Post Academic

“Footnotes” gathers some stories floating around on the Internet that may or may not be directly relevant to academia, but are entertaining and even interesting, at least to us and hopefully to some of you out there.  This weekend, we’re catching up with some sports-related topics here at Post Academic.

1. Did you watch the great Butler-Duke NCAA final last Monday?  I’m not sure it was the classic game in terms of how well the teams played (did Butler make a field goal in the middle 10 minutes of the 2nd half?), but it was definitely one of the most dramatic championship games I’ve seen–and I’ve watched pretty much all of them since Magic-Bird in 1979.  What’s interesting to us here is that the game ended up validating our Geek’s Final Four predictions, since both teams (especially Duke) were rated highly by our academic standards for picking the brackets.  And Education Secretary Arne Duncan has taken notice of the two teams, which the Washington Post “College Inc” blog reports on.

Butler might have rated higher in our rankings if I had known that their two best players made the Academic All-American team, with Matt Howard (#54 in the picture above, 1st team Academic All-American this year, 2nd team last year) and rising star Gordon Hayward (3rd team) making the cut.  Plus, their majors weren’t fluffy ones either: Howard is a finance major and Hayward is a computer engineering major.

2. Perhaps even more impressive is that the best women’s baller, UConn’s 3x (regular) All-American and 2x Player of the Year, Maya Moore, is also this year’s Academic All-American of the Year.  It looks like she has her sights set on a Rhodes Scholarship–I’m thinking she has the athletic part of the application down, don’t you?

3. Maybe Moore should get some tips from Florida State Defensive Back, Myron Rolle, who was a Rhodes Scholar last year.  Rolle, one of the most highly recruited prospects after he graduated high school, is now preparing for the NFL Draft, and should be a high pick.  But get this: word is that his academic accomplishments have set off red flags as to his commitment to football.  Oh well, he can fall back on being a neurosurgeon (his non-football ambition), while all the guys drafted before him are going to the brain doctor.

“The basketball court at Hinkle Fieldhouse” by JKBrooks85 from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

“National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell at the podium at the 2009 NFL Draft” by Marianne O’Leary from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons