Looking Ahead to 2024

[SoCalBison]

Yes, it's only January, but we all need some hope!

https://theanalyst.com/na/2024/01/never-too-early-outlook-for-2024-fcs-season-sdsu-seeing-bison-in-rear-view-mirror/

[BiZon22]

This will surely piss off the Griz and Bunnies. I love it.

[PlrbrBison]

Good summary. Any news on Gronowski? Is the portal closed for him too now?

[Professor Chaos]

At what point do they rename FCS to the DMCS (Dakotas-Montana Championship Subdivision)???

[reformedUNDfan]

At what point do they rename FCS to the DMCS (Dakotas-Montana Championship Subdivision)???

I have no idea why you would include Montana schools, they haven't done shit.

This is the Dakota State division until someone else does something.

[TAILG8R]

At what point do they rename FCS to the DMCS (Dakotas-Montana Championship Subdivision)???


I have no idea why you would include Montana schools, they haven't done shit.

This is the Dakota State division until someone else does something.

Rename the FCS playoffs to the Dakota State Invitational.

[NI4NI]

Rename the FCS playoffs to the Dakota State Invitational.

May as well host the Championships up here in our domes too! Look at the travel expenses to be saved.

[23Bison]

I am very curious as to how well the team will do this year. I won’t make my usual “undefeated” prediction until the transfer window is closed and the late signing period is complete. If the team stays together, I’d say we have great odds brining another one home next January.

[MyOhMy]

At what point do they rename FCS to the DMCS (Dakotas-Montana Championship Subdivision)???

Packaging NDSU, SDSU, MSU, UM together for a move to FBS would seem to make the most sense, or just get rid of Misery St, ISUB, Murray St, W IL, UND and add MSU, UM, ID and move the MVFC to FBS together.

[Professor Chaos]

I have no idea why you would include Montana schools, they haven't done shit.

This is the Dakota State division until someone else does something.
Well the Montana schools along with NDSU, SDSU, and USD comprise the top 5 of Haley's 2024 poll. USD might not stick around up there but seems safe to say the other 4 will consistently be national title contenders given the lack of FCS powers in the south and east.

[reformedUNDfan]

Packaging NDSU, SDSU, MSU, UM together for a move to FBS would seem to make the most sense, or just get rid of Misery St, ISUB, Murray St, W IL, UND and add MSU, UM, ID and move the MVFC to FBS together.

I have no idea what the draw of the Montana schools is. I'd rather have a conference with the MVFC state schools and the remaining good Mid-Atlantic schools.

[NI4NI]

For discussion sake, let's say FBS is not in our future. Then we should mold a 'FCS Super Conference' of the following...
Idaho
Montana
Montana State
UND
NDSU
SDSU
USD
UNI
St Thomas
Would be wonderful having a stacked schedule with no 'softball' games. Every game interesting. A conference that is the envy of every FCS school across the nation. A group of schools capable of upsetting their FBS peers on any given Saturday.

[HerdBot]

For discussion sake, let's say FBS is not in our future. Then we should mold a 'FCS Super Conference' of the following...
Idaho
Montana
Montana State
UND
NDSU
SDSU
USD
UNI
St Thomas
Would be wonderful having a stacked schedule with no 'softball' games. Every game interesting. A conference that is the envy of every FCS school across the nation. A group of schools capable of upsetting their FBS peers on any given Saturday.

St Thomas is non scholarship. Every team on that list beats them by 50

[HerdBot]

I have no idea what the draw of the Montana schools is. I'd rather have a conference with the MVFC state schools and the remaining good Mid-Atlantic schools.

Montana schools invest in football, win games and have great atmospheres. What more do we want?

[NI4NI]

St Thomas is non scholarship. Every team on that list beats them by 50

Look at their trajectory, they've done well at whatever level they've played at. They're 151-28 in the Caruso era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_Tommies_football
They will be a legit contender sooner than you think.

[GreenfieldBison]

St Thomas is non scholarship. Every team on that list beats them by 50
In another two or three years? Doubt it.

Does NIL money count as scholarship?

[BiZon22]

Look at their trajectory, they've done well at whatever level they've played at. They're 151-28 in the Caruso era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_Tommies_football
They will be a legit contender sooner than you think.

It’s embarrassing to be put in the same category as St Thomas.

[NDSUguy]

In another two or three years? Doubt it.

Does NIL money count as scholarship?

I think that they have the pieces in place to be successful EXCEPT that they are non-scholly. That will ultimately make them not competitive against the scholarship teams. There isn't enough NIL money to entice a whole team of players to play for your school when they have options to get scholorships and NIL at other schools. That will ultimately be their limiting factor - unless they want to go to scholarship football.

[HerdBot]

Look at their trajectory, they've done well at whatever level they've played at. They're 151-28 in the Caruso era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_Tommies_football
They will be a legit contender sooner than you think.

Division 3 is non scholarship
D1 Pioneer football is non scholarship
D2 is 32 scholarships

Therefore they are the same as they were in football, but below D2

Some day they may be FCS with 63 scholarships, but right now they are like Drake

[tony]

Look at their trajectory, they've done well at whatever level they've played at. They're 151-28 in the Caruso era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_Tommies_football
They will be a legit contender sooner than you think.

Drake put up 52 on them this season. They will probably have really good regular season records as long as they stay in the Pioneer, get the autobid, and lose in the first round most of the time. When they win, they'll go to a seeded team in the second and lose by 5 TDs.

Now if they move up to a scholarship conference, their ceiling gets quite a bit higher.

[Hammerhead]

Two runner-ups in the last 3 years came from Montana.



I have no idea why you would include Montana schools, they haven't done shit.

This is the Dakota State division until someone else does something.

[GreenfieldBison]

Those of you who believe that St. Thomas is anything at all like Drake, or Butler, or any other Pioneer league school are living in LA LA Land. In terms of the depth of their pockets they are closer to a Harvard or a Yale. If they choose to be competitive in D1 FB, and I bet they will, then they will be. And PDQ. I personally know two benefactors who could easily write eight digit checks that would be good money on Tuesday morning if they were so motivated. And I don't know anybody.

[GreenfieldBison]

Drake put up 52 on them this season. They will probably have really good regular season records as long as they stay in the Pioneer, get the autobid, and lose in the first round most of the time. When they win, they'll go to a seeded team in the second and lose by 5 TDs.

Now if they move up to a scholarship conference, their ceiling gets quite a bit higher.
And USD hung 24 on them, just as they did to NDSU a couple of weeks later. The diff is that St. Thomas played in Vermillion and scored 0 whereas the mighty Bison played in Fargo and scored 17. But just like the Tommies, the Bison lost.

Looking forward to see how they do with UNI in Sept. at O'Shaughnessy.

[NI4NI]

. If they choose to be competitive in D1 FB, and I bet they will, then they will be.

I'm no CFB savant, but looking at their history I gotta agree. They've been kicking ass since Jesus was a Jew, I doubt that they would move up in class without intentions of doing whatever is required to keep racking up the wins.
If not, it's odd they would be scheduling with us big boys?

[LefseBison]

I'm no CFB savant, but looking at their history I gotta agree. They've been kicking ass since Jesus was a Jew, I doubt that they would move up in class without intentions of doing whatever is required to keep racking up the wins.
If not, it's odd they would be scheduling with us big boys?

I looked up endowments of some of our rivals/schools of interest.
NDSU is 457 million (2021).
St. Thomas is a whopping 630 million. (2021)
SDSU is 213 million and I believe their enrollment is around ours.
UND is 352 million.

We are doing pretty good.

I think most of these are 2022 or 2021.

[GreenfieldBison]

I'm no CFB savant, but looking at their history I gotta agree. They've been kicking ass since Jesus was a Jew, I doubt that they would move up in class without intentions of doing whatever is required to keep racking up the wins.
If not, it's odd they would be scheduling with us big boys?
My expectation is that by the time they are eligible for the postseason they will make the quarters.

[bisonaudit]

I looked up endowments of some of our rivals/schools of interest.
NDSU is 457 million (2021).
St. Thomas is a whopping 630 million. (2021)
SDSU is 213 million and I believe their enrollment is around ours.
UND is 352 million.

We are doing pretty good.

I think most of these are 2022 or 2021.

Thats not closer to Harvard or Yale than it is to Drake.

[tony]

My expectation is that by the time they are eligible for the postseason they will make the quarters.

We'll see, but the iron sharpens iron and the Pioneer is as hard as medium-aged gouda.

[Bisonator98]

My expectation is that by the time they are eligible for the postseason they will make the quarters.

Has a pioneer league team ever made the quarters?

They'll need to add scholarships if they ever want to be a challenger at the D1 level in FB.

[GreenfieldBison]

Thats not closer to Harvard or Yale than it is to Drake.
Too right. I might have exaggerated for effect.

But they do have peeps with very deep pockets who can ante up when needed.

[NI4NI]

We'll see, but the iron sharpens iron and the Pioneer is as hard as medium-aged gouda.

I believe there will be a day when they want in and we will want them in. Win/win.

[scottietohottie]

iron sharpens iron.

Does it really though? I always used a stone to sharpen iron.

[NI4NI]

Does it really though? I always used a stone to sharpen iron.

I NEVER iron.

[GreenfieldBison]

We'll see, but the iron sharpens iron and the Pioneer is as hard as medium-aged gouda.
I wonder if they'll stay there. Their second year in the conference/league they were the champs. This past year they were second to undefeated Drake and behind by only a single game. Three seasons under their belt in transition now.

[Professor Chaos]

I wonder if they'll stay there. Their second year in the conference/league they were the champs. This past year they were second to undefeated Drake and behind by only a single game. Three seasons under their belt in transition now.
They might be able to say the same thing soon about the Summit League and their men's basketball team.

[reformedUNDfan]

For discussion sake, let's say FBS is not in our future. Then we should mold a 'FCS Super Conference' of the following...
Idaho
Montana
Montana State
UND
NDSU
SDSU
USD
UNI
St Thomas
Would be wonderful having a stacked schedule with no 'softball' games. Every game interesting. A conference that is the envy of every FCS school across the nation. A group of schools capable of upsetting their FBS peers on any given Saturday.

Drop Idaho and the Montana's for Nova YSU New Hampshire and Maine.

And lol st Thomas

[MyOhMy]

My expectation is that by the time they are eligible for the postseason they will make the quarters.

Tell me you don't know anything about football without telling me you don't know anything about football.

[BiZon22]

This thread reeks of twin cities bias

[GreenfieldBison]

Tell me you don't know anything about football without telling me you don't know anything about football.
BS. Tell me you don’t know anything about St Thomas.

[GreenfieldBison]

This thread reeks of dakotas bias
FIFY.

Ten+ch

[Bisonator98]

Drop Idaho and the Montana's for Nova YSU New Hampshire and Maine.

And lol st Thomas

Yuck:bleh:

[reformedUNDfan]

BS. Tell me you don’t know anything about St Thomas.

You thought St. Thomas was closer to Harvard than Drake. St Thomas sucks.

[reformedUNDfan]

Yuck:bleh:

That how I feel about Montanas and IdaLOL.

[LefseBison]

Thats not closer to Harvard or Yale than it is to Drake.

My rationale for posting the endowments of UND, NDSU, SDSU and St. Thomas was not to compare to Harvard/Yale which we will never, ever come close to but to compare the 3 schools which we have the most interest in and, in the case of St. Thomas, a school which is suddenly on our radar.

What is it with St. Thomas? Obviously a private, parochial school, St. Thomas of Aquinas, I guess. Why are they doing so well? Sometimes I find private, Catholic colleges do really well because they have a bond of religion. For those of us who believe, it is a remarkable, forging bond. I don't want to piss anyone else off but it is true. If I run into someone of my own religion in my travels, we immediately bond.

I read the whole Wikipedia on St. Thomas. Wow, kind of prestigious. Just under 10,000 stuldents, and very importantly, they used to be called the Tommys but when women were allowed to be on sports teams, they changed the spelling of the mascot to Tommies I guess to give it a feminine air. Adorable move. :)

[NI4NI]

This thread reeks of twin cities bias

I guarantee you it's not, I'm the one who suggested including St Thomas, and once you get to know me you will realize I have zero love for that place.

I think those of you poo pooing on the Tommies will be surprised. I would wager that when we play them in '25 they will field a more competitive team than some of our MVFC opponents.

All of our FBS opponents dismissed our legitimacy before we beat them in their own house too.

[KC_Hats]

Isn't the hope that the Bison will be moving up to FBS by 2025? Go Bison!

[GreenfieldBison]

You thought St. Thomas was closer to Harvard than Drake. St Thomas sucks.
You should probably read post #30.

I cannot think of a single area where your second statement is true.

[NI4NI]

Isn't the hope that the Bison will be moving up to FBS by 2025? Go Bison!

One could hope, but it appears that those with more power than you & me have a different plan.

[BiZon22]

I guarantee you it's not, I'm the one who suggested including St Thomas, and once you get to know me you will realize I have zero love for that place.

I think those of you poo pooing on the Tommies will be surprised. I would wager that when we play them in '25 they will field a more competitive team than some of our MVFC opponents.

All of our FBS opponents dismissed our legitimacy before we beat them in their own house too.

So here’s the difference

They don’t have scholarships.

[BiZon22]

FIFY.

Ten+ch

Aww yes, Dakotans are sucking off a non-scholly school in Minneapolis. Makes total sense

[reformedUNDfan]

You should probably read post #30.

I cannot think of a single area where your second statement is true.

It's a academically a worse and lower tier school than either NDSU or UND. It's a magnet for rich brats who can't get into a decent private school. It has no more money than any of the Dakotas.


Requirements for Admission
The average ACT score at North Dakota State University is 24. This score makes North Dakota State University Moderately Competitive for ACT scores.


The average ACT score for admitted students to University of St Thomas is 21, while the middle 50% of students (25th to 75th percentile) score between a 18 and 24

You all need to stop cucking yourselves for this bottom tier school for talentless losers with rich parents.

[GreenfieldBison]

It's an academically a worse and lower tier school than either NDSU or UND. It's a magnet for rich brats who can't get into a decent private school. It has no more money than any of the Dakotas.





You all need to stop cucking yourselves for this bottom tier school for talentless losers with rich parents.
That’s funny stuff. Unfortunately the US News rankings don’t seem to agree.

What year did you say they denied you admission?

[reformedUNDfan]

That’s funny stuff. Unfortunately the US News rankings don’t seem to agree.

What year did you say they denied you admission?

I had the highest entrance scores in North Dakota my senior year. I got a perfect score on the GRE, and was admitted to Econ PhD programs at MIT, Harvard, Yale, NYU, Columbia, Penn, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Berkeley, as well as several lessor schools. Unfortunately for me, my admissions were dependant on having competed my masters, and UND fucked up the paperwork so badly that I was left ineligible to get my completed degree, which I why I hate that school with a white hot rage none of you can match.

I went back and got a chemical engineering degree instead.

The idea that I would debase myself by attending a glorified community college is hilarious though.

The usnrw rankings are garbage. I have demonstrated conclusively that St Thomas is an inferior university to all the Dakotas, as they recruit a lower tier student.

Remember a couple posts ago when you thought St Thomas was almost an Ivy peer? Hahahaha

[NI4NI]

The idea that I would debase myself by attending a glorified community college is hilarious though.

The usnrw rankings are garbage. I have demonstrated conclusively that St Thomas is an inferior university to all the Dakotas, as they recruit a lower tier student.


Sounds like you would really look down on VoTech trash......like myself.

[reformedUNDfan]

Sounds like you would really look down on VoTech trash......like myself.

Votechs are great. I've taken classes there for those sorts of things. More people should be going to community colleges and state flagships and fewer to fancy degree mills.

[GreenfieldBison]

The idea that I would debase myself by attending a glorified community college is hilarious though. What is hilarious is this statement coming from a UND grad.

The usnrw rankings are garbage. I have demonstrated conclusively that St Thomas is an inferior university to all the Dakotas, as they recruit a lower tier student. You wrote some words and put them in a quote bubble. Nice skill. But that is all you demonstrated. You failed to name a source. As far as we know your source is Twitchat.

Remember a couple posts ago when you thought St Thomas was almost an Ivy peer? Hahahaha Context matters sport. I don't think I asserted St. Thomas was an Ivy peer. Sorry if that is what you got from that. My point was that St. Thomas has deep pockets and does not give off the vibe of a school that is going to be content to muddle along in the Pioneer. We'll see.


Meanwhile, contrary to your 'out of thin air' numbers and according to USN rankings St. Thomas falls tied for #163 in national US Universities while NDSU and UND come in at 249 and 236 respectively.
Acceptance rates: UST - 78%, NDSU - 96%, UND 83%
4yr Grad Rates: UST - 70%, NDSU - 43%, UND - 42%
ACT Range: UST - 21-28, NDSU - 19-25, UND 20-26
SAT Range: UST - 1120-1350, NDSU - 968-1216, UND - 1090-1280
Avg Alum Starting Salary: UST - $53,323, NDSU - $50,082, UND - $49,193

All data as of 2022.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/compare?xwalk_id=174914&xwalk_id=200332&xwalk_id=200280


Glorified CC indeed.

[bisonaudit]

USN rankings are gamed to the hilt. Saint Thomas is fine. There’s a huge and varied market for post secondary education. Different strokes for different folks.

[GreenfieldBison]

USN rankings are gamed to the hilt. Saint Thomas is fine. There’s a huge and varied market for post secondary education. Different strokes for different folks.
I would guess all the various rankings are gamed and they all have their own criteria for ranking of course. I made a brief attempt to harvest a global ranking from either UK or NSW but none of the subject schools appear in those.

Do you know of a "better" ranking source? Or at least another comparison?

[heffray]

I would guess all the various rankings are gamed and they all have their own criteria for ranking of course. I made a brief attempt to harvest a global ranking from either UK or NSW but none of the subject schools appear in those.

Do you know of a "better" ranking source? Or at least another comparison?

College rankings are trash. Malcom Gladwell did a whole series on it. Very interesting.

Edit - Here: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/lord-of-the-rankings

[GreenfieldBison]

College rankings are trash. Malcom Gladwell did a whole series on it. Very interesting.

Edit - Here: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/lord-of-the-rankings
Ugh. 42 minutes. You got a little more juicy ES than your single sentence intro here?

[heffray]

Ugh. 42 minutes. You got a little more juicy ES than your single sentence intro here?

I honestly don’t remember (it was released in 2021). I’ll listen to it again now. I highly recommend any Revisionist History episode, fwiw. There are commercials, but otherwise it’s 40 minutes of your day very well spent.

[heffray]

Ugh. 42 minutes. You got a little more juicy ES than your single sentence intro here?


I honestly don’t remember (it was released in 2021). I’ll listen to it again now. I highly recommend any Revisionist History episode, fwiw. There are commercials, but otherwise it’s 40 minutes of your day very well spent.

After listening again, here’s my summary:

The calculation for US News college rankings includes many factors, but the heaviest weighted number in the overall ranking is a “reputation score” which is essentially a coaches poll of rankings. Meaningless. It’s a popularity contest, plain and simple.

Here’s a New Yorker article by Gladwell on the same topic from 10 years earlier: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-order-of-things

[Hammerhead]

So it's like recruiting where a high school athlete is a 4-star recruit because enough people say he is a 4-star recruit.


After listening again, here’s my summary:

The calculation for US News college rankings includes many factors, but the heaviest weighted number in the overall ranking is a “reputation score” which is essentially a coaches poll of rankings. Meaningless. It’s a popularity contest, plain and simple.

Here’s a New Yorker article by Gladwell on the same topic from 10 years earlier: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-order-of-things

[reformedUNDfan]

Meanwhile, contrary to your 'out of thin air' numbers and according to USN rankings St. Thomas falls tied for #163 in national US Universities while NDSU and UND come in at 249 and 236 respectively.
Acceptance rates: UST - 78%, NDSU - 96%, UND 83%
4yr Grad Rates: UST - 70%, NDSU - 43%, UND - 42%
ACT Range: UST - 21-28, NDSU - 19-25, UND 20-26
SAT Range: UST - 1120-1350, NDSU - 968-1216, UND - 1090-1280
Avg Alum Starting Salary: UST - $53,323, NDSU - $50,082, UND - $49,193

All data as of 2022.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/compare?xwalk_id=174914&xwalk_id=200332&xwalk_id=200280


Glorified CC indeed.

The usnrw rankings punish schools for having more students, among many other stupid things. Your defense of this school is pathetic.

[heffray]

So it's like recruiting where a high school athlete is a 4-star recruit because enough people say he is a 4-star recruit.

Yeah the logic seems similar.

[NI4NI]

The usnrw rankings punish schools for having more students, among many other stupid things. Your defense of this school is pathetic.

I hate it when someone doesn't like information offered so they attack the messenger.

[heffray]

The usnrw rankings punish schools for having more students, among many other stupid things. Your defense of this school is pathetic.

Here’s a transcript of the interview Malcom has with Robert Morse, the guy in charge of the US News rankings:

Gladwell: Describe again, how is the reputation score generated?
Morse: So we send out three surveys per school and then they respond. They rate the schools on a scale of five to one or no response.
Gladwell: So who are the three people at each school who are asked to fill out the survey?
Morse: The president, the provost, and the enrollment manager or the head of admissions.

Gladwell Narrating: The surveys arrive via email once a year to everyone who matters in American higher ed. If you're at a liberal arts college, you're given a list of all 222 other liberal arts colleges in your category. If you're part of a big university, you get a list of the 388 other big universities in the United States. Your job is to rank the schools on your list on a scale of one to five, five being amazing, one being there's a serious problem here.

Gladwell: And on what basis are people making those judgments?
Morse: Well, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, we asked them to base it on their view of the school's reputation for undergraduate academic quality.
Gladwell: But I mean, how would you know?
Morse: I mean, we believe that the aggregate sum of all the raters who are leaders in higher education, you know, they're presidents and provosts and mission deans, so they're not rookies. When you aggregate their views at any given time, they're representing where those schools stand in the marketplace.
Gladwell: I mean, so its an assessment of their feelings about other schools.
Morse: Well, they're leaders in higher education. So it's based on their knowledge of the other schools that they've gathered or through meetings or for exposure. Do they necessarily know a lot about all the schools they're rating? I don't know.
Gladwell: If I rate a restaurant on Yelp, it's because I've eaten there. Right?
Morse: Yes.
Gladwell: But here, when I rate a university on the US News Ranking, it's not because I've attended that university or taught there. It's just—
Morse: Well, you may have. We shouldn't say that you didn't. But if you're saying, have the people who rated the schools been on every campus or taught at that school or know in depth their course catalog? No. Do some of them have greater degrees of knowledge about the schools they're rating? Yes. Do some of them have lesser degrees of knowledge? Yes. So I think it varies from having substantial knowledge to far less knowledge.

…it goes on from there. But I think you get the gist.

[GreenfieldBison]

Here’s a transcript of the interview Malcom has with Robert Morse, the guy in charge of the US News rankings:

Gladwell: Describe again, how is the reputation score generated?
Morse: So we send out three surveys per school and then they respond. They rate the schools on a scale of five to one or no response.
Gladwell: So who are the three people at each school who are asked to fill out the survey?
Morse: The president, the provost, and the enrollment manager or the head of admissions.

Gladwell Narrating: The surveys arrive via email once a year to everyone who matters in American higher ed. If you're at a liberal arts college, you're given a list of all 222 other liberal arts colleges in your category. If you're part of a big university, you get a list of the 388 other big universities in the United States. Your job is to rank the schools on your list on a scale of one to five, five being amazing, one being there's a serious problem here.

Gladwell: And on what basis are people making those judgments?
Morse: Well, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, we asked them to base it on their view of the school's reputation for undergraduate academic quality.
Gladwell: But I mean, how would you know?
Morse: I mean, we believe that the aggregate sum of all the raters who are leaders in higher education, you know, they're presidents and provosts and mission deans, so they're not rookies. When you aggregate their views at any given time, they're representing where those schools stand in the marketplace.
Gladwell: I mean, so its an assessment of their feelings about other schools.
Morse: Well, they're leaders in higher education. So it's based on their knowledge of the other schools that they've gathered or through meetings or for exposure. Do they necessarily know a lot about all the schools they're rating? I don't know.
Gladwell: If I rate a restaurant on Yelp, it's because I've eaten there. Right?
Morse: Yes.
Gladwell: But here, when I rate a university on the US News Ranking, it's not because I've attended that university or taught there. It's just—
Morse: Well, you may have. We shouldn't say that you didn't. But if you're saying, have the people who rated the schools been on every campus or taught at that school or know in depth their course catalog? No. Do some of them have greater degrees of knowledge about the schools they're rating? Yes. Do some of them have lesser degrees of knowledge? Yes. So I think it varies from having substantial knowledge to far less knowledge.

…it goes on from there. But I think you get the gist.
Yep. Much appreciated.

[GreenfieldBison]

The usnrw rankings punish schools for having more students, among many other stupid things. Your defense of this school is pathetic.
Really I don't see my posts as "defending" St. Thomas as much as trying to illuminate for the uninformed that in my opinion there is a budding force there. That's all. You impugned the school and I offered some data as a retort. You don't like the USN "ratings"? Fine. But the rest of post #56 was just objective and presumably verifiable data, aggregation of same, or rudimentary statistical average of same. No subjectivity there.

Regardless whether you consider my message as pathetic or not you can bank on it continuing. For the record I have no affiliation with the school, have never attended a class there, have never been the beneficiary of any product or service that they offer, have no inside knowledge of any kind, etc. etc. I have worked with a number of their graduates both undergrad and beyond. I see what I see from afar and what I see suggests to me as I have posted here already that they are going to be a competitive force in the near future if they choose to be. To my eye it appears that they will choose to be. Time will tell. Bookmark the post.

[heffray]

Really I don't see my posts as "defending" St. Thomas as much as trying to illuminate for the uninformed that in my opinion there is a budding force there. That's all. You impugned the school and I offered some data as a retort. You don't like the USN "ratings"? Fine. But the rest of post #56 was just objective and presumably verifiable data, aggregation of same, or rudimentary statistical average of same. No subjectivity there.

Regardless whether you consider my message as pathetic or not you can bank on it continuing. For the record I have no affiliation with the school, have never attended a class there, have never been the beneficiary of any product or service that they offer, have no inside knowledge of any kind, etc. etc. I have worked with a number of their graduates both undergrad and beyond. I see what I see from afar and what I see suggests to me as I have posted here already that they are going to be a competitive force in the near future if they choose to be. To my eye it appears that they will choose to be. Time will tell. Bookmark the post.

I know very little about the St Thomas but I know their alumni are loyal and wealthy.