A not-so-dirty secret about UGA football: It’s making the grade
"Yeah, baby! We aced that midterm!" (AP photo)
An oft-cited number regarding the Georgia Bulldogs: Seven losses (against six wins) in 2010. Another: Eleven players arrested in that same calendar year.
But here’s another number, a happier number: The Georgia football team had an Academic Progress Rate for the school year 2009-2010 of 976, which tied Florida for second-best in the SEC behind Vanderbilt, which is so committed to academics it no longer has an athletic department.
The Georgia football program, criticized in this and other spaces for not having its priorities in order, is clearly doing something right. This latest APR snapshot wasn’t a one-off, either: In 2007-2008, Georgia football ranked first in the SEC — yes, ahead of Vandy.
I know how it is. We sophisticates on the periphery wink when a college player is called a “student-athlete,” but what we sophisticates forget is this: Even if a college player’s only career ambition is to become a professional athlete, he still has to attend classes and pass enough of them to remain eligible.
I know, I know. You’re winking again. But hear me out.
Going to class isn’t always fun, and the temptation to skip a week’s worth is mighty. (Trust me on this.) If you’re an ordinary student, you might get away with that. If you’re a student-athlete, you can’t. You’ll have academic advisers and assistant coaches and even the head ball coach on you, and they won’t be whispering, “Please make a better effort to get out of bed.” They’ll have you up at 5 a.m. running the stadium steps.
A few of us sophisticated media types were waiting around after a Georgia Tech practice a couple of years ago, and all of a sudden the reigning ACC offensive player of the year came tearing past in full gear. Where was Jonathan Dwyer going in such a rush? He had an evening lab. It was a fleeting thing — Dwyer was running fast — but it resonated.
Some people complain that players who leave early for the pros show no loyalty to their school. Here’s the thing, though: Once you’re a pro, you don’t have to worry about evening labs, or about getting docked four games if you sell your jersey. You’re no longer a student-athlete; you’re a pro with a paying job. You’re free of the NCAA and its arcane restrictions. You’re free to go make big money, same as your head coach.
A college athlete is a big man on campus, but he’s still on campus. He gets a scholarship, yes, but he doesn’t get rich. (Here we pause for your Cecil Newton jokes.) Having been an ordinary college student, albeit in another century, I can attest that student-athletes work 10 times harder than I ever did. They have little time to themselves. (Insert Georgia arrest joke here.)
Go ahead. Make all the jokes you want. But somewhere amid the hilarity, spare a serious thought for the Georgia football program. Those players have been held up to the highest level of scrutiny — again, I’m guilty as charged — but academically they’re doing just fine. They’re ahead of the SEC curve. They’re ahead of Georgia Tech, which had an APR of 966. They have the second-highest APR among the nine Georgia men’s sports programs. (Only golf ranks ahead of football.)
We mention the APR today because, to be frank, it’s a number people forget when the games commence. In college athletics, the tail too often wags the proverbial dog. UConn just won the men’s basketball title, but it did so with a coach who will be suspended three games next season for NCAA violations and with a program that had an APR so low (826) that it cost the Huskies two scholarships. Does such a championship really qualify as “One Shining Moment”?
Consider this our chance to watch a proud dog wag its tail. Georgia football might have disappointed us in other ways, but it has held up its end on a fundamental level. Its guys are making their grades. That’s no joke.
By Mark Bradley
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279 comments Add your comment
I cut the cheese Uh Huh Uh Huh
May 28th, 2011
9:50 pm
They will still loose.
HOUDAWG
May 28th, 2011
10:16 pm
Interesting article ….. & simply validates the continued standards set @ UGA and the follow-up by Coach Richt and so many others out of the spotlight. Will say this to the Techies that always choose to demean ….. 1st, you don’t have a clue you arrogant little pricks, … 2nd , in my career I’ve seen numerous cases of folks out-working ( & out-thinking ) those ” degreed ” Techies ……. ten-fold. Get over yourselves …….
HOUDAWG
May 28th, 2011
10:24 pm
PS to Magnolia, Tx Dawg ….. I’m in Cypress …….
Rev. Dr. Wallace H. Richardson, Sr.
May 28th, 2011
10:42 pm
Mr Bradley, interesting article and I pray that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit abide in all individuals;parents,students,administration, faculty and staff, coaches, players, medical personnel, volunteers, and so many wonderful people who have chosen to become a family member of the. University of Georgia. My main reason I wanted to send this email to let my son, Wally Richardson know we are blessed as Wally’s parents to have him as one of our three sons.Wally has been a model for many young people, and some old people too. God Bless You Son.
Rev Dr. Wallace H. Richardson, Sr.
A.Bishop
May 29th, 2011
2:03 am
Grow up people and show some decency. If all you can do is get on here and hate and cut down one another then you are all more immature than my 4 year old nephew. Wow…this rivalries are not fun anymore.
mike
May 29th, 2011
7:09 am
they are in SCHOOL , so should they not be good students , oh thats right they should be paid.
paco gomez
May 29th, 2011
9:07 am
Finishing 2nd behind Vandy in the SEC is like being the most honest man on your prison cell block.
Autoslug
May 29th, 2011
10:59 am
Seriously hope classes Georgia Football Players are doing so well in will help them in later life when they no longer have football to fall back on. A college degree is a great accomplishment as long as it is tied to a meaningful career. We all know most of these players will not have an NFL career and payday–PREPARE FOR A LIFELONG SUCESSFUL CAREER PLEASE GENTLEMEN.
Hairy Dawg
May 29th, 2011
11:40 am
This just showing how Dawgs is always better than Tech busg in all things. The pointy head techmites cant even keeps up in classroom without getting smoked by Dawgs. Dawgs just better with dominants from running ownership of state and then we more Christian which helps in displaying talents.
wreckmaniac
May 29th, 2011
12:02 pm
Go nerds ! When you’re not competitive in football, you need to be able to do something.
An Inconvenient Truth for Dawgtards
May 29th, 2011
2:42 pm
You Dawg fans who keep repeating tech-Georgia scores like a mantra enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is practically worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or self-discipline.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against dummy-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
It’s pretty pathetic to see UGA fans who typically have never been within miles of a college classroom and who live or die with UGA’s weekly results on the football field.
So keep on posting scores all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old job back at the Waffle House before your unemployment checks stop coming.
Saint Jan the Beloved
May 29th, 2011
2:46 pm
Attention, everyone, especially dawgtards. We will now observe a moment of silence in memory of our beloved Saint Jan Kemp, who exposed the shameful practices at UGA that were initiated and carried out by slimeball Vince Dooley. Dooley’s image as a coach and a nice guy were forever shattered during the trial, not to mention the one million dollars that dawgtards had to pay Saint Jan. These practices of recruiting morons and coddling them for four years, them tossing them out like garbage, are still going on, but at least the world knows what’s happening in Athens now.
And now, the moment of silence…
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Thank you, you may resume your normal activities now.
Bagwell
May 29th, 2011
4:46 pm
How many astronauts went to UGA?
Tutor
May 29th, 2011
7:00 pm
@ Dirty Bird, I tutor at GA Tech and they do indeed have soft majors. Take a look at hotel management. Exam question: You are having a banquet for 100 guests. How many baked potatoes do you need.
Just Me
May 29th, 2011
11:47 pm
From the getting schooled blog on Sunday May 29th.
I hope A Murray goes pro because his is the only UGA player with a psychology major.
“We found a [yearly] range from a high earnings capacity of $120,000 in petroleum engineering to a low in earnings of $29,000 in counseling psychology,” said Carnevale.
“That is a difference of more than 300 percent. Over a lifetime, we are talking about almost $5 million in earnings for the petroleum engineer to something that looks like $2 million for the people who become counselors and who don’t go on to graduate school,” he said.
In good news for Georgia Tech students, Carnevale said, “The engineering degree will be dominant at every level. You will beat out even people with graduate degrees in education.”
Just Me
May 29th, 2011
11:57 pm
Tutor
May 29th, 2011
7:00 pm
Well don’t keep us waiting. What is the answer? I am guessing it will depend on the menu being served. I am sure not everybody will get Steak and Baked Potato. Also I wouldn’t think the Hotel Manager would have to worry about the Menu at a Banquet. That should be the Chef’s problem.
tell me again
May 30th, 2011
8:31 am
I have worked with and aroound Tech people all of my life / I have been to Yale for a seminar and mingled with their kids and profs as well for a time……….Tech does not have anything going on that UGA doesn’t as far as producing smart, educated people who are prepared for life. If you want SMART and REEEEALLY educated – check out Yale – now THAT is an academic institution to brag about. But UGA ain’t bad
Bottom line is – all of this chest thumping about colleges is irrelevant – no matter what college you go to you can come out educated and ready to lead a life of continual study and discovery or you can get a degree with a prestigious name on it to which you can really make no claim. Leonardo Da Vinci never made it to Tech, UGA, Yale, Princeton or Harvard…but, I think he did quite well If you want to talk smack about ANY schools this year – check out the mighty Buckeyes! Seems like they (and Auburn) are having students come out of the woodwork to talk about all of their little NCAA violations. There is an INBRED CULTURE at those schools which promotes bad and illegal behavior. Is that what you want at UGA??? I don’t think so.
Braves 2011
May 30th, 2011
8:38 am
Mark, get a new column. I am tired of seeing this one everyday and i am a UGA fan. Come on?
RWBRebel
May 30th, 2011
10:52 am
If Tech restricted its students to Chem E, EE, or computer sciences, then the total student population would be around 250. Why do you think all these trash majors exist at Tech and UGA? Because fools will pay the same money for them as for a worthwhile degree.
NOBODYYOUKNOW
May 30th, 2011
11:20 am
Bla. Bla, Bla, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, That makes as much sense as most of the crap on here.
Mike Bobo 17 INT
May 31st, 2011
9:15 am
Well UGA should be making the grade and graduating their players, you only have to color inside the lines to pass.
We Lost
May 31st, 2011
1:18 pm
Who cares? We need more thugs and less scholars. Until Richt is gone, I will no longer support this pathetic football program.
From the 2010 Fact Book
May 31st, 2011
2:31 pm
Management is the second most common major at Georgia Tech, with roughly 10 percent of the undergraduate student body. With 1,325 students enrolled, it is second only to Mechanical Engineering which has 1,597 students.
http://www.irp.gatech.edu/sites/www.irp.gatech.edu/files/2010_MiniFB.pdf
Pages 10-11
shankit
May 31st, 2011
2:59 pm
FYI, Mark Richt’s name is now in the pot amongst the Alumni in Columbus.
Bro Rogan
June 1st, 2011
11:51 am
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of killing unwanted babies, it’s just that the idea of letting women make a decision doesn’t sit well with me.” – Matthew Stafford on abortion.
Yeah me
June 1st, 2011
1:35 pm
Lets see every schools classes of the players and their grades. It does not matter if they get help or not, I still need help sometings too. Lay it all on the table and see what blows away.
TAM
June 1st, 2011
3:43 pm
I’m pretty sure that you could trian a monkey to pass classes at uga, so if they weren’t making the grade, heads would have to roll… just saying.
TAM
June 1st, 2011
3:48 pm
*train… see. I read an article about uga and i forget how to spell
Remarkable
June 1st, 2011
4:11 pm
Mark, get a new article, PLEASE!!!!!