re: Spinoff question from the Rant, re Academics vs Athletics

The reality is that the most bloated salaries in a flagship university belong to the athletic department. If anyone is going to accuse a university of financial mismanagement, it really begins with the athletic department, where the majority of schools find creative ways to bleed money despite huge windfalls in cash through tv deals. Auburn, for example, is operating at a 16 million dollar deficit.

LSU to its credit is one of the few schools making money off it's athletics.

At some point, there will be a free market argument, but that of course is ridiculous because the only thing that's about as free market as big time college athletics is the Pyongyang economy.

Jim, to go back to your question. A lot of people either didn't go to LSU or just went there to party. Until very recently, half of LSU students didn't graduate, so they aren't going to be loyal to the academic side of the institution.