Would you rather your school have Mountain West Conference titles or Nobel Prizes?

[SoCalCoug]

My association with my school now is primarily through football. Thus, the MWC title is of more real interest to me than a Nobel Prize.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

The Nobel Prize is meaningless these days. It might carry weight in countries like France, but that doesn't take away from its meaninglessness.

For those who don't know what the Nobel Prize is there's a Wikipedia article.

[cougjunkie]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

For those who don't know what the Novel Prize is there's a Wikipedia article.

For those that cant spell, there's a website called www.dictionary.com

[DrumNFeather]

Originally Posted by cougjunkie

For those that cant spell, there's a website called www.dictionary.com

The Novel prize is given out in Springville. Lesser known, but still high quality.

[Black Diamond Bay]

Right or wrong, successful athletics draw more attention and respect to the University than one guy winning some prize.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Black Diamond Bay

Right or wrong, successful athletics draw more attention and respect to the University than one guy winning some prize.

This post is priceless.

The vast majority of the most respected universities in America don't even give athletic scholarships. None of the very most respected do except Stanford. The cream of America's universities collect Nobel Prize winners among their faculty, and keep track of who has how many, like you collect BYU football pom poms. The winner of a football conference or even a national championship is quickly forgotten, but the enlightened world, and history, remembers Nobel Prize winners in science, economics, medicine and even literature as blessing mankind into countless future generations.

[MikeWaters]

Utes descending to Nobel Prize smack is about as desperate as it gets.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Utes descending to Nobel Prize smack is about as desperate as it gets.

I'm trying to think of two more irrelvant topics.

It's like asking: what would you rather your country be known for: annual popcorn consumption, or number of earthquakes per capita?

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

CAUTION: Your answer to this question will forever mark you in my eyes as a dipshit or somebody I may want to have a beer with someday.

Hey! I was just thinking the EXACT same thing about your answers on this board!

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Tex

I'm trying to think of two more irrelvant topics.

It's like asking: what would you rather your country be known for: annual popcorn consumption, or number of earthquakes per capita?

It's not irrelevant at all, and your example is silly and inapposite. Schools like Michigan, Illinios, UCLA and others that are uppermost tier in both academics and athletics debate internally and soul search all the time about achieving a proper balance, and the negative impact of big time sports on a university's real mission. There is even a great deal of internal tension sometimes errupting into civil war, but the contest is never close when this happens. See the fates of Tarkanian, Woody Hayes, Frank Kush, Jim Herrick and scores of other erstwhile untouchables who even slightly embarrased their universities; see also, the NCAA, a creature of university administrators.

The fact is, apart from morality, the really big money and name recognition comes for academic and research superstardom, not athletics. The academic administrators and academic superstars are the center of the universe at any respected university. Athletics, in terms of even dollars, is a flea on the hound's rump. In fact, private schools like Georgetown, Stanford and Duke generally are very candid about thier ambivalence about being even associated with big-time athletics, and generally publically rationalize that it helps raise money and attract applications from desireable students.