The logical contortions employed by the author of this article about LSU’s new football facility and the reactions thereto are certainly cringeworthy. But then, he’s just following in the path of the AD:
LSU’s goal, as new athletic director Scott Woodward said, should be to be top notch in physics and football. Perhaps a facility like this will help LSU be better at both. Athletics should be the front porch of a university, attracting high-quality students and funding, not the other way round.
Yes, I’m sure the day funding to attract a quantum physics professor after discovering the football players have easy access to sleeping pods is just around the corner.
Get The Picture 
Devil’s advocate here.. my understanding (so no source, just something I heard) is it has gotten harder and more competitive to get into Bama since Saban came along.
Now nobody would ever confused UGA and Bama in terms of academic rigor, but a correlation likely exists where sustained athletic dominance likely brings up the overall school profile.
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Yep I was just about to click in and say the same thing. This article is 6 years old but I’m guessing is even more true today.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2013/05/13/the-magic-of-nick-saban-everyone-wants-to-go-to-alabama/amp/
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Nick is 8-0 against his old school since LSU won that regular season game in 2011. I’d argue winning is a bigger motivator than sleeping pods, but what do I know?
Coach O has his work cut out for him.
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Football is only part of the story at UA.
The profitable formula is:
1. Recruit affluent out-of-state zip codes.
2. Offer a full ride scholarship for the first semester (or year).
3. Drop the kid into an upgraded football and greek culture.
4. Collect four years of out-of-state tuition and fees when the kid doesn’t make the grades required to keep the scholarship.
UA doubled the size of the university in the past decade while state funding lagged. Ole Miss, Arkansas, and now LSU are following a similar path.
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There is truth to LSU’s position. App State was always easy to get into for those who may have been a little more casual in their HS studies. But 3 National Championships later, it was very hard to get in. It was not up with UNC or NC Sate, but the Championships did a little for academics at App State what the Pell Grant did for academics at Georgia. Curb appeal, as they say, matters.
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Again, you are equating spending money on football facilities with winning. Not the same thing.
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I’ll agree that spending does not directly equal winning. However, I’m pretty sure NOT spending equals losing. So, spending it is!
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True, spending does not perfectly correlate to winning but you would agree Alabama went all-in on their football program from the day the plane left for Miami to meet with Saban.
So LSU is doing the same, albeit with Coach O. Saban won’t be at Bama forever, but probably longer than we care to imagine.
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Since HOPE came into play, UA (insert West GA Cheating U, Ole Piss, Clampson, etc)can thank Gov/Sen Zell Miller for all the out-of-state-$$$$ / “would be” UGA students that have/will attend that joke of a school.
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