Big 10 expansion talk heating up

[Jarid in Cedar]

i'm not sure calling byu short of a "decent school" is accurate or productive, but whatever. there are bad professors everywhere, all the (quantitative) rankings data make this argument non-unique to byu. somebody's just upset that they're 50 spots behind us on the usnews rankings.

ummm.....do you know who Woot roots for?

[Viking]

Academic rankings would disagree with you.

I went to BYU. My time in catholic prep school was multiple times harder. BYU is a joke. Utah is a bigger joke.

[Maximus]

I went to BYU. My time in catholic prep school was multiple times harder. BYU is a joke. Utah is a bigger joke.

Well that certainly trumps academic rankings.

[statman]

berkeley, stanford, usc, maybe ucla.

Depending on how you define 'better' - I think you could conclude that only Stanford is clearly better (only Stanford clearly has better incoming undergraduate students). Incoming students at BYU are surprisingly close to Berkeley's. Not positive about USC's incoming Freshmen...

Or, looking at it another way, that all of the PAC-10 schools are clearly better (total academic programs, research done, etc). And on that scale, you'd have to conclude that the UofU is clearly better as well...

[byu71]

I went to BYU. My time in catholic prep school was multiple times harder. BYU is a joke. Utah is a bigger joke.

My GPA at USU in general studies was 2.2, 2 years

My GPA at BYU accounting degree was 3.5 2 years

My GPA at the U, MBA was 3.9


USU definitely the hardest.

[Viking]

Well that certainly trumps academic rankings.

Sure, experience counts for a lot more than arbitrary rankings which really only matter within the top 20 or so in terms of scrutiny. Ratings, smatings. BYU graduates how many a year? 4-5k students? And how many masters of the universe are BYU alumni? The massive BYU endowment?

Given the alumni base of the school, BYU should have a massive endowment war chest with which to self sustain all sorts of academic initiatives, including a potential med school. Instead, we are nowhere. BYU is a mediocre place. Period.

Now, my blood bleeds blue for the sports but be honest about the quality of the education one receives there: blah.

[Viking]

My GPA at USU in general studies was 2.2, 2 years

My GPA at BYU accounting degree was 3.5 2 years

My GPA at the U, MBA was 3.9


USU definitely the hardest.

You're an old fogey. BYU in your era was like youth conference with some element of grading right?

[byu71]

You're an old fogey. BYU in your era was like youth conference with some element of grading right?

Even though I was there during the Ernie Wilkinson dark ages, the business school and especially the accounting department was highly respected.

I think acctg 101 was the toughest class I ever took in college. I later asked the prof. why they made it so tough. He said they wanted to weed out as many as possible as soon as possible.

I remember I met with the Quant. teacher in the MBA program at the U to get the class waived because I took the class at BYU. He scoffed and basically said I probably would struggle in the class because I took the class at BYU.

First class he did an example of what we would be able to do upon completing the class. I took him through the whole example and having forgotten me asked how I knew how to do the problem. I reminded him of our conversation and was roundly booed. He still made me stay in the class and I got an A while sleeping through his classes.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sure, experience counts for a lot more than arbitrary rankings which really only matter within the top 20 or so in terms of scrutiny. Ratings, smatings.

So your anecdotal experience trumps hard data?

Memo to self: never hire Viking as a broker.

[CJF]

In my opinion this result would be a big blow to BYU as far as athletics go.

Why? BYU competes pretty will with the PAC-10 right now. I think Utah would get a boost but would it really hurt BYU much? I'm not convinced.

[byu71]

Sure, experience counts for a lot more than arbitrary rankings which really only matter within the top 20 or so in terms of scrutiny. Ratings, smatings. BYU graduates how many a year? 4-5k students? And how many masters of the universe are BYU alumni? The massive BYU endowment?

Given the alumni base of the school, BYU should have a massive endowment war chest with which to self sustain all sorts of academic initiatives, including a potential med school. Instead, we are nowhere. BYU is a mediocre place. Period.

Now, my blood bleeds blue for the sports but be honest about the quality of the education one receives there: blah.

Masters of the Universe? I will bet there are as many or more big shot corporate guys from BYU than UW, WSU, AU, ASU, UCLA, USC and possibly CAL. Probably true for lawyers too.

[LiveCoug]

Why? BYU competes pretty will with the PAC-10 right now. I think Utah would get a boost but would it really hurt BYU much? I'm not convinced.

It would kill ME if BYU were stuck in the MWC and Utah moves to bigger and better things. If BYU doesn't make it to a big time conference during this round of (supposed) expansions and Utah does, it will be decades before BYU has another shot. That would be awful.

[DU Ute]

So your anecdotal experience trumps hard data?

Memo to self: never hire Viking as a broker.

[myboynoah]

This discussion has taken a very wrong turn. Since BYU will never get into the PAC 10-12 due to bigotry, why worry about where the Lord's University stacks up academically. The real question is where does Utah fit?

Using U.S. News and Word Report's rankings, here is where Utah will fit:

Stanford (ranked #4)
UC Berkeley (ranked #21)
UCLA (ranked #24)
USC (ranked #26)
Washington (ranked #42)
Arizona (ranked #102)
WSU (ranked #106)
Oregon (ranked #115)
ASU (ranked #121)
Utah (ranked #126, only two rankings above Tier 3)
OSU (Tier 3)

fwiw, Colorado, ranked #77, would come in sixth between Washington and Arizona. BYU, ranked #71, would come at the same spot.

Looking at a Colorado-less Big 12, BYU would rock their world:

Texas (ranked #47)
aTm (ranked #61)
BYU (ranked #71)
Baylor (ranked #80)
Iowa State (ranked #88)
Kansas (ranked #96)
Nebraska (ranked #96)
Missouri (ranked #102)
Oklahoma (ranked #102)
Kansas State (Tier 3)
Oklahoma State (Tier 3)
Texas Tech (Tier 3)

fwiw, Utah would come in ninth, just above the Tier 3 KSU, OSU, and TT.

Clearly, BYU>Utah.

[byu71]

Why? BYU competes pretty will with the PAC-10 right now. I think Utah would get a boost but would it really hurt BYU much? I'm not convinced.

I guess I am projecting. I should have said, my enthusiasm for BYU athletics would take a serious blow.

Utah vs USC, UCLA, WU, CAl. et. al. against BYU vs, fill in the blanks.