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Academics vs. Athletics

Academics vs. Athletics

  • Top 25 Academics and dumpter fire athletics

    Votes: 26 22.4%

  • Top 35-50 Academics and solid competitive athletics

    Votes: 90 77.6%
  • Total voters
    116
  • Poll closed .
W

wakedeac98

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Given the rumor that Wake will be in the US News top 25 undergraduate schools this year, it made me wonder what this board would choose given two scenarios:

A: Wake would be a consensus top 25 academic school and would be a fixture on these types of lists...however, Hatch and the powers that be would do it at the expense of athletics and would give Wellman a 20 year extention to keep the current culture and status quo well into his eighties.

B: Wake would fall a little and hover in the 30s and 40s on the academic lists...however the basketball program would return to it's mid 90s-mid 00s state with better NCAA tournament results and football would be competitive, going bowling 4 out of every 5 years with a legitimate chance to win the ACC every 4th or 5th year.

I know most of us believe both could realistically happen, but if given the choice which option would you pick?

I would choose B without much thought or regret.
 
wakedeac98 said:
Given the rumor that Wake will be in the US News top 25 undergraduate schools this year, it made me wonder what this board would choose given two scenarios:

A: Wake would be a consensus top 25 academic school and would be a fixture on these types of lists...however, Hatch and the powers that be would do it at the expense of athletics and would give Wellman a 20 year extention to keep the current culture and status quo well into his eighties.

B: Wake would fall a little and hover in the 30s and 40s on the academic lists...however the basketball program would return to it's mid 90s-mid 00s state with better NCAA tournament results and football would be competitive, going bowling 4 out of every 5 years with a legitimate chance to win the ACC every 4th or 5th year.

I know most of us believe both could realistically happen, but if given the choice which option would you pick?

I would choose B without much thought or regret.
Click to expand...

I would choose B too. Is there really that much difference in being ranked just inside the top 25 or in the 30 or low 40's?
 
95% of us have already graduated and have jobs. We are no longer reliant upon Wake's ranking for our future. Thus, I'd imagine most of us would choose the better athletics.

However, you ask this to current students where the ranking may actually matter, and you'd probably have very different answers.
 
AnonymousDeac said:
95% of us have already graduated and have jobs. We are no longer reliant upon Wake's ranking for our future. Thus, I'd imagine most of us would choose the better athletics.

However, you ask this to current students where the ranking may actually matter, and you'd probably have very different answers.
Click to expand...

B is probably a selfish answer, but hey what can I say.:noidea:
 
I don't really accept the "either or" premise of the poll, but given that premise I still pick option B seeing as how we are "competing" at the BCS level and that requires a commensurate commitment by the school.
 
AnonymousDeac said:
95% of us have already graduated and have jobs. We are no longer reliant upon Wake's ranking for our future. Thus, I'd imagine most of us would choose the better athletics.

However, you ask this to current students where the ranking may actually matter, and you'd probably have very different answers.
Click to expand...

It's not like we're in the Top 10. The difference between 25 and 40 is negligible to 99% of the country.
 
There is little doubt in my mind Hatch would choose A.

Interesting point about current students, however I'd venture to guess that the majority of them would still go athletics. Does an academic rank (between 20 and 40) really make that much of a difference in grad schools, first jobs and early careers?
 
wakedeac98 said:
There is little doubt in my mind Hatch would choose A.

Interesting point about current students, however I'd venture to guess that the majority of them would still go athletics. Does an academic rank (between 20 and 40) really make that much of a difference in grad schools, first jobs and early careers?
Click to expand...

No doubt he would, Notre Dame athletics are probably the only athletics he cares about anyway.
 
So are there people on this board that just found out about these rankings? We've been in the top 25 multiple times, this isn't news.
 
Where's the option "Top 25 academic school and a competitive basketball program?" Because we've proven we're capable of that in the past.
 
BCS Schools ranked as high or higher than Wake with better sports programs:

#23 UVa
#23 Southern Cal
#23 UCLA
#20 Cal
#18 Notre Dame
#17 Vanderbilt
#12 Northwestern
#7 Duke
#5 Stanford

I think the academics OR athletics premise needs to be thoroughly reexamined.
 
I would choose to remain an elite academic institution - that is much more unique and harder to do than having a competitive athletic program. If we drop 20 spots in the rankings we go from an elite school to a very good school.
Having said that, it is a silly, unnecessary question.

Asking questions like this indicates we are questioning our identity. Wake has always been a unique place - small school, major athletic conference, elite academics, big-time sports, small but open and beautiful campus. We are already threatening to lose our uniqueness by continually increasing the size of our student body and throwing up buildings on every open spot on campus. Watering down our academics would complete the process and make us just like many other schools.

We need to stop questioning ourselves and take the steps necessary to bring our major sports programs back to respectability, then competitiveness, then beyond. Unfortunately, those of us on the board do not have to power to take those steps.
 
Our academic reputation is well established, no matter where we are on that list. We will never not be known as an academically elite institution IMO. Thus whatever we forfeited by dropping 10 spots on that list, we'd gain with all the exposure in the athletic arena.

The commonly repeated motto would be, "Yeah, and Wake Forest is having all that success while still being a smart school."
 
yeah, it's tough to do but wake has historically excelled at essentially every sport i'm aware of except FB. i'm fine with option A as well, just thought it would be weird to vote A on the board heh.
 
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