01-30-2013, 07:08 PM
Nice one, oman. Maybe I spent too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably have been trying harder to score chicks.
The whole discussion is splitting hairs. In the grand scheme of things, being born almost anywhere in the US is being born on third base with a long lead. Just ask RA Dickey (http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/889655...rafficking). I would actually venture that the average Stanford football player did more to "earn" their position at Stanford than the average Stanford student. Even if you come from rich families, you have to bust your hump to be good enough to deserve a spot on a D1 team, even one as low as Stanford was in 2007. And on top of that to keep up good grades?
It would be interesting to see a Carnevale and Rose type study of FBS football. I would bet dollars to donuts that Stanford's team would be skewed toward higher income compared to other teams. That's what you're going to get when you put an academic filter on your recruiting profile. You're going to skew wealthier. My guess is Harbaugh was probably comparing the players at Stanford to those he knew from San Diego, Western Kentucky, and Michigan from his playing days who were on average from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. But I'd be interest to know how this "born on third base" mentality came out to Harbaugh. Would players just outright brag about how awesome they are for being so smart and talented that they earned their way to Stanford? Were they really expressing anything or was Harbaugh just inferring that because they were from more privileged background that they didn't appreciate their circumstances?
The whole discussion is splitting hairs. In the grand scheme of things, being born almost anywhere in the US is being born on third base with a long lead. Just ask RA Dickey (http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/889655...rafficking). I would actually venture that the average Stanford football player did more to "earn" their position at Stanford than the average Stanford student. Even if you come from rich families, you have to bust your hump to be good enough to deserve a spot on a D1 team, even one as low as Stanford was in 2007. And on top of that to keep up good grades?
It would be interesting to see a Carnevale and Rose type study of FBS football. I would bet dollars to donuts that Stanford's team would be skewed toward higher income compared to other teams. That's what you're going to get when you put an academic filter on your recruiting profile. You're going to skew wealthier. My guess is Harbaugh was probably comparing the players at Stanford to those he knew from San Diego, Western Kentucky, and Michigan from his playing days who were on average from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. But I'd be interest to know how this "born on third base" mentality came out to Harbaugh. Would players just outright brag about how awesome they are for being so smart and talented that they earned their way to Stanford? Were they really expressing anything or was Harbaugh just inferring that because they were from more privileged background that they didn't appreciate their circumstances?