culture

Sorry if already posted - I didn't see it in the archives - but the New York Times had an article about the cutlure of sports at colleges and how it was (potentially) having an adverse effect on the academic performance of the students. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/how-big-time-sports-ate-college-life.html?_r=1&hp

While I understand the consternation held by some of the professors at schools who see academics taking a back seat to athletics, many of the facts and figures they point to are not exclusive to athletics but instead are true for any major campus event.  For example, they talk about the drop in GPA at Oregon when the football team does well, though (a) the number they quote (0.02 for men) seems rather small and (b) the timeframe for the data is rather short (Oregon has only been enjoying its current "elite" run for what, 3-4 years?).  Also, they note that at one school students visiting the library and reading articles drops during sporting events, but they don't provide figures about similar usage around big school events like campus "holidays" (Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, etc.) and non-athletic events to see if that drop is a more general trend.  And to point to China as an example of "laser focus" on academics is a little silly - the academic composition in other countries is vastly different than in the US, but many of those schools have myriad of other problems that US educators would also cringe at.

Regardless, a good read. 

Recently I was convinced to eat at Zingerman's Roadhouse after many a friend told me "how it has unbeatable barbecue". Sadly, this was far from the truth. While I maintain a strict love of Zingerman's Deli, I was disappointed by the quality of food and service at the roadhouse.

By contrast, I also recently tried the Arbor Brewing Company for the first time and was incredibly impressed. What are you best and worst restauranting experiences in AA?

After all of the talk about everyone "buying in" this season and how there were leadership issues last year, it got me to trying to figure out who these bad apples were last year. I certainly understand and can sympathize with the stress of a regime change that late in your career. (Happened to me in high school golf and really kind of ruined my senior year. Obviously a couple orders of magnitude less important, but you know...) So here's a list of last year's fifth year seniors and seniors who didn't come back.

5 Charles Stewart**** S / 6-2 206 5th Sr. 03/11/86 Farmington Hills, Mich. (Harrison)
35 Doug Dutch*** CB / 5-11 204 5th Sr. 02/15/86 Bowie, Md. (Gonzaga College)
34 Jason Gingell** K / 5-9 194 5th Sr. 12/30/85 Northville, Mich. (Catholic Central)
49 John Thompson**** LB / 6-1 239 5th Sr. 02/10/86 Detroit, Mich. (Crockett Technical)
84 K.C. Lopata** K / 6-2 233 5th Sr. 02/11/86 Farmington, Mich. (Farmington)
83 Mike Massey**** TE / 6-5 225 5th Sr. 06/16/85 Brecksville, Ohio (St. Ignatius)
14 Morgan Trent**** CB / 6-1 188 5th Sr. 12/14/85 San Diego, Calif. (Orchard Lake St. Mary's, Mich.)
59 Sean Griffin** LS / 6-2 243 5th Sr. 03/04/86 Livonia, Mich. (Catholic Central)
30 Shakir Edwards* S / 6-0 210 5th Sr. 03/01/86 Detroit, Mich. (Martin Luther King)
90 Tim Jamison**** DE / 6-3 263 5th Sr. 02/26/86 Riverdale, Ill. (Harvey Thornton)
97 Will Johnson**** DT / 6-5 285 5th Sr. 11/09/85 Oakland, Mich. (Lake Orion)
54 Austin Panter** LB / 6-3 231 Sr. 12/18/86 Butler CC Athol, Kan. (Butler CC) (Kensington)
27 Brandon Harrison**** S / 5-9 206 Sr. 11/06/86 Dayton, Ohio (Chaminade-Julienne)
46 Brandon Logan*** LB / 6-1 208 Sr. 02/17/87 Lexington, Ky. (Lexington Catholic)
67 Terrance Taylor**** DT / 6-0 319 Sr. 05/14/86 Muskegon, Mich. (Muskegon)
85 Carson Butler*** DE / 6-5 250 Sr./Jr. 08/21/87 Detroit, Mich. (Renaissance)

So Thompson, Trent, Jamison, Johnson, Taylor, Massey, and Harrison seem to be the ones most likely to have been in an expected leadership position. I'd say they all had reasonable seasons considering their past performance and expectations (other than Massey, who seemed to have no place to go in this system) and seemed to always say the right thing. We would also have to think that the transfers were probably in the "bad apple" camp as well. Just curious as to who the troublemakers were and if they're all gone now, or maybe there have been buy ins / conversions among those left over. I don't mean to call out or belittle kids put in a tough spot by the way.