The Year of the Private Schools

[West Texas Frog]

There are a total of 124 FBS universities from 11 conferences and four independents. Only 17 (or 14%) of those schools are private universities. An impressive number of 14 out of 17 private schools are bowl eligible (82%)!!!! I don't know how far back you would have to go to find a higher percentage of private schools that are headed to bowl games. Though Miami (Fla.) is bowl eligible, they have withdrawn themselves from consideration. You can draw your own conclusions about the success of private schools this year, but despite the stricter entrance requirements...the private schools are able to recruit talented players and obviously have pretty darn good coaching.

The bowl eligible list (as of 11/28):

Big 12

TCU 7-4
Baylor 6-5

PAC 12

Stanford 10-2
USC 7-5

SEC

Vanderbilt 8-4

ACC

Duke 6-6
Miami (Fla.) 7-5

Big 10

Northwestern 9-3

Big East

Syracuse 7-5

Conf. USA

Tulsa 9-3
SMU 6-6
Rice 6-6

Independents

Notre Dame 12-0
BYU 6-5



Schools with losing records

Wake Forest 5-7 (ACC)
Boston College 2-10 (ACC)
Tulane 2-10 (Conf. USA)

 

[froginaustin]

I don't think entrance requirements for athletes at D1 private schools are much different at most private schools, including TCU, SMU, and Baylor, than they are at most public schools. Rice and Stanford require more of their athletes than the NCAA minimum, but considerably less than they require of general admission students.

 

[West Texas Frog]

I don't think entrance requirements for athletes at D1 private schools are much different at most private schools, including TCU, SMU, and Baylor, than they are at most public schools. Rice and Stanford require more of their athletes than the NCAA minimum, but considerably less than they require of general admission students.

There may not be that much of a difference per say across the board compared to public schools for athletes, but Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, Rice, Vanderbilt, Duke for sure are much higher.

 

[Black-it-out-Frog!]

I believe the NCAA requires a 2.0 or 2.25 for football. NCAA requires I believe a 1.87 or a 1.89 for basketball. A lot of schools use a higher standard because while they could get in, once in they'd never make grades. Basketball it doesn't matter because of 1 and done rule.

 

[froginaustin]

There may not be that much of a difference per say across the board compared to public schools for athletes, but Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, Rice, Vanderbilt, Duke for sure are much higher.

Supposedly, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, North Carolina (although they don't seem to worry too much about academics once their athletes get on campus), Virginia (sort of a public-private hybrid) require more than the NCAA minimum, too.

 

[West Texas Frog]

Another conclusion that can be drawn is that the size of the school doesn't matter when it comes to success on the football field. BYU and USC are the exceptions, but most of the schools listed have fewer than 15,000 students.

 

[West Texas Frog]

Supposedly, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, North Carolina (although they don't seem to worry too much about academics once their athletes get on campus), Virginia (sort of a public-private hybrid) require more than the NCAA minimum, too.

The schools you listed are the exceptions when it comes to the 107 public universities in the FBS, but I get what you are saying.