This is true. I live in GA and it is the only good option in the state for those that want a large campus, Greek life, good athletics, good academics, etc... Combined with the Hope and Zell scholarships, the best HS students stay in-state. But the options are limited: Tech? Ga Southern? Kennesaw State? I have friends that are multi-generation UGA grads and life-long boosters and their kids can't get in. They are pissed about it too. The requirements to get into UGA are just as difficult as UF now and it shows when walking around the campus. If the football program starts losing they'll have a similar problem as we do. This generation "fan" will not be the same as the fans from the 70/80/90s.
The program he played at in Clearwater was a Academy, filled with kids that came somewhere other than the USA. In fact the program is no longer fielding a football team, so there is no allegiance to any particular Florida school in the terms I believe you are thinking about.
I personally knew alumni, that couldn't get their kids in because it's become so competitive, most are having to send the kids to a 2 year program and then have them transfer their credits to gain admission into UGA now.
I’m not thinking allegiance toward any school - my point was that he isn’t from Cali, he’s from Florida. Or at least that’s what I thought — is he from another state and simply played HS ball in Florida?
Usually those kids came from outside the USA and had to have a visa to be in the US. The team was basically a international All-Star team.
Me too. UNG is a common choice for these kids. In addition, Bama aggressively "recruits" N. Fulton students. They go after those kids that don't get into UGA (but parents have money) and have a good scholarship program for these out of state students so it is manageable.
Lot of the kids I got to know, (usually working at Chick Fil-A), were doing the North Georgia 2 year program......agree 100% with you on that!
UNG is where my youngest son graduated! Nice little school. Georgia State hasn't been mentioned but it's another big school with over 50,000 students. It's been a downtown large metro school since at least the 80s when I moved to Atlanta, but they have plans to develop a HUGE new campus. They bought the old Turner Field/Olympic stadium a few years back and converted it into a nice football stadium and their program is growing quickly and they joined the Sunbelt Conference. They also have plans to completely redevelop the only Panthersville community around the stadium into a new campus. As I mentioned earlier, this issue with legacy kids is a problem at just about every single state land grant university in the country. They all capped enrollment in the 80s and 90s and raised academic standards. This is the primary all these metro school like UCF, USF, Georgia State, Kennesaw State have gotten so big so fast. They haven't capped enrollment and they can pretty much take as many kids as they want. In my opinion, this enrollment cap issue is also a primary driver for all the football conference realignment! The NCAA set the Div 1 standards based on enrollment, so now all these "new" large universities that have popped up in the last 20 years out of nowhere, can suddenly be put on the same athletics level as the historic state land grant universities that have built the college football brand over generations. Those historic state land grant universities don't want them to make the same money or have the same seat at the table. And I don't blame them. I believe the primary efforts of the SEC and Big-10 are to re-establish a college football level primarily for the historic state land grant universities.
The loudness of the Swamp started disappearing when smart phones came out. I saw lots of people looking/talking/testing on their phones instead of yelling when the other team's offense is in the field or when something good happened for UF.
Bama aggressively recruits students who want an out of state college and have strong grades. If you have over a 1400 SAT and over a 4.0 GPA, you can pretty much attend tuition free. That's pretty appealing to a lot of kids up north and out west. The majority of Bama's undergrad is now out of state.
My son graduated from UNG with a Math degree. I wouldn't let my kids go to Atlanta and GSU. Nothing good happens south of Suwanee.
please be sure to go to the thread title dedicated for the OL Zandamela to find information and discussion about him. (jk)
