Barry Jacobs column

[Capn Poptart]

I have huge respect for Barry Jacobs, but I am so tired of his Johnny Raincloud routine re. Duke football. Look, everybody knows we suck, and everybody knows we'd win in D-1AA. Everybody knows salaries are out of control. But the train has left the station! It's not gonna happen, okay? Move on! We're part of the ACC, and the ACC requires a football team. The question for many years into the forseeable future is, if we're going to field a D-1A team, do we have to be a joke?

He sets up false choices: either Duke can choose to ape the football factories and completely sellout, or accept being completely horrible. There is another option, okay? Duke football might just be able to be competitive. No, not a football power, but part of the Duke experience.

It seems to me that he's so invested in this argument at this point, that he actually wants Duke to fail in football.

[dkbaseball]

I'm not familiar with his customary schtick on Duke football, but I have to say that I found the column's pessimism to be rather jarring and strained. Took me by surprise, and seems to make sense only in the context of a long-standing agenda.

[jimsumner]

Barry has long maintained that Duke should drop down a level in football, even if that means leaving the ACC. FWIW, he thinks the ACC is bluffing and would accept a football-less Duke.

Barry and I have been friends for almost forty years. We agree to disagree on this subject.

[cspan37421]

I disagree too - I don't think the ACC would waive the rule for Duke. But given our student demographic it sure seems like we'd be more at home in the Ivy League. But would that kill the basketball goose laying the golden eggs? Probably, if we can't offer athletic scholarships. Catch-22.

[Sir Stealth]

I really can't take the whole idea of dropping down in football or any sport for that matter. What makes Duke great is that it can be an uncompromising institution that offers the best of all worlds. Compromising and giving up on football goes against Duke's chance to be the ultimate university. There seem to be way too many people in the powers that be that would have Duke be Yale-lite. Duke should have great academics, great sports (w/out dropping any standards for doing them the right way), great social life, great campus, great everything. Coach Cutcliffe at least seemed to understand this when he spoke in his press conference, and hopefully he'll do a good enough job to put this white flag talk to rest for good.

[Capn Poptart]

The NCAA requires 12 schools for a conference to hold a playoff game (you may remember that the ACC petitioned the NCAA for an exception - to let the ACC hold one with only 11 schools - and was denied. That's why we admitted BC).

So the ACC can't afford to let us drop to D-1AA, because, again, that would mean only 11 football teams, and the championship game could not be played.

The conference has hitched its football fortunes to this game. It could either replace us with another school altogether, or a football-only member. Conferences with "partial members" are not stable. How many years before we could be jettisoned for Florida or a similar "all-sports" school, and end up in the Big East or even - gasp - Conference USA?

No question Duke has more in common with other, more academic schools, and could compete more easily in football against them. But that's not gonna happen, and if it did, I think the ultimate price to Duke athletics might be very high.

[killerleft]

Barry Jacobs is starting to remind me of a Harpy, those weird flying dudes in the movie who were keeping the old blind man from eating his food.

And I used to be a big fan of Barry's. I guess politics can do things to a person.

P.S. No, not that Jason, and not the other Jason either!

[Duvall]

I really can't take the whole idea of dropping down in football or any sport for that matter. What makes Duke great is that it can be an uncompromising institution that offers the best of all worlds. Compromising and giving up on football goes against Duke's chance to be the ultimate university.

I agree that Duke should strive for excellence in football, as it should in every effort it undertakes. That said, we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that Duke's status as a great university turns on the success of the football program, or any other sports team. Athletics is only one part of a university, and not a very large one.

[Sir Stealth]

I agree that Duke should strive for excellence in football, as it should in every effort it undertakes. That said, we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that Duke's status as a great university turns on the success of the football program, or any other sports team. Athletics is only one part of a university, and not a very large one.

I partly agree and partly disagree. Even though sports are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, Duke's basketball program has a profound impact on the way that people look at Duke. I think people look at Duke and Stanford as the two really good schools that are also good at sports. Stanford wins the directors's cups, but Duke has the premier basketball program, which is amazing when most big time college sports programs are Big State U. Duke is not in the Ivy League, but sports, in addition to some degree of a reputation as a "work hard play hard" school, make it a unique place with its own advantages, offering everything that a person would look for in a university. Having a great football team doesn't have to be a part of this, but bailing on the ACC could diminish the nature of Duke more than one might think that it should. I think that if you don't look at it as an issue that's only about success in sports and look at it more as a "strive for excellence in all things" issue, then it makes more sense. It's about ideals more than it is about wins and losses.