How Do National Championship Foes Alabama and Clemson Really Compare?
There’s been a lot of talk about whether the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Clemson Tigers will walk away with the coveted National College Football Championship Trophy tonight in Tampa, Fla.
Most analysts compare defensive lines, secondaries, quarterbacks and ground games. But the Southern Education Desk decided to look at other facts about these two Southern universities.
When it comes to the size of the student body, Alabama is the biggest with an enrollment of 37,098. Clemson’s enrollment is 22,698.
It costs more to attend Clemson – whether you are a state resident or come from out state. In-state tuition at Clemson is $14,240, compared with $10,470 in-state tuition at the University of Alabama.
Class sizes overall are smaller at Clemson, with a student/faculty ratio of 18:1 compared with a 24:1 ratio at Alabama.
What really makes a difference at most schools is the amount of money in the bank. Alabama wins that category with an endowment of $658,672,567 compared with Clemson’s $648,610,563 endowment.
Football players are recruited as student-athletes, which means going to classes and getting a degree should weigh into the equation for success. The NCAA monitors academics for athletes. Colleges and universities must supply data every year to show that their student-athletes are maintaining their eligibility to compete while earning degrees.
Alabama graduates 80 percent of its football players within six years. Clemson graduates 84 percent of its football players within the same period. The national rate of graduation for all students seeking undergraduate degrees is 60 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. So the two universities are not that different at all!
How one country has become a top destination for hair transplants
With more than 1 million people going to Turkey for the procedure every year, hair transplants are transforming men's scalps — and vanity. But not every story ends with a perfect hairline.
A bold doctor sent her kids away and helped beat one of the world’s deadliest viruses
A year ago, Rwanda faced its first outbreak of Marburg virus. Dr. Tsion Firew remembers how scared she was — and how that didn't stop her from playing a key role in the remarkably effective response.
French Prime Minister resigns after less than a month in office
Facing criticism from all sides, France's new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned less than 24 hours after naming his government and after less than a month in office, plunging the country into a deep political crisis.
Drug checking services save lives in the Netherlands. The Gulf South doesn’t have any
Both the U.S. and the Netherlands wrestle with the politics of drug use, but their approaches diverge in key ways that reflect deeper ideological divides.
New billboard draws attention to Anthony Boyd, Alabama’s next nitrogen gas execution
Supporters of Boyd, the chairman of an in-prison anti-death penalty group, put the billboard message up in hopes of garnering more public awareness.
The medicine Nobel Prize goes to 3 scientists for work on peripheral immune tolerance
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi were honored for research into how the body helps the immune system avoid attacking your own tissues instead of foreign invaders.
