It's Not All About Football

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