I've tried to stay out of this thread, because first of all, Baylor hasn't proven anything yet and we won't get to until conference.
Both the Aggies and the Bears have significant young talent coming in. Both classes are ranked and have been well documented to be excellent.
Both coaches (BCG and Drew) have done amazing things with what they had when they came to the school. Sure, Drew didn't lead BU to the NITs in his first year, but he had only, if I remember correctly, 5 scholarship players and none of them were above average. BCG, as you are all very aware, took a team that was 0fer in the B12 and made them a postseason team.
I haven’t commented yet, like I said above, because I strongly believe that Baylor and A&M are about to make big splashes in college basketball in the very near future. Assuming OSU, OU, UT, and TT don't fall off, the B12 South will soon become the most competitive and talented division in all of the NCAA. Unbelievable coaches, great young talent, excellent recruits coming in...both our schools are on the rise.
The reason I am jumping in, is that I get tired of seeing Baylor education bashes on this site. There seems to be a perception that Baylor is "half the education at twice the price." I just don't understand it.
For instance,
A&M's average SAT was 1200 this year.
Baylor's average SAT was 1190. That seems pretty close to me.
In fact, last year, Baylor's average was higher by about 10 pts, so SATs show very little.
In the Top 100 Universities in the nation, A&M ranks #60, Baylor is #78. Those 18 spots aren't much when you consider there are 4,168 four year universities in the US. We are both in the Top 5%.
Now, we can all pull out stories about somebody who didn't get into A&M but they got into Baylor (or vice versa). I had a buddy that made a 0.5 GPA in his first two semesters at BU. He obviously failed out. I got a call from him not two months ago saying he got accepted to A&M. I do know that he went to Juco and boosted his GPA, but you get the picture.
We all have stories like this. The truth is, we both have excellent universities and it takes a motivated, hard working, and intelligent person to be a successful graduate of our institutions. This can not be said of many other schools in our state and nation.
Baylor is more expensive, but my choice of college was not value based. I made my decision on what I felt I could achieve at each university. With Baylor's strict attendance policy, I knew I would be motivated to go to class, an issue when you are a younger student, especially. With high teacher interaction, I knew I would get more personal attention in the classroom. And with the small class size, I knew I would be more competitive in learning and achieve more myself.
These were my reasons for going to school there, and yes, I was willing to pay more for it. Aggies have just as many great reasons they choose Texas A&M.
But, as I've already said, it's silly to consider Baylor "half the education" or a second tier school. There are simply no facts to support it.
Alright, I'm getting down off my soapbox. Y'all may continue…
[This message has been edited by BaylorGuy314 (edited 12/5/2005 6:06p).]
), I did just happen to wander over here an hour after the post was made. It was a coincidence. I found it odd that there was a random post about Baylor here though. I was bored, and I remembered I hadn't checked texags for a while and wanted to see what you guys were saying about your team. You can believe it or not. I don't care.