The ACC drops to 2nd place

[DNABB5]

No reason LVille can't make a commitment to improving their academics.

UofL could get a likely 50 spot boost if they stopped open enrollment. They do have some solid programs. What killed them is they are in essence both a university and a community college.

 

[HtownOrange]

Phat ... it's a matter of scale.

UL moving up 50 or 60 or 70 places in ranking is a huge, huge distance.

This isn't like SU slipping a few places. What you are suggesting is a monumental, never-happened-before improvement in the academic standards of a school.

As to the "commuter" school thing. Let's look at the population of Kentucky high school seniors. Where do you think the best students from the best high schools want to go to school? Now work your way down the food chain. Where do you think the kids with low SATs and mediocre grades go to school?

You nailed it again. Typically states will have one elite state school (OSU, Michigan, Florida, UNC, -Texas has two UT and TAMU) with the remaining schools focused on the lesser aptitude students and commuters. Kentucky is the "elite" school in KY, while Louisville is directed for the lower quality students. However, Louisville has made efforts to improve this status. Two forces at work help them; their committed effort to improve their demographics and the rise of other state schools. Louisville will probably never overtake UK, but they will be clearly the 2nd choice in the state.

 

[Millhouse]

i'm not going to kill louisville for having dumber students. someone has to. maybe they're really good at teaching dumb kids. i don't worry too much about how it reflects on me. I don't like syracuse admitting dumb kids because i think college is mostly about signalling that you're smart enough to get in and conscientious enough to get through. admitting stupid people wrecks that signal. i'm not worried that louisville's admittance standards signals anything bad about duke SU or anyone else. maybe in a conference full of schools with dumb students, it might bleed into the hiring managers' perception but on the margin here with enough good schools in the fold, it's not worth worrying about. they need to fill conference seats.

 

[HtownOrange]

i'm not going to kill louisville for having dumber students. someone has to. maybe they're really good at teaching dumb kids. i don't worry too much about how it reflects on me. I don't like syracuse admitting dumb kids because i think college is mostly about signalling that you're smart enough to get in and conscientious enough to get through. admitting stupid people wrecks that signal. i'm not worried that louisville's admittance standards signals anything bad about duke SU or anyone else. maybe in a conference full of schools with dumb students, it might bleed into the hiring managers' perception but on the margin here with enough good schools in the fold, it's not worth worrying about. they need to fill conference seats.

Have to agree in that Vandy hasn't suffered any negative academic perceptions.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

You can overdo the purported "lack of intelligence" of the average Louisville student. Louisville is a peer institution to other "seconds" such as NC State, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech and Clemson. Contrary to what has been said here Louisville is not an open admission school like NYS community colleges. There are course requirements as well as GPA and ACT/SAT score requirements. They just happen to be lower than most of the other ACC schools. When it comes to US News rankings Louisville's biggest problem might currently be peer ranking and that will, as Townie says, take a decade or more to change in a significant way.

 

[BlueCurtain]

in conference academic ranking due to the addition of Louisville.

Why as a fan of college athletics, do we really care about the academic ranking of anyone other than, perhaps, our alma mater? We are talking about this because:

1) we want to see SU in a viable conference playing an attractive schedule with legit access to the new BCS playoff
2) we want SU to generate enough revenue to fund athletic improvements and stay relevant

I for one don't give a rat's ass about the conference's academic ranking. When SU plays Louisville, does anyone here really lose sleep over curriculum discrepancies and student body IQ? We're sports fans first and foremost. Leave the academics to the professors and trustees to worry about... or create an academic forum.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Some of us also want our school to be in a conference comprised of peer institutions +/-. I think we are. I also think Louisville is an outlier but now it has something to shoot for.

 

[riskylogic]

Louisville could do what Maryland already does: Raise the standards for admission for freshmen and then take massive numbers of transfers from community colleges. Even though the same students would end up getting degrees, the rankings would go up. They could even spin off Louisville Community College to make this happen.

 

[Townie72]

You can overdo the purported "lack of intelligence" of the average Louisville student. Louisville is a peer institution to other "seconds" such as NC State, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech and Clemson. Contrary to what has been said here Louisville is not an open admission school like NYS community colleges. There are course requirements as well as GPA and ACT/SAT score requirements. They just happen to be lower than most of the other ACC schools. When it comes to US News rankings Louisville's biggest problem might currently be peer ranking and that will, as Townie says, take a decade or more to change in a significant way.

Several of the State Universities have significantly improved their pool of applicants.

But what drove that was the skyrocketing costs of the private school alternatives. As better students applied to Maryland the school admitted better qualified students and improved their academic standards.

 

[mscanlo]

are duke fans talking this much about academic prestige? i'd take a guess they aren't because they know the rankings don't really matter.

to syracuse alums (i am not), is it that big of a deal the avg ranking now dropped 5 to 10 sports because louisville i snow in the acc? you weren't complaining before when they were in the big east

 

[Toga]

The inclusion of UofChicago in the B1G is really disingenuous, imo and greatly skews the ranking. What is their ranking if UofC is taken out?

My Dad attended the University of Chicago, Amherst and Yale. Darwin was wrong.

 

[bevosu]

My Dad attended the University of Chicago, Amherst and Yale. Darwin was wrong.

Yup, sometimes the acorn does fall far from the tree.

 

[longtimefan]

Sucks. Would've preferred Maryland stayed. But they suck as financial stewards. Guess you can suck in sports and in athletic department management and still be rewarded with more money. Makes sense to me. God Bless America.

Accidents of birth can make up for a lot of deficiencies.

 

[Millhouse]

My Dad attended the University of Chicago, Amherst and Yale. Darwin was wrong.

where did the milkman go?

 

[Madbiker]

25 years ago FSU was ranked way lower than it is today. I don't remember the ranking but it was pretty well known that any HS grad in the state of FL with a pulse would be accepted. They made huge improvements. UL can too.

 

[Toga]

where did the milkman go?

Louisville