Michigan/OSU Football Player Majors Full Breakdown

Submitted by Michael Scarn on

So, I'm sure everyone has seen the sign that OSU has in their football building comparing the majors of Michigan and OSU football players.  The list seemed awfully small and incomplete to me, so I decided to look into the numbers myself.  I got my info from the Sugar Bowl Media Guide and from OSU's 2011-2012 Football Information Guide (strangely enough, OSU's website listed no media guide from their losing effort to John Brantley in the Gator Bowl).  You'll be unsurprised to learn that "Baseball America rated [Joe Bauserman] as having the best changeup in the Pirates' farm system."  I would've thought it was his knuckeball, but changeup is pretty hilarious too. You really can't make this stuff up.  

MICHIGAN

Major # of players
Undeclared LS&A 24
General Studies 23
Kinesiology 20
Sociology 9
Afro-American and African Studies 4
Political Science 3
Undeclared Engineering 2
Brain, Behavior and Cognitive Science 2
Arab, Armenian, Persian, Turkish and Islamic Studies 1
Business Administration - Ross School of Business 1
Cellular and Molecular Biology 1
Classic Civilization 1
Economics 1
History 1
Master of Social Work 1
Masters of Accounting - Ross School of Business 1
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 1
Physics and Mathematics 1
Pyschology 1
Spanish 1

I didn't break up Kinesiology School students, but if I did it'd be a split of about 65/35 between Sport Management and Movement Science, with maybe one Physical Education thrown in.  

OHIO STATE 

Major # of players
Exploring 18
Undeclared 11
Communication 9
Sport and Leisure Studies 7
Family Resource Management 7
Business 6
Criminology 5
Mechanical Engineering 5
Exercise Science  5
Management and Industry 4
Biology 4
Marketing  3
Political Science 2
Accounting 1
African-American Studies 1
Civil Engineering 1
Computer Science 1
Construction Systems Management 1
English 1
Finance 1
Fisheries and Wildlife Management 1
Health Professions 1
History 1
Human Development 1
Humanities 1
Middle Childhood Education 1
Operations Management 1
Pre-Med 1
Real Estate and Urban Analysis 1
Sociology 1

A couple of notes.  First, the hilariously named "exploring" is apparently not a major but a way for undeclared kids to take a survey of a variety of courses.  Sounds eerily similar to a General Studies major, doesn't it? Second, Joe Bauserman is your Fisheries and Wildlife Mangement major.  Third, "famiy resource management" isn't as much of a joke as it sounds like, appearing to be basically a watered-down finance or financial planning degree that tells you how not to lose all the money, cars and tattoos that you accrue.  

I was going to make this a diary (and still might) and try to add to the discussion started by Ramzy's take, but I've got stuff to do.  All I'll say for now is that I'm pretty sure the reason you don't see more business or engineering students on Michigan's roster is the incredibly difficult admissions standards of those schools.

Comments

Heinous Wagner

February 20th, 2012 at 6:19 PM ^

Originally, there were 30 Ohio football players signed up for criminology majors. 25 of them changed majors when they learned that this did not involve learning how to BE a criminal. 

michfan4borw

February 20th, 2012 at 6:21 PM ^

U

so urban meyer is trying to make fun of the academic majors chosen at Michigan rather than what's available at Michigan???

Does his buckeye logic somehow lead him to the conclusion that an OSU education is better than one from Michigan?  I really don't understand the joke he's trying to make.  Is it making fun of the players at Michigan or of the institution?

This simply does not compute.

Michigan is to Ohio as Sheldon is to Penny.

Section 1

February 20th, 2012 at 6:26 PM ^

I saw him as QB versus Miami, and all of his junk was working; sinker, knuckleball, curveball, changeup.  He was untouchable.

 

denardogasm

February 20th, 2012 at 6:29 PM ^

I actually just saw Ohio's version of this when I for some reason ventured into 11W for the first time to see what it was all about... It made me angry for a minute because they don't even put any effort into spinning shit their way.  I came across an M poster who for some reason attempts reason in that den of nonsense and the commentors said he was a voice of reason, but then said that the quality of their posters over ours is beyond compare, and that while we would be a top 5 class, they'll be competing for #1 (completely without evidence) rabble rabble rabble.  I threw up a little.  Why do people repeatedly go to that site?  It's not worth the entertainment and makes me more angry at their existence than anything else.  I'm limiting this rant because I know you all already know these things, but I had to let a little bit out.  Please don't ever make me go back there. It was awful.

-Also someone wrote a whole page article (article?) on Tom Brady's new house and how his GS degree is worthless and how Gisele didn't go to high school.  Basically, they don't deserve their money and they're stupid...  Really? Internet has increased my hatred of Ohio 1000 fold.

Gameboy

February 20th, 2012 at 7:00 PM ^

If you are talking about "M Man", he is nothing a but Bucknut posting as a Wolverine alter-ego. Pretty much every post he makes is how he agrees with various Bucknuts and how any reasonable Wolverine fan would agree with everything that is said on 11W.

HA!!! If that guy is a real Wolverine, I am Jeremy Lin!

Pretty ingenius though. I do sometimes think I should post as "Buckey Man" and post around here as a Buckeye fan who agrees with everything posted around here...

LSAClassOf2000

February 20th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^

Tyrelle's lasing legacy, an uptick in Exploring majors....

18 players owe their future academic success to this man. Does it mean they are "undeclared undeclared majors" at this point?

CarrIsMyHomeboy

February 20th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^

The Michigan list adds up to 99. This confuses me as (1) I would expect the number to be significantly higher than that if we were combining scholarship and non-scholarship players and (2) I would expect the number to be significantly lower than this if we are only looking at scholarship players here (assuming--fairly, I imagine--that few football players "double up").

 

I see my old concentrations are represented. I wonder. Who are the roster kids studying Political Science and Cellular & Molecular Biology?

StephenRKass

February 20th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^

I don't think this sign proves much of anything. Overall, Michigan is better than Ohio academically. Ohio has improved significantly over the last 10 years, and may have a few programs that are better than Michigan. To date, no one has demonstrated this to be the case to my satisfacation.

However, there is a related subject that I really don't like. It has to do solely with Michigan. I get the feeling that even when Michigan players have the academic background to get admitted to various schools, they often are discouraged from doing so. Worse, I have the sense that a number of programs are so rigid, it literally is impossible for a student to be part of a program and part of the football team.

For example, there was a post a week ago about elite sophomore prospect Malik McDowell, who wants to go into Nursing. (Link:  http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/elite-sophomore-visiting-michigan.) In the thread, I got the strong sense that Michigan's nursing school had clinicals that would directly conflict with football's practice schedule.

A few years ago, there was a prospect who I believe wanted to go into architecture. I'm fuzzy on the details, but again, I got the sense on the board that Michigan's program just wasn't flexible enough to allow this to happen. IIRC, he ended up at Georgia Tech.

Of course, there is the account of Harbaugh that he was steered out of getting a History degree by the coaching staff.

I know that Carty's work on this at the AA news several years ago was much ado about nothing. However, I'd like to hear from a nursing, or architecture, or art, or music, or RC professor, who is on this blog: would these schools and programs be flexible enough to work with a football student who wanted to be part of the program? Conversely, is Michigan's football program flexible enough to allow a player to be part of such a program, if it meant missing occasional scheduled practices? (That is to say, to make something like this work, it seems reasonable for both the school and the athletic department to show flexibility and work together.)

I really don't care what Ohio does, but I do care about Michigan. And I hope they find a way to welcome students who want to enter challenging programs at Michigan.

denardogasm

February 20th, 2012 at 7:08 PM ^

I was one who thought it would be extremely difficult for McDowell to get a nursing degree while playing on the football team in that other thread, but I actually told my nurse girlfriend who graduated from Michigan about him and she seemed to think he could do it, but would have to take at LEAST an extra year to graduate.  She had a volleyball player and a softball player in her nursing class and they both did it for a while, but eventually after being slightly flexible the softball player was told by the school that she had to pick one or the other.  I don't know about the schedule for either of those sports, but I have a feeling football is a greater time commitment if you want to be a starter due to all the extra weight training and film study (correct me if I'm wrong).  My girlfriend thought the school might be willing to be more flexible for a football player because they already stand on their head for male nurses anyway, and a football player would be good publicity, but I still have my doubts.  The hours are just brutal.

I knew people in architecture too when I was there, and they regularly spent 30 hour shifts in their studios on north campus, which would certainly cut into football practice.  I don't know if that's really necessary or not, and I'm sure there are some architects on the blog who could speak to that, but I know for nursing, you're gonna want those students to know their shit because they might be taking care of you someday.  I've always been of the opinion that any workload is possible as long as you're willing to put in the effort, but even when I told my advisor I wanted to double major he wasn't very supportive.  I think at big schools they get too caught up in precedent and the general knowledge.

Feat of Clay

February 21st, 2012 at 4:33 PM ^

Our babysitter was a U-M scholarship athlete and a Nursing student.  She made it work, but I know the Dean's Office in Nursing has all the athletes red-flagged because they can end up with a ton of conflicts with Clinicals if they are not scheduled carefully.  I suppose with some sports they just can't work it out at all.

Architecture is another one where it would be brutal due to studio time.

I'm not saying any major is easy.  But in some majors, you can shortchange your time spent on reading & studying as long as you have a lot of academic support, and a tolerance for iffy grades.  Majors with a hard time commitment due to specific requirements--you just can't. It's not about rigor, it's about the clock.

well.....

February 20th, 2012 at 7:19 PM ^

 

i'm not a nursing prof, but i did go to u of m for my nursing undergrad and i'm gonna guess there are’nt any nursing profs on this blog (but would be completely geeked if i was wrong). i read the other thread and pretty much what was on there sounded accurate - it's the time commitment for clinicals that would get in the way.  the problem with flexibility is that clinical hours are an accreditation requirement.  so u of m basically says, "ok, we promised we'd give students x amount of clinical hours and we're going to divide them up thru the four years in this way." and they divide it up assuming people are going to go thru on the four year track. it's a super small school as well, so classes are offered pretty much on the one curriculum plan with very little spring/summer offerings, so there isn't too much shuffling of schedules that could go on.  they also don't have a ton of choices on clinical schedules.  not only do they have their own students to place throughout the appropriate areas for their classes (e.g., pediatrics, community, acute care, etc.), they are competing with eastern, washtenaw, lansing community college and jackson community college for clinical spots. there were even michigan state students on the floor i used to work on. i do wish they could work it out, b.c it would be SO awesome to have this kid be able to play the sport he loves and get the education he wants.

Michael Scarn

February 20th, 2012 at 7:08 PM ^

Eh, they don't have a School of Kinesiology.  I did it for Michigan because I think maybe one was listed as undecided Kinesiology, and all the rest mention Kinesiology when they say Sport Management/Movement Science, and I'm lazy.  

Gob Blueth

February 20th, 2012 at 6:55 PM ^

"It's the education part. I know all these schools athletically can offer me the same thing. The academic support at Ohio State, there is no way you can fail. Even if you're giving minimal effort there is no way you can fail."

If I could get an ME degree with no way to fail, I'd do it too.

Picktown GoBlue

February 20th, 2012 at 7:00 PM ^

TP and crew could move up to

On a more serious note, to SRKass' question above, I would think a Music major would be tough for a football player with the requirement to be in a large ensemble every semester, to say nothing of the necessary practice time, lessons, and studio time, many of which cannot be moved to accommodate one person.  That is, unless special waivers can be sought and granted.  Not a professor (at least not at U of M, and not at present...) but do have some knowledge of this program.

Mr. Robot

February 20th, 2012 at 7:18 PM ^

I think the other problem is probably in the fact that North Campus is so distant. From Central to North isn't a big deal, but when the entirety of your free time is taken south of Central and your classes are potentially as far away as the FXB, that's a pretty nasty hill to climb if you want to be an engineer.

Personally, I would really like to see the University step up the academic side of the athletic campus so that it is more self-containing. We're blessed to make millions in profits that even big ADs typically don't, and we put that money back into the genral fund. I would be totally okay with taking some of that cash and making arrangements for making sure there are people on the athletic campus who can help any athlete in whatever major they choose, instead of just the major clustering of majors we see here and everywhere else right now. For that matter, if you get every sport involved, you might even be able to hold an entire section of many classes in certian majors there for them (For example, if 30-40 athletes were interested in Computer Science, you could hold a section of EECS 280 down there for them every fall or something).

I know a lot of people will complain about the athletes getting even more "preferential treatment" than they do now, but with the work they put in to represent the University the way they do, I think they earn it and deserve it as a way to even the playing field with an ordinary student who doesn't have to make a committment to something they don't have to rely on to pay their way. It'd also be cool to set that kind of an example for commitment to making every resource available to our athletes to do whatever major they wish to pursue so they have the maximum chance to succeed in it and balance it with their sport.