Tulane is a great academic school. I love slapping down the delusional fools on Tigerdroppings who think otherwise.
Yet--our athletic department is in danger because pride in high academic standards has become delusional arrogance.
How can Gibson Hall keep prissily touting this "Tulane Model" as if Tulane was head-and-shoulders above Harvard and Yale?
I'm not concerned about Scott Cowen insulting Rice or Duke or Stanford, but it does make him look ignorant when this model is touted, trotted out, and used as a catch-all excuse of why Tulane football is in the shitter.
Tulane academics is great. Yet is has slipped under Cowen's watch, and even those of us with pride in Tulane who have an ounce of realism and common sense know that Rice, Duke, Stanford, etc. have as good or better academics than Tulane. THEY have competitive football. THEY are fine with the NCAA minimum requirements for athletes. (Yes, Duke is a bad example in football, but their powerhouse basketball team makes up for it.)
In light of what other equal or superior academic institutions are doing in athletics, the "Tulane Model" makes no sense and is a product of an arrogant, delusional mindset.
In my opinion, based on observations in the three years I have been a Tulane fan and band parent, Scott Cowen, if allowed to make his vision a reality, will make Tulane a vastly academically inferior University of Chicago, with no athletics.
I'm sorry President Cowen, but that "model" will not work in Louisiana.
At this point, things seem almost futile. The President of a private university, especially one who sits on his own board, seems as powerful and autocratic as the lord of a medieval manor.
I'm glad, at least, that most on this board recognize that Bob Toledo is a symptom of the disease--not the disease itself.
Yes, it could be a long, uphill fight to cure the disease.
But hey, at least recognizing what exactly the disease is, is a good first step.
