More on USF football and Tank McNamara

We wrote Friday morning about USF's random cameo in Thursday's Tank McNamara comic strip, and during halftime of a game at the NBA Summer League, my curiosity got to me: Why USF? Was there some odd connection to the school, or was it just an arbitrary reference in the sports-themed comic?

It took surprisingly little work to reach the strip's co-creator, Jeff Millar, through Universal Press Syndicate. Millar's written the strip since 1974, and his colleague Bill Hinds illustrates the comic. Reaching Millar by phone on Friday afternoon, I figured out that he already told us everything he knows about USF.

"The only reason I know USF is that at one time, it made the second position in the polls," said the Texas-based writer. "It's just a satirical reference to a lot of schools."

Millar said he's surprised by the number of colleges that think having a football team can lead to academic prestige, and I told him that it's more likely that football leads to greater national exposure and whatever comes with that. He said he learned of USF during its football run in October 2007 -- "there was a fair amount of coverage, but it's all I know about the school" -- and to illustrate that point, I asked Millar what city USF was located in.

"Jacksonville?" he earnestly guessed.

Millar knows the college football (and geography) of Texas much better -- he's a 1974 University of Texas graduate -- and said the line wasn't intended as anything against USF individually, but to poke at the widespread belief in the campus-wide power of college football. He remembers Rice being "one of the best football teams" in the late 1960s, that is "until the university decided to get rid of the fake majors."

Stay tuned next week, when Jeffy and P.J. from "Family Circus" lose a shoe at a USF tailgate and blame it all on Ida Know ...

Comments

[David Weber]

I think USF is emphasizing football along with improved academic admissions and performance. The incoming SAT scores are rising dramatically, the acceptance rate is dropping like a rock, and the graduation rate is starting to improve (but has a long way to go). Football is just highly visible and something that schools in Florida shouldn't have too tough of a time in succeeding.

FWIW, I believe that Stanford requires only 500s on each SAT section for athletics scholarships. Harvard requires something like a 1280 (old version) for athletic preference in admissions. If a regular kid applied to either of those schools with a 1280, they'd probably be laughed at. I think the top level schools compromise their academic standards for athletics far more than the average state school like USF.

Don't quote me on those numbers, but at the same time, know that places like Stanford and Michigan are making a far greater leap down the academic ladder for football players than USF.

[Ken]

Thanks for the info on that, Greg.

[Bull Hooper]

Rat from Pearls Before Swine will be interested in the goings-on in "Family Circus."

[G.A.]

Exactly. Somebody out there's with me ... Was going to reference their grandpa's ghost, but opted against it.

[Jimmy Delach]

How about "Not Me"?