Interesting article about Kirby Smart

It pisses me off that his name is on my diploma.

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UGA can be both a very strong academic institution and strong athletically, as Adams was trying to point out. We don't want football to drive the school, and it shouldn't. UGA should aspire to be the Stanford of the East rather than the Bama.

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Bama is both, why can't we be both? Bama is a strong academic institution but when it comes to football they are balls out to win. We should be the same.

Also, Bama rakes in more cash than any one while also having that kind of commitment to football. We should at the very least be competitive in that reguard.

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According to U.S. News: Bama is ranked 96th overall; UGA is 61st.

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And these rankings are fairly subjective. Bama is not exactly at the bottom of the heap in the SEC academically yet they are far superior in football.

They manage to be a football institution with a pretty strong academic one as well. Not a strong as Georgia but strong enough. Not even bottom tier in the SEC. Adams is basically suggesting we can't do both which is crap.

I would argue that academic rankings have typically been independent of athletic department decisions for UGA. The real boost that UGA has had in academics has come as a result of the HOPE grant keeping more quality students in-state for a free ride. Alabama has actually had a big boost academically due to the increased enrollment and applications that I think many might attribute to their football program's popularity. Significant boosts to out of state applications and admits (extra money for the school). The volume of applications alone has allowed them to get more selective on who they admit in from a general student population.

I disagree with the idea that changes that are made to the football program are going to decrease the quality of the university on an academic basis. I'm not recommending we take a bunch of functionally retarded kids who are great athletes, but I don't believe that Bama has been doing this either. They've been using the guidelines that the NCAA has in place to define minimums. At that point, it is on the program to get these kids to perform both on the field *AND* in the classroom.

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Errrr.......not exactly. According to U.S. News:

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I would say that both schools are similar academically. Bama has us beat in Law and Business. We were ranked higher than them last year in business and ranked higher than them in law few years ago. Law, business, and engineering are significant colleges within any university and we should strive to improve our rankings in those fields. The reason Bama gets many out of state applicant's is because Bama is known for providing generous merit scholarship to OOS students. I think the beauty of the campus itself attracts many students. Having a winning football team sends waves of publicly throughout the nation attracting many students.

Having said all that, there are tons of things going for UGA. For example, we have a new business learning community, so expect the ranking of UGA to surpass Bama in the next few years. We have also raised significanlty' more money each year under Moorehead than any other presidents before. We have also opened a new Vet campus. I strongly belive UGA will also have it's own independent medical school in the future. I also believe that UGA is closer to an AAU membership than Bama due to UGA's stronger research performance. Anyway, both schools are great in different ways.

To address the topic, what Michael Adams said is ridiculous. I mean if Bama has a different "mindset" than UGA, then what about Florida, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame and other schools with strong academics and a historically strong football team. There is no reason why we can't be both good at football and academics. I believe Adams and McGarity's mindset is why we can't achieve to our potential. They are the leaders in mediocrity.

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I would say that both schools are similar academically. Bama has us beat in Law and Business. We were ranked higher than them last year in business and ranked higher than them in law few years ago. Law, business, and engineering are significant colleges within any university and we should strive to improve our rankings in those fields.

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I understand your point; however, the business and law rankings are pretty interchangeable. You're talking a difference of only 3-5 spots and them being ahead in those is a recent development that I don't expect to be sustained perpetually. As for many of the other rankings.....there are HUGE gaps between us. Again, we've got NOTHING outside the 90 spot. The vast majority of their programs are at or beyond the 100 level.

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To address the topic, what Michael Adams said is ridiculous. I mean if Bama has a different "mindset" than UGA, then what about Florida, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame and other schools with strong academics and a historically strong football team. There is no reason why we can't be both good at football and academics.

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You're spot-on here. Really, we should be looking to UF on how to make these work hand-in-hand. They have mastered this better than anyone (and I can't tell you how much I hate to say that, btw). I believe the administration thought that's what they would get with Ears, given his time working under Foley. It just hasn't panned out and he has shown himself to be particularly inept when it comes to developing and maintaining a winning athletic culture.

Law school ranking at Alabama must have gone up significantly very recently. I went to UGA law but had to work one summer in B'ham because it was the Olympics in ATL and those Alabama kids (while fun to be around) were not overly sharp nor did they have great academic backgrounds. I understand Alabama is a much bigger school now, but I highly doubt things have changed that much. Maybe the criteria is wonky or UGA could just be more honest in what they report to the ranking services. Good to know though, UGA law needs to get those rankings up!

He's too arrogant to give a shite but I think he would feel pretty awful.