This is just plan stupid, but thought I would share from the main board.
2019 Edition
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-2019-grid-of-shame-11567091249?mod=hp_lead_pos11
The Wall Street Journal’s Grid of Shame is back, and there has been a lot of shame to calculate in college sports since the last time we convened.
The Grid helps fans determine how bad they should feel about feeling good about their favorite football team. It measures both how good major college football teams are on the gridiron, and how disgraceful they are off of it.
College Football’s 2019 Grid of Shame
The Wall Street Journal's analysis of the country's top football teams -- and how embarrassed their respective fanbases need to feel this fall -- is back. Where did your team fall on the Grid of Shame?
Methodology: Teams' on-field rating is an average of the 2019 projected finish by two media outlets and two predictive models. Teams' off-the-field rating is a somewhat subjective rating of elements including Academic Progress Rate, recent history of NCAA violations and probation, athletic department subsidies, player arrests, attendance at last season's games, and overall ick’ factor.
Sources: Phil Steele, Athlon, Football Outsiders, ESPN, USA Today, arrestnation.com, ncaa.com
Each team’s location on the grid is determined by advanced numerical calculations and verified by the Journal’s resident sports nerds, who make sure a team’s location also reflects intangible factors that don’t come through in the data.
The Grid features only legitimate Football Bowl Subdivision contenders: each of the 64 schools in the five major conferences, plus a handful of other relevant programs. This season that included independent Notre Dame and the University of Central Florida, among others.
The horizontal access is straightforward: the more dominant a team is expected to be on the field, the farther right they land. Each team’s ranking is a composite of several pre-season polls, some ordered by the eye tests, others by multivariable mathematical equations.
Things get interesting on the vertical axis, otherwise known as the shame meter. The lower a team falls the more ignominy it heaps upon its fanbase.
Shame is quantified using a weighted calculation of several football-related factors: academic performance, recent NCAA violations and probation, attendance figures, athletic-department subsidies and arrests of players and coaches.
There are some offenses so outside the lines, however, that they can’t quite be captured by numbers alone. That’s where the “ick factor” comes into play.
Any school involved in a scandal, regardless of whether it happened during the last calendar year or directly implicated the university’s football program, takes a hit. And with the non-stop headlines about college-sports scandals over the past year, there has been, if anything, an uptick in the number of teams moving lower on the shame axis. Enable a sexual predator for 20-plus years? You’re going down. Let students buy admission by posing as recruits? Take a trip south.
In the end, how you feel is dictated by where you sit on the Grid. The upper right quadrant means you’re a strong team that has come by your success respectably, like Washington—a perennial contender for the Pac-12 title with few violations or arrests. The upper left is home to the Boston Colleges of the world: teams that are indisputably bad, but their demerits come from losing games rather than breaking rules.
Then there’s the bottom half of the grid. The lower right contains two of the three top-ranked teams—Alabama and Georgia—because they self-reported minor NCAA infractions. The lower left is the least coveted real estate on the Grid of Shame. These teams take a lot of L’s, both on the field and off. One of the few areas where these schools excel? Testing their fans’ loyalty. Buckle up Kansas faithful: you may have Les Miles, but you’re in for a long season.
Michigan State
Worst among the offending teams is Michigan State, which failed to stop the serial abuse of Larry Nassar, a former university physician and USA Gymnastics national team doctor now serving a 175-year prison sentence. Both the Spartans’ president and athletic director stepped down in early 2018.
Additionally, an ESPN report found that the members of Michigan State’s athletic department habitually mishandled complaints of sexual assault, violence and gender discrimination involving members of its football and basketball programs. Let’s just say it’s not a great time to be a Spartan.
Missouri
The University of Missouri was slapped with dozens of sanctions in February after a very lenient former academic tutor turned herself in for improperly helping athletes across several sports, including football, baseball and softball. That “help” included taking placement exams, and in one case an entire course, on behalf of the athletes.
As part of its punishment, the university was placed on probation for three years and the Tigers’ football, baseball and softball teams will be banned from the post-season in 2019. Sorry Kelly Bryant, no matter how good you are on the field you won’t be playing in a bowl game come December.
Ohio State
Ohio State fell to the bottom of the grid because of the ongoing brouhaha related to former assistant coach Zach Smith’s dismissal for alleged domestic violence before the 2018 season. After firing Smith, the university placed head coach Urban Meyer on administrative leave while it looked into whether Smith’s behavior was previously known.
In its investigation, Ohio State did not attempt to recover deleted text messagesfrom the phones of Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith, and promptly reinstated the head coach after three games. Coincidentally, Meyer announced 2018 would be his last season with the Buckeyes.
College Admissions Scandal
Then there are the schools involved in the college admissions scandal, which came to light this spring in an FBI investigation dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” The scheme masterminded by William “Rick” Singer touched several top tier universities, but none more profoundly than the University of Southern California.
Several USC officials allegedly made introductions between Singer and key figures within the Trojans athletics department. And documents seized by the FBI indicate Singer tried to get a client admitted by suggesting he post as a “kicker or punter.” The scandal also dinged several more schools, including Stanford, Texas, UCLA and Wake Forest.
Minor NCAA Violations
Several premier programs, including each of the top-three ranked teams, self-reported minor NCAA violations in the off-season, a tactic teams commonly use to incur milder punishments from the NCAA than if the infractions had been discovered through other means.
Alabama admitted that one of its assistant coaches impermissibly called a recruit twice in one week outside of the designated contact period. Southeastern Conference rival Georgia mistakenly printed out a nametag for a sophomore prospect. Not to be outdone, No. 1 ranked Clemson self-reported 13 minor offenses, including but not limited to the unauthorized use of confetti during a prospective player’s official visit.
2019 Edition
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-2019-grid-of-shame-11567091249?mod=hp_lead_pos11
The Wall Street Journal’s Grid of Shame is back, and there has been a lot of shame to calculate in college sports since the last time we convened.
The Grid helps fans determine how bad they should feel about feeling good about their favorite football team. It measures both how good major college football teams are on the gridiron, and how disgraceful they are off of it.
College Football’s 2019 Grid of Shame
The Wall Street Journal's analysis of the country's top football teams -- and how embarrassed their respective fanbases need to feel this fall -- is back. Where did your team fall on the Grid of Shame?
Methodology: Teams' on-field rating is an average of the 2019 projected finish by two media outlets and two predictive models. Teams' off-the-field rating is a somewhat subjective rating of elements including Academic Progress Rate, recent history of NCAA violations and probation, athletic department subsidies, player arrests, attendance at last season's games, and overall ick’ factor.
Sources: Phil Steele, Athlon, Football Outsiders, ESPN, USA Today, arrestnation.com, ncaa.com
Each team’s location on the grid is determined by advanced numerical calculations and verified by the Journal’s resident sports nerds, who make sure a team’s location also reflects intangible factors that don’t come through in the data.
The Grid features only legitimate Football Bowl Subdivision contenders: each of the 64 schools in the five major conferences, plus a handful of other relevant programs. This season that included independent Notre Dame and the University of Central Florida, among others.
The horizontal access is straightforward: the more dominant a team is expected to be on the field, the farther right they land. Each team’s ranking is a composite of several pre-season polls, some ordered by the eye tests, others by multivariable mathematical equations.
Things get interesting on the vertical axis, otherwise known as the shame meter. The lower a team falls the more ignominy it heaps upon its fanbase.
Shame is quantified using a weighted calculation of several football-related factors: academic performance, recent NCAA violations and probation, attendance figures, athletic-department subsidies and arrests of players and coaches.
There are some offenses so outside the lines, however, that they can’t quite be captured by numbers alone. That’s where the “ick factor” comes into play.
Any school involved in a scandal, regardless of whether it happened during the last calendar year or directly implicated the university’s football program, takes a hit. And with the non-stop headlines about college-sports scandals over the past year, there has been, if anything, an uptick in the number of teams moving lower on the shame axis. Enable a sexual predator for 20-plus years? You’re going down. Let students buy admission by posing as recruits? Take a trip south.
In the end, how you feel is dictated by where you sit on the Grid. The upper right quadrant means you’re a strong team that has come by your success respectably, like Washington—a perennial contender for the Pac-12 title with few violations or arrests. The upper left is home to the Boston Colleges of the world: teams that are indisputably bad, but their demerits come from losing games rather than breaking rules.
Then there’s the bottom half of the grid. The lower right contains two of the three top-ranked teams—Alabama and Georgia—because they self-reported minor NCAA infractions. The lower left is the least coveted real estate on the Grid of Shame. These teams take a lot of L’s, both on the field and off. One of the few areas where these schools excel? Testing their fans’ loyalty. Buckle up Kansas faithful: you may have Les Miles, but you’re in for a long season.
Michigan State
Worst among the offending teams is Michigan State, which failed to stop the serial abuse of Larry Nassar, a former university physician and USA Gymnastics national team doctor now serving a 175-year prison sentence. Both the Spartans’ president and athletic director stepped down in early 2018.
Additionally, an ESPN report found that the members of Michigan State’s athletic department habitually mishandled complaints of sexual assault, violence and gender discrimination involving members of its football and basketball programs. Let’s just say it’s not a great time to be a Spartan.
Missouri
The University of Missouri was slapped with dozens of sanctions in February after a very lenient former academic tutor turned herself in for improperly helping athletes across several sports, including football, baseball and softball. That “help” included taking placement exams, and in one case an entire course, on behalf of the athletes.
As part of its punishment, the university was placed on probation for three years and the Tigers’ football, baseball and softball teams will be banned from the post-season in 2019. Sorry Kelly Bryant, no matter how good you are on the field you won’t be playing in a bowl game come December.
Ohio State
Ohio State fell to the bottom of the grid because of the ongoing brouhaha related to former assistant coach Zach Smith’s dismissal for alleged domestic violence before the 2018 season. After firing Smith, the university placed head coach Urban Meyer on administrative leave while it looked into whether Smith’s behavior was previously known.
In its investigation, Ohio State did not attempt to recover deleted text messagesfrom the phones of Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith, and promptly reinstated the head coach after three games. Coincidentally, Meyer announced 2018 would be his last season with the Buckeyes.
College Admissions Scandal
Then there are the schools involved in the college admissions scandal, which came to light this spring in an FBI investigation dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” The scheme masterminded by William “Rick” Singer touched several top tier universities, but none more profoundly than the University of Southern California.
Several USC officials allegedly made introductions between Singer and key figures within the Trojans athletics department. And documents seized by the FBI indicate Singer tried to get a client admitted by suggesting he post as a “kicker or punter.” The scandal also dinged several more schools, including Stanford, Texas, UCLA and Wake Forest.
Minor NCAA Violations
Several premier programs, including each of the top-three ranked teams, self-reported minor NCAA violations in the off-season, a tactic teams commonly use to incur milder punishments from the NCAA than if the infractions had been discovered through other means.
Alabama admitted that one of its assistant coaches impermissibly called a recruit twice in one week outside of the designated contact period. Southeastern Conference rival Georgia mistakenly printed out a nametag for a sophomore prospect. Not to be outdone, No. 1 ranked Clemson self-reported 13 minor offenses, including but not limited to the unauthorized use of confetti during a prospective player’s official visit.
