know my response is never going to be a factor, but I guess it makes me feel better.
    Wolf Dog, I agree with your expectations. That is why I loved what TOB said after the UNC game because his expectations match mine and what I believe State’s should be for all athletics.

  20. whitefang 01/27/2009 at 9:54 AM #

    BJD, not to keep hammering it, but even though it certainl,y isn’t the BOT’s primary responsibilty, they sure got to be hearing it from their constituents. I know I use UVa comparisons a lot only because I end up spending so much time there so please forgive me.
    But if the UVa president is worried about the FB program that says something. Because it isn’t like UVa has a long history of being a fb powerhouse. And he could certainly say that he wasn’t worried about fb and no one would fault him based on their national academic recognition (deserved or not). So I have to believe he is hearing it from UVa’s BOV.

  21. Pack Leader 01/27/2009 at 10:00 AM #

    Hey guys just a heads up there is a GREAT article on PACKPRIDE.COM about last years football scout team and updates on freshman progress. Archer talks about this scout team and even is quoted as saying this team could beat any scout team in america. TOB is starting a breeding ground and has players like Carter, Mates, Barnes, and Glennon ready to step on the feild in spring practice and be ready to start as a freshman. they talk about becoming close since almost all freshman were redshirted and how this group WILL win an ACC championship before they leave. thats the type of leadership and development some other coaches we employ could learn from……….

  22. thekind 01/27/2009 at 1:31 PM #

    The true problem with LF, is that he does not believe in our University.
    And as a result of poor leadership, and complacent big money donors….we suck!

  23. Greywolf 01/27/2009 at 10:29 PM #

    WF- you say, “he was on his way to meeting to discuss why “their football team can’t win.”
    Later you say, “But if the UVa president is worried about the FB program that says something.”

    Are you sure the UVa pres was “worried” about the FB program? Sounds to me like he was cracking an inside, tongue-in-cheek, academic joke, NOT expressing to other academics that he was concerned why their football team can’t win.

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