ray ratto tears texas a new one for the herman firing

Duke had the benefit of a third party organization (Nike) illegally funneling the best basketball players to them for years. Michigan won’t play that game (to the same scale) thanks to the Ed Martin situation so many years ago. 
You can already see the impacts of the FBI investigation on college basketball. Football works differently (bagmen associated with the school), yet Michigan won’t fully dive in like other schools have. 
This is less about the combination of academics and athletics and more about how much a school is willing to break rules just to win at sports. As can be seen in both basketball and football, the large majority of schools don’t think it is worth it. For those that do, yay, good for them. It would be really nice to have an organization which is able to enforce a level playing ground.

Generally speaking, Texas's reputation is head-and-shoulders above OSU. It brings in more Federal research dollars, has more prize-winning faculty members, and pumps out more IP as measured by patent and licensing metrics. Even though Texas is only ranked marginally higher than OSU in the USNWR ranking, it doesn't reflect the true spectrum of difference and arguably lays bare that there are some deficiencies in the ranking criteria. Personally I put more stock in the Times Higher Education league tables which have considerably more following in the rest of world, place more emphasis on university outputs (e.g. journal citations, patents, job placement and post-graduation success) than inputs (e.g. SAT scores, class sizes, alumni giving rates), and are less prone to favor per-capita student metrics (e.g. endowment per student) than the overall impact of how resources are allocated.

Absolutely.  The aerospace engineer has a model that works for one purpose, and Duncan for another purpose.  But only one of those two traditionally gets called "intelligence" 

Thanks for pulling the discussion back to the OP. However, I don't believe this small string is completely unconnected.

I see it that way because I don't see inherent contradictions in universities that aim to excel at sports. Contradictions, yes. Inherent ones, no. Though pundits have made a habit of identifying academics and "big-time" sports as at war with each other, that's true of virtually every human endeavor, the presumed goal undercut by counter-impulses and interests.

As you suggest, the issue is the level of control and ethical conduct.

I've always assumed it would be similar to degrees in dance, acting, art, etc.  Those are "skills" as much as being good at a sport, and if you actually have to attend some classes then that should work.  I'm actually amazed when someone like Devin Gardner gets two degrees while also being a really good football player because being good at either one of those pursuits is beyond the capability of a decent chunk of the country's population.

There are careers in sport even if you don't play the sport professionally. Coaching, training, analysts, the business side of sport, etc....Why not give athletes a field of study where they can pursue what they love beyond playing on the field. 

Interesting take, the average NFL career is about 2.5 years and the number of college football players drafted is around 1.5 to 2 pct.  There is a very limited number of professional football players that you are discussing building a football degree around.  The vast overwhelming majority, even at Alabama, OSU, & Clemson will be doing something else other than football upon graduation.  

I certainly was not, and I don’t think anyone was, arguing that UM sports weren’t the reason we’re all here. My point was this blog and fan base talk different UM contributions a fair amount. I don’t generally subscribe to “stay in your lane” or “if you don’t like it leave” critiques. This blog has had room for a diversity of topics for years. I like that.