"But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Rockhurst?"
More examples: Baseball - Sam LeCure (our best returning starter) , Football - Selvin Young (only experienced RB) Football - Mike Williams (top ranked DE) Football- Edorian McCullogh (starting CB now transferred to Oregon State)
How will you know whether they can make the grade until they arrive? And please don't tell me that every Rice athlete has comparable academic credentials as the rest of the student body.
Huh. I guess I thought you were the same Buck Turgidson that posts quite a bit on TexAgs. Guess not. I suppose that name is from a movie or something.
Well, when a football player scores a 700 on his SAT, you have a pretty good idea that they won't be a candidate for Academic All American of the Year (an award that Wade Townsend of Rice won). Rice does make you crack 1000 on the SAT to play. Stanford's baseball program requires an 1100. As an interesting aside, these two teams competed for the 2003 National Championship in baseball. Rice won. Yes there are a limited number of exceptions. Limited. The Rice athlete graduation rate is among the highest in the nation. There is a reason why admissions committees concern themselves with SAT's and GPA's. When the athletic program overrides the admissions committee's system, things like this happen. Does that answer your question? Good.
A kid I graduated from high school with had problems passing classes in high school and still got a baseball scholarship to Rice. Of course, he did get kicked out a year later.
I think you have to score an 800 to get in. Plus at UT, the teachers actually monitor you while you take your tests.
That is not true. There is a sliding scale that is based on GPA (which when you are dealing with local high school sports heroes you could argue is meaningless). I read that Jamaal Charles' (UT's rb recruit) scored a 750 on his SAT, but got in because of his 3.1 GPA. A large number of D-1 recruits, not just limited to UT, score well below 800. Many times high school teachers are under tremendous pressure to pass these students and even to give them high marks. btw -- Matt Emerson was terrible. I think he transferred to Sam Houston. Should never have been on the team in the first place.
I'm glad UT professors don't feel such pressure. I've heard of some profs at universities will pass athletes who hadn't done their work. In Lecure's case, allegedly , the professor decided to fail him instead of giving him a Q drop. Maybe he was late though, who knows.
