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Originally posted by: Prof who supports sports
"i know you. You're the middle-aged guy who's pissed off that he never could play football past high school and have adopted the "I'm too cool for football" attitude. Bet you have your kids going to private school and will encourage them to do something like walk-on the swim team at a small, private liberal college instead of going to a state school with parties, beer, and, of course, football. "

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Prof who supports sports,

I played football in neither high school nor college. I was usually the last one chosen in middle school when the softball teams were established in physical education classes. I was very nearsighted. In elementary school some of my classmates called me four eyes. In high school I was often called fatso. During study hall in the library one day I was studying and minding my own business when a gym teacher who was proctoring study hall that day walked up to me and she told me point blank, and within earshot of everyone at my table, was a terrible athlete I am based on what she saw in gym class earlier that morning. I like classical music and opera. I have even attended a ballet or two in addition to Nutcracker during the Christmas season. I don't like the taste of beer. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

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Originally posted by: Sorry Charlie
"I think if you look at the average attendance for Southern Miss baseball and Auburn baseball, you will see the Eagles have a higher average. I'm talking about the complete year or you can go back a few years and see the same thing. quote: Originally posted by: Raul Taed" That's what I'm talking about! That's who you get to do your commencement address: someone who is a famous graduate of your university, not a local politician running for reelection. Ah, Sela Ward... By the way, it's stupid to compare USM's crowd to Ole Miss/Auburn or State/Bama. Both games were played in towns that are home to good baseball schools but that do not have the luxury of a larger, separate community to support the sports. I know for a fact that Auburn was in the middle of finals last weekend, and many students had already packed up and left for a few days. Don't worry, though, Eagle Homer, the Auburn faithful will sell out the baseball stadium for the Bama/Auburn series in two weekends. ""

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Originally posted by: I Say Butter, You Say Parquet
"

According to www.ncaa.org, the attendance records for some schools of interest:

School Year Avg Attendance Attendance Rank in NCAA
LSU 2004 7,802 1
Miss State 2004 6,214 2
Alabama 2004 4,428 6
Ole Miss 2004 3,497 12
Auburn 2004 3,383 13
USM 2004 2,848 18

"

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Originally posted by: I Say Butter, You Say Parquet
"

School Year Avg Attendance Attendance Rank in NCAA
LSU 2004 7,802 1
Miss State 2004 6,214 2
Alabama 2004 4,428 6
Ole Miss 2004 3,497 12
Auburn 2004 3,383 13
USM 2004 2,848 18

School Year Avg Attendance Attendance Rank in NCAA
LSU 2003 7,449 1
Miss State 2003 6,091 2
Alabama 2003 4,956 5
Ole Miss 2003 2,090 25
Auburn 2003 2,902 12
USM 2003 2,137 24

School Year Avg Attendance Attendance Rank in NCAA
LSU 2002 7,532 1
Miss State 2002 4,501 3
Alabama 2002 5,195 2
Ole Miss 2002 2,359 20
Auburn 2002 3,071 11
USM 2002 2,080 23

I'm just a fan of college baseball and of being forthright about where you rank. USM has pretty good baseball. They're not an attendance star, a national powerhouse, or even a realistic threat to make Omaha. That said, I have enjoyed a number of evenings at the Pete with a hot dog and a cold drink. "

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Originally posted by: honor house
"But you were top 20 in only one of those years."

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Originally posted by: psych major
"This poster is some sort of savant. "

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Originally posted by: Voter
"Several people on this thread have questioned the importance of sports at a university. In a book called "The Game of Life" (Princeton: 2001), the authors, Shulman & Bowen (former president of Princeton) "crunch their way through all the standard rationales for college sports, and they cannot come up with empirical corroboration for any of them. It is not the case that having winning teams increases alumni giving; or that recruiting athletes enhances the racial or socioeconomic diversity of the student body...virtually no college in the country makes money from football, no matter how successful its team, etc., etc." (from the New Yorker 1/22/01). Of course, at USM, we don't hafta have reasons--we just DO IT, right?"

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Originally posted by: Muhammed Ali? Cassius Clay!
"
Why all the hatred for athletics? That's misplaced anger. We wouldn't be having this conversation if USM were ranked in the 2nd Tier. Whatever "it" is, it's not athletics' fault, it's Thames fault."

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Originally posted by: A Thought
"All you have to do is compare a professional athlete's salary to the salary of an academic (or even a surgeon) and you see that our whole society obviously puts athletics in front of academics.  "

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Originally posted by: Make mine Median done.
"Considering the large number of professional athletes in all sports, the number who make those gigantic salaries is relatively small. On the other hand, most surgeons make huge salaries. Compute the mean salaries of all professional athletes vs. all surgeons. I predict that we would find that the median salary of surgeons is much higher than the median salary of professional athletes. When a professional athlete receives a spectular salary, the story makes headlines. When a surgeon makes a spectacular salary, it is taken as common place and not newsworthy."

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