While
LSU athletes continue their superiority in the SEC in their athletic skills,
when it comes to academics they are dead last according to the recently
released NCAA data.
Overall
academic rankings for each school were compiled by tracking every student-athlete
on scholarship in terms of eligibility, retention and graduation. Every
scholarship student-athlete received a semester academic rating score based
upon remaining in school and continuance of academic eligibility. In the
words of athletic director, Scott Woodward, it requires that athletes
demonstrate “extraordinary drive and commitment to excel in the classroom and
to be elite on the field.”
Several
LSU teams excelled in the survey with perfect scores. These included:
gymnastics, women’s golf, softball, women’s cross country, beach volley ball,
women’s tennis, men’s track and field, men’s golf, men’s tennis, and men’s
cross country.
However,
the LSU football team ranked last in the SEC for the third year in a row, which
contributed to last place for the school’s academic total ranking, while LSU’s
nemesis, Alabama, was second only to Vanderbilt in the overall school academic
rankings.
Some
might argue that the relevance of such a ranking is irrelevant because, as long
as the LSU Tigers keep performing in an elitist fashion on the football field,
that’s all that really matters. But one must not lose sight of the
mission of LSU, “As the Flagship
institution of the state, the vision of Louisiana State University is to be a
leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate
students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal
development. Designated as a Land, Sea, and Space Grant institution, the
mission of Louisiana State University is the generation, preservation,
dissemination, and application of knowledge and cultivation of the arts.”
Thanks to yearly draconian academic funding
cuts by our esteemed Republican legislators, LSU is finding it more and more
difficult to fulfil this mission, and by its continual over emphasis on its
athletic successes, particularly regarding football, it further relegates
academia to obsolescence. Additionally, this contributes to people losing
sight of why LSU actually exists, which is evidenced by these rankings. It’s not
exclusively for football.
As other SEC schools, such as the top four,
Vanderbilt, Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss have shown, academics and athletics
can co-exist on equal footing in terms of successfulness. Athletes are
students first and athletes second and supporters of the LSU Tigers need to
understand and support that fact.
LSU alumni and fans of Tiger football also need
to remember that they presently rank last in the SEC in the financial support
for the school whose football team they adore.
Maybe the next time they purchase an LSU
football ticket, season pass, beer at the game, or a pay-for-view game on their
TVs, they should consider giving an equal amount to the university foundation
or the academic department of their choosing. That is, if they
truly love them LSU Tigers
