Monday, February 1, 2010

Why Sharrod Golightly shouldn't be impressed by the SEC Academic Honor Roll

This morning we told you how Vanderbilt commitment Sharrod Golightly visited South Carolina over the weekend and how impressed he was to learn that the Gamecocks made the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

In fact, if you look at the whole honor roll, which was recently released, you'll find that the Gamecocks are actually at the top of the list.

Yes, the Gamecocks lead the SEC with 78 athletes on the honor roll. But that includes men's and women's soccer and volleyball. Vanderbilt, which doesn't have men's soccer or volleyball, leads the SEC in football players on the honor roll with a whopping 37.

But hey, Sharrod, don't take the honor roll seriously. Because Gamecock athletes get their grades taking Gamecock classes. Vandy athletes earn their grades taking Vanderbilt classes. Using the SEC honor roll — which awards players for earning a 3.0 GPA — to compare Vandy and SC is like comparing apples and oranges. But if you want to do that, keep in mind that Vandy has 37 football players on the list to 29 SC football players.

But the real rankings to examine are those compiled by US News & World Report. According to those, Vanderbilt is No. 17 in the nation, and that includes all the Ivy League schools.

And South Carolina?

No. 110.

Sharrod, if you like Columbia and Coach Spurrier and those garnet uniforms and having a Cock for a mascot, just say so and go there and we wish you well.

But don't try to tell us it's because of South Carolina's academics.

5 comments:

Aaron said...

Being a student at Vandy, I'd venture to say that Vandy is a much harder school that South Carolina,except for maybe the international business program at South Carolina which is ranked fairly high, but Vandy doesn't have that program to my knowledge. I know kids from my high school that go to South Carolina and some of them aren't lets just say Vandy material and aren't really that close

Russ said...

I agree!! I hope Sharrod is tricked by this crap from SC!! Go Dores!

Stanimal said...

Keep your dirty filthy hands off our recruits Spurrier!

In all seriousness, if he chooses to go to South Carolina, it ain't going to be because of the academics. South Carolina does have a good honors college and has some good graduate schools, but to even put those in the same category as Vanderbilt is ridiculous (this coming from someone who goes to South Carolina law, but is a Vandy undergrad).

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Stanimal, I was hoping you'd chime in.

Rus said...

I actually hope Sharrod isn't tricked by this crap from the Cocks!

(I was so angry that I typed too fast before!)