.

Interesting but I am calling BS!

Hillsdale College is a college dedicated to teaching the Constitution. And it has a warning!

I did not read further.

Yeah, it's sad that the top of the free speech list scored less than 50% on tolerance for conservative speakers.

I looked at this a little more because there are so many surprising things in this ranking.  I think you have a point GK. 

The 5 schools with a "warning" for speech code were:  Hillsdale, BYU, Pepperdine, St Louis Univ, and Baylor.   So the FIRE group rates the written policies governing student speech.  That is pretty subjective and prone to be influenced by political ideology?   But I don't think St Louis univ is all that conservative and they got a warning label. 

Maybe the most valuable thing is in the details:  What is the tolerance for conservative vs liberal speakers.   I think ideally you want your kid's school to be high in both measures.  Or at least not have a high discrepancy between the values. 

The #1 school(s) Claremont McKenna Scripps has a Conservative tolerance/Liberal tolerance (C/L) ratio of 0.75.

#2  Univ Chicago is 0.73

I don't think that is actually very good.  Their overall rank is influenced by all those other measures. 

In contrast Hillsdale is 1.38.  Also shows a strong bias the other way. 

I would consider Univ Oregon to be fairly uncomfortable for conservatives.  Even though they are ranked #37, their C/L ratio is an abysmal 0.52

My kids school has a ratio of 0.86.  Lower than I thought but closer to 1.0 than the above. 

I got this privately sent to me by someone here:

"Hi, your recent post has nothing to do with baseball and is entirely political.  You are poisoning a site that is devoted to baseball.  It is NOT a site about how to choose a college based on political factors.  If you want to post about that, you can go to other discussion forums.  I kindly ask you to take this one down."

Respectfully, I disagree.  This is a site primarily dedicated to college baseball recruiting and decision making.  There are many factors that are important in those decisions.  For some here, perhaps information on speech tolerance is one of them?   I don't feel like I portrayed a particular bias in this post.   

It is kinda funny though... A post about college free speech brought about a request to cancel my free speech.   LOL.

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

I got this privately sent to me by someone here:

"Hi, your recent post has nothing to do with baseball and is entirely political.  You are poisoning a site that is devoted to baseball.  It is NOT a site about how to choose a college based on political factors.  If you want to post about that, you can go to other discussion forums.  I kindly ask you to take this one down."

Respectfully, I disagree.  This is a site primarily dedicated to college baseball recruiting and decision making.  There are many factors that are important in those decisions.  For some here, perhaps information on speech tolerance is one of them?   I don't feel like I portrayed a particular bias in this post.   

It is kinda funny though... A post about college free speech brought about a request to cancel my free speech.   LOL.

I agree that it's relevant - it speaks to the college experience.

I also agree that safe spaces - artificial constructs that restrict debate or remove entire topics of discussion - are inconsistent with the aims of higher education. I've been very impressed with the Pres of the U of Chicago, who argues this case very effectively.

I would expect that ranking site to change, given that the state of Florida (and others) have enacted statutes that limit by force of law what public school teachers and professors can say about race, or whether they can testify in open court on matters of race. A legal prohibition, not a cultural restriction.

I agree with the unnamed poster. As for the list, even if you accept its methodology, it has @150 out of @4000 4-year schools. To call it a work in progress would be more than generous.

The subject of free speech is completely relevant to how the “overall college experience” will be for any student/athlete regardless of the sport. Its a big part of the campus environment and has an impact on the everyday life of every student. So it’s completely appropriate to discuss that on this forum. How disappointing (but not surprising) that a member of HSBBW would attempt to dissuade you from discussing a topic that’s becoming increasingly important in selecting a college or university. It’s shameful IMO.

Certainly the advice "go to a school you'd like to be at with or without baseball" should include this topic.

It’s relevant. When kids are getting reprimanded because they won’t introduce themselves with their pronouns in class…I want to know. Baseball isn’t fully funded, which means I’m funding something. I want it to be an environment where my son can focus on learning and baseball and not all the other bs. Others may want  an environment that fosters that. Sadly, it’s a big part of education now and if you don’t have an agenda to push, it may put you at a disadvantage,

This is a topic that is important to me, my family, and apparently others here.  I find that, as a society, we are incredibly intolerant to differing opinions and ideology.  We should be able to have polite discussion on topics like this.  I'm simply not going to send my kid to a school at a cost of perhaps $250-300k to have him feel ostracized or feel stifled in class.  Nor do I want him to go to a groupthink factory.  He should get to form his own opinions after rational discourse between a diverse group of people.  So, contrary to my goals/thoughts a year ago, I am looking past things like US News World report school rankings and really honing down on where I think my kid will be happy.  And I encourage everyone with high school age kids to consider whether or not this is an issue to consider when making college decisions. 

“It is NOT a site about how to choose a college based on political factors.”

I’m not at all comfortable with this statement. HSBBW is organic; evolving.  It’s my understanding that today’s HSBBW is considerably different than when it was started. While you may prefer the older version, HSBBW’s evolution is a beautiful thing to watch play out. And wholly American. A true melting pot. Some of the most valuable info here is uncomfortable to read.

Free speech and melting pots are truly amazing and vital pieces to what it means to an American. Both both are far from being “perfect” or 100% virtuous. They come with warts and flaws. But those warts and flaws actually help allow them to be profoundly important to who we are. And we want to be.

I struggle with anyone who seeks to clamp down/limit free speech. I think those who look to limit it have very little awareness of what their efforts actually mean.  It means whatever other measures they’ve tried to cleanse free speech with, have failed. Their plan sucked. It did not cleanse it, so seeking to limit it/shut it down is them admitting they failed and are all out of ideas. And quite likely, lazy. You really think it’s possible to de-wart free speech? Then try a new, smarter plan and be ready to take on a job that will never end. Free speech is difficult by design.

I laughed at the title college free speech rankings, the rest is gravy.

How many HS baseball players does anyone know that would choose one school over another purely based on politics or "free speech"? How many have the time to get politically involved when playing their sport, traveling around to tourneys, to camps, to showcases, to the gym, etc. I would assume many are happy when "some" school wants them and don't consider the politics (certainly they don't care about cost ;-))...

Perhaps as they grow in college and "real life" gets closer, those around them drag them into discussions, etc., then politics become more important. Also consider that when you're an athlete you "can" get special privileges which can rankle those that are politically charged. Think exam on a travel day...  Tutoring provide by the team...

My son has crossed off a few really strong academic schools based on their policies or how students of differing views are treated. As someone previously posted, he wants to make sure he’s in a place he would be happy with or without baseball.

There are some schools where you can just put your head down and grind out your degree while tolerating the differing views. There are others that penalize or force you to adapt to their beliefs. I’m ok with teaching him how to think. Not ok with forcing him what to think

Assume any college is to the left. Most professors will be to the left. Assume to TA who grades the papers is even further left. The loudest students will be from the left. The smaller the college the louder the noise. The larger the college the more likely a student can find their world and tune out the noise.

I went to a very large university. Outside of seeing protests walking across campus I was immune to the left. I was there to play baseball, get good grades, drink beer on Saturday night and chase girls. There was a very small group in our dorm who believed the dorm director was an oppressor. He wanted us to follow the rules. He wasn’t strict about it.

My kids had the same experience with large universities during their time in college. My daughter was shocked to be named editor of the Law Review given she was in the Young Republicans Club at an Ivy.

My son only had one issue. His Intro to Poly Sci class was asked to write a paper on Occupy. He could tell his professor was right leaning. So my son was honest in his writings. The net of his paper was while there are some legitimate complaints the best way to get ahead is personal responsibility and accountability. He got a D. What he didn’t understand was a 5’7” 130 pony tailed TA with John Lennon glasses graded his paper. He took his paper to the professor and got his grade changed. But he learned his lesson. Tell them (the left) what they want to hear and walk away laughing with your A.

@JohnF posted:

How many HS baseball players does anyone know that would choose one school over another purely based on politics or "free speech"? How many have the time to get politically involved when playing their sport, traveling around to tourneys, to camps, to showcases, to the gym, etc. I would assume many are happy when "some" school wants them and don't consider the politics (certainly they don't care about cost ;-))...

Perhaps as they grow in college and "real life" gets closer, those around them drag them into discussions, etc., then politics become more important. Also consider that when you're an athlete you "can" get special privileges which can rankle those that are politically charged. Think exam on a travel day...  Tutoring provide by the team...

If they aren’t, they may end up very unhappy. My son crossed schools off and J wouldn’t say he is extremely political. He is pretty knowledgeable and knows what he believes. Colleges are extremely political now. Sitting around during parents weekend with the players, most conversations were about the over the top bias in their classrooms. Some of the things they shared were pretty shocking.

@JohnF posted:

How many HS baseball players does anyone know that would choose one school over another purely based on politics or "free speech"?

At a recent D3 regional I was chatting with some parents whose other son went to Oberlin freshman year. Despite starting the extreme left politics were too loud. The politics were so loud there he hated the place. Some of his baseball teammates were so far left there were loud arguments around the team. He just wanted to play ball and get good grades. Oberlin is extremely left. He transferred out after one year to a less left HA school in Massachusetts.

Different strokes for different folks.  I remember getting in to politics beginning in 7th grade.  I was a young, naïve idiot, but that's where it began.  I was 100% sure that one of the 2 major parties were for me, but by the time I was a HS senior, I had flipped sides.  Wrote a fair amount of politically-inspired papers my freshman year of college and I was regularly submitting letters to the editor/public pulse of our main local newspaper by age 19.

As it stands, my 18.5 year old Juco ball freshman has never once breached politics with me.  Not even close.  He could not care less.  Similar to a younger @RJM, playing ball, drinking beer and chasing girls is about as deep as he's gotten and I doubt that changes in the next 3-4 years.  My 15 year old HS freshman daughter is almost as disinterested in politics.  I'll be surprised if that changes before she goes off to college.  Having said that, if/when they take an interest in it, I hope they're presented with opinions from all perspectives - warts and all.

It's funny how the most liberal schools who shouted from the top of the mountain that free speech is essential in that educational environment are now, the most restrictive, intolerant, and overall the mirror image of what they were against years ago.

I didn't read the OG post and arent surprised you got gassed via PM.

#DaveChappellforPresident

@DanJ posted:

Different strokes for different folks.  I remember getting in to politics beginning in 7th grade.  I was a young, naïve idiot, but that's where it began.  I was 100% sure that one of the 2 major parties were for me, but by the time I was a HS senior, I had flipped sides.  Wrote a fair amount of politically-inspired papers my freshman year of college and I was regularly submitting letters to the editor/public pulse of our main local newspaper by age 19.

As it stands, my 18.5 year old Juco ball freshman has never once breached politics with me.  Not even close.  He could not care less.  Similar to a younger @RJM, playing ball, drinking beer and chasing girls is about as deep as he's gotten and I doubt that changes in the next 3-4 years.  My 15 year old HS freshman daughter is almost as disinterested in politics.  I'll be surprised if that changes before she goes off to college.  Having said that, if/when they take an interest in it, I hope they're presented with opinions from all perspectives - warts and all.

I think the bolded is key, at most schools that wont happen. There will be an avalanche from one side with guilt ridicule and personal attacks for debating the obvious known truths and the silent ones who disagree. That is the reality of campus life today at many schools.

@RJM posted:

Assume any college is to the left. Most professors will be to the left. Assume to TA who grades the papers is even further left. The loudest students will be from the left. The smaller the college the louder the noise. The larger the college the more likely a student can find their world and tune out the noise.

I went to a very large university. Outside of seeing protests walking across campus I was immune to the left. I was there to play baseball, get good grades, drink beer on Saturday night and chase girls. There was a very small group in our dorm who believed the dorm director was an oppressor. He wanted us to follow the rules. He wasn’t strict about it.

My kids had the same experience with large universities during their time in college. My daughter was shocked to be named editor of the Law Review given she was in the Young Republicans Club at an Ivy.

My son only had one issue. His Intro to Poly Sci class was asked to right a paper on Occupy. He could tell his professor was right leaning so my son was honest in his writings. The net of his paper was while there are some legitimate complaints the best way to get ahead is personal responsibility and accountability. He got a D. What he didn’t understand was a 5’7” 130 pony tailed TA with John Lennon glasses graded his paper. He took his paper to the professor and got his grade changed. But he learned his lesson. Tell them (the left) what they want to hear and walk away laughing with your A.

Had similar experience with my youngest, he told he me learned to just write every paper from the left perspective and your grades will be fine. Why fight the tides?

i find it offensive that someone would try to get you to take down your post.  I find it relevant regardless of what side your child is on... happiness is important.  there are conservative leaning schools, albeit not many, that would not be a good fit for a left leaning player. individuals should have the right to express their opinion, even if you disagree with it... 

@old_school posted:

Had similar experience with my youngest, he told he me learned to just write every paper from the left perspective and your grades will be fine. Why fight the tides?

My son learned in high school when he took the right side in a debate. He came loaded with facts and data. He got an incomplete until he provided a missing fact to back up one of his points.

The person on the left got an A even though he had nothing but left leaning newspaper column opinions.

Hopefully, the kid will embrace the different views at his college and not end up in a cult or be a total cynic like one of his parents. 

From the prospective of my two college kids........don't look for a fight with the loudest group on campus......go with the flow, seems to work well for them.

As with anything like this list, buyer beware of who produced the product!

I think RJM and DanJ's points are good ones.  Personally I think most HS age kids are either left leaning or apathetic.  But if your kid does lean right at all, it probably is easier to find your sweet spot at a big school rather than a 1200 kid school like Haverford.   A kid my son used to play with committed to Oregon.  I was so surprised as I know the dad's politics a bit.  So I guess the son's are different or they are banking on finding a way to fit in at a large school. 

GK, my kid actually was very interested in Pepperdine even though it wasn't entirely compatible with his degree goals.  He had some light correspondence but to his credit, he figured out it was entirely a reach for him in baseball.

I actually think a left center Christian baseball player might find a school like Liberty or Hillsdale to be fairly tolerant and accommodating.  But it would be a complete disaster for a far left leaning one (although that group is fairly small I know). 

Cheers!  I'm still pumping out free speech! 

I've noticed something fascinating over the past two admissions years. I'm in San Diego. My friends who are conservative are pushing their kids toward schools in red states (some are open about it). Suddenly a lot of kids at Alabama, Ole Miss, Clemson, SMU. Definitely a new trend.

@GloFisher posted:

i find it offensive that someone would try to get you to take down your post.  I find it relevant regardless of what side your child is on... happiness is important.  there are conservative leaning schools, albeit not many, that would not be a good fit for a left leaning player. individuals should have the right to express their opinion, even if you disagree with it...

This is what we are missing in our culture today and especially at colleges. It’s not just that people don’t agree, it’s that you aren’t allowed to even have an opposing opinion. You aren’t allowed to speak at all.   When the “prove me wrong guy” came to our campus, parents and teachers tried to get him banned. Why? If you don’t agree, come armed with facts or walk on by…no they don’t want him allowed to even speak.  We have a bunch of kids being taught that they don’t need to debate, they just need to silence others. That you should never have to be offended. If your kid can’t hear another point of view, they should probably live in your basement forever. Life is tough. Feelings will get hurt, and you aren’t always right just because you think you are.

It is shocking the swing intolerance has taken.

That's a complicated topic. Overall life gets shifted more into individual bubbles which I think is a consequence not just from social media but also general individualisation.

That happens in liberal circles with the cancel culture and safe space stuff but also in conservative circles (homeschooling, Christian schools).

In social media we see that too with new networks like telegram emerging.

Some people are indeed interested in free speech but others only care about free speech when it is about their opinion.

I can understand why this would be important for some parents but I also see why some people would be wary about debating that at a baseball site like this because those discussions easily can become very emotional.

@2020Lefty posted:

From the prospective of my two college kids........don't look for a fight with the loudest group on campus......go with the flow, seems to work well for them.

As with anything like this list, buyer beware of who produced the product!

I think most people if not close to all would be fine if they could go with the flow. Some schools just don’t allow it these days. We’ve learned to look closely at core curriculum requirements as a first step in evaluating a school.

My boy wants to go learn the most advanced math, physics, and CS he can. He has zero interest in hearing far left or right politics. I find it interesting now how some of the HA schools are now advertising the freedom you have with course selection compared to others requiring certain political leaning core classes

@baseballhs posted:

It is shocking the swing intolerance has taken.

I, too, have focused some on what I deemed increased intolerance, but I think there is a layer beneath it that is easy to mistake for intolerance.  At 47, I am able to remember when we disagreed on things.  People felt differently.  But somewhere along the line, I think people got overly frustrated and lazy when others didn't line up with them.  I think that's when true debate of topics in good faith stopped happening and we instead started labeling opinions as right and wrong.  If what you believe is right, debate is unnecessary and pointless.  If what someone else believes is wrong, it becomes virtuous to silence them.

So I think it's at least possible that our intolerance isn't growing, so much as our opinions have been forced into either a right or wrong bucket.  Right has always had a higher tolerance from us and wrong has had a lower tolerance.  If something is wrong, logic tells us we should be intolerant of it.  Get us away from labeling political opinions as right or wrong and you'll see perceived intolerance lesson.  No clue how you do that.  Not so long as we continue worshipping the bozos in Washington and allowing them to speak for us.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

I find it interesting now how some of the HA schools are now advertising the freedom you have with course selection compared to others requiring certain political leaning core classes

Chances are every professor in the Poly Sci department is a communist or a socialist. Some will be members of the associated parties. I got hammered with some extreme leftist thoughts in Poly Sci 101. It got to the point where I figured out if you tell these guys what they want to hear it’s an easy A. I took as many Poly Sci courses as a could for electives. Being in college in the 70’s Poly Sci professors were in “give them an A to avoid Viet Nam” mode. The thing is the US left Saigon my freshman year.

I got preapproved (different college) to take a Poly Sci course in summer school from Howard Zinn. What a clown! Kids are now being taught from A People’s History as if it’s real history. Zinn was a communist.

The class met for ninety minutes five days a week for six weeks. After the first week of listening to foolishness I went once a week. I wrote papers telling the clown what he wanted to hear and got an A. It didn’t matter. Classes not taken at my college didn’t count in the GPA.

Excuse me for this having nothing to do with college …

My best friend is a liberal. I’m a right leaning libertarian. We’ve been friends since we were little kids. We disagree on plenty of issues. But we don’t get mad at each other. The reason is we understand where each is coming from.

Why wouldn’t a person (him) whose parents, his wife and he have collected two generations of paychecks directly or indirectly from the government not be for big government?

Doesn’t it make sense for a person (me) whose both parents were executives and I started my own business (with partners) be pro small government and anti regulation.

We understand each other and where we’re not going to budge on our views. I understand even when I can sway a person it’s unlikely they’re going to stop short and say, “You’re right and I’m wrong.”

Bludgeoning people with your views doesn’t work. It takes time to swing people. If they change you will notice it in the way they speak on a subject. What I try to accomplish is getting people to read news from both sides (sad there are two sides to the news)  I get my news and opinions from a news aggregator. The opinions range from Slate/Salon/Vox to Daily Caller/Blaze.

The problem with social media is it’s a cage match with limited time to win the discussion. The end result is typically two people pissed off at each other.

@baseballhs posted:

This is what we are missing in our culture today and especially at colleges. It’s not just that people don’t agree, it’s that you aren’t allowed to even have an opposing opinion. You aren’t allowed to speak at all.   When the “prove me wrong guy” came to our campus, parents and teachers tried to get him banned. Why? If you don’t agree, come armed with facts or walk on by…no they don’t want him allowed to even speak.  We have a bunch of kids being taught that they don’t need to debate, they just need to silence others. That you should never have to be offended. If your kid can’t hear another point of view, they should probably live in your basement forever. Life is tough. Feelings will get hurt, and you aren’t always right just because you think you are.

It is shocking the swing intolerance has taken.

This is a great illustration of why someone would respectfully request that the OP pull their post, not to cancel the OP or infringe upon their free speech (which is impossible on a private website, but I'll not digress) but because the replies to this thread illustrate that this site has drifted of late into being a bitch session about liberals, so much so that when someone decries the intolerance of folks for trying to prevent Steven Crowder from speaking on a campus somewhere, that's greeted with huzzahs.  I could make the contrary case for preventing an openly racist, homophobic clown like Crowder from using a college campus appearance to spread hate and make a buck,  but that's not my point.

Folks, if what you want is another right wing echo chamber, then you're getting what you want, but please don't think that  is what everyone wants, or that it's necessarily the best thing for the site and its current and future users.  Some of us would prefer to talk about kids and baseball.

I'd prefer to not talk about politics - whatever label anyone wants to place.  Talking politics or religion in black or white (or whatever your background/foreground colors may be) - it just never seems to end well. One persons lie is another persons truth. Time to find something else to discuss ;-).

@JCG posted:

This is a great illustration of why someone would respectfully request that the OP pull their post, not to cancel the OP or infringe upon their free speech (which is impossible on a private website, but I'll not digress) but because the replies to this thread illustrate that this site has drifted of late into being a bitch session about liberals, so much so that when someone decries the intolerance of folks for trying to prevent Steven Crowder from speaking on a campus somewhere, that's greeted with huzzahs.  I could make the contrary case for preventing an openly racist, homophobic clown like Crowder from using a college campus appearance to spread hate and make a buck,  but that's not my point.

Folks, if what you want is another right wing echo chamber, then you're getting what you want, but please don't think that  is what everyone wants, or that it's necessarily the best thing for the site and its current and future users.  Some of us would prefer to talk about kids and baseball.

I think everyone has a right to speak and to an opinion regardless of how offensive it might be. I don’t have to agree.  I find a lot of things over the top. I find a lot of ideas being championed to be appalling.  That doesn’t mean I think they should be blocked from speaking. I think it is an opportunity for logical debate. That said, I have never seen Crowder be anything other than respectful in debate. I saw him speak respectfully at our campus.  Those opposing him in the other hand were vulgar and throwing profanities.  They had very little logical debate.  If you have seen examples of open racism, I’d love an example, I haven’t.  Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have missed something. I’m open to listening.  That said, regardless of what he says, I stand by his right to say it and I stand by an argument that teaching kids they need “safe spaces” if they don’t like someone else’s opinion is ludicrous.

I want to talk about baseball too and there was a time you could pick a college and not think twice about how you might be treated as a conservative…that isn’t the case now. Kids need to know it should probably play a part in their decision.  Just like knowing BYU might not be a fit for a lot of  kids.  There aren’t a lot of places where a liberal leaning kid might be shunned on campuses or have their grades suffer.

@JCG posted:

This is a great illustration of why someone would respectfully request that the OP pull their post, not to cancel the OP or infringe upon their free speech (which is impossible on a private website, but I'll not digress) but because the replies to this thread illustrate that this site has drifted of late into being a bitch session about liberals, so much so that when someone decries the intolerance of folks for trying to prevent Steven Crowder from speaking on a campus somewhere, that's greeted with huzzahs.  I could make the contrary case for preventing an openly racist, homophobic clown like Crowder from using a college campus appearance to spread hate and make a buck,  but that's not my point.

Folks, if what you want is another right wing echo chamber, then you're getting what you want, but please don't think that  is what everyone wants, or that it's necessarily the best thing for the site and its current and future users.  Some of us would prefer to talk about kids and baseball.

I look at Crowder and people like him as nothing more than entertainment. I don’t seek him out. Sometimes he comes across my screen. Anyone can go out in public and get ten stupid, ignorant responses. What we don’t know is how many people had to be approached to get X number of stupid answers.

Jay Leno used to do the same thing on Hollywood Boulevard. It was considered nothing but entertainment.

@baseballhs posted:

I think everyone has a right to speak and to an opinion regardless of how offensive it might be. I don’t have to agree.  I find a lot of things over the top. I find a lot of ideas being championed to be appalling.  That doesn’t mean I think they should be blocked from speaking. I think it is an opportunity for logical debate. That said, I have never seen Crowder be anything other than respectful in debate. I saw him speak respectfully at our campus.  Those opposing him in the other hand were vulgar and throwing profanities.  They had very little logical debate.  If you have seen examples of open racism, I’d live an example, I haven’t.  Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have missed something. I’m open to listening.  That said, regardless of what he says, I stand by his right to say it and I stand by an argument that teaching kids they need “safe spaces” if they don’t like someone else’s opinion is ludicrous.

I want to talk about baseball too and there was a time you could pick a college and not think twice about how you might be treated as a conservative…that isn’t the case now. Kids need to know it should probably play a part in their decision.  Just like knowing BYU might not be a fit for a lot of  kids.  There aren’t a lot of places where a liberal leaning kid might be shunned on campuses or have their grades suffer.

How can I like this comment more than once?

OskiSD:  "I've noticed something fascinating over the past two admissions years. I'm in San Diego. My friends who are conservative are pushing their kids toward schools in red states (some are open about it). Suddenly a lot of kids at Alabama, Ole Miss, Clemson, SMU. Definitely a new trend."

I think you are right.  There is an undercurrent of change and COVID may be accentuating it.  The college age demographics in the next decade will be the lowest in decades.  The foreign student applications should also be lower for several years.  After living high on the hog with easy government loan money, I think many schools will face severe financial challenges.  This may not be good for an expensive to maintain sport like baseball. 

So economic forces may effect change?  Brands like Newsweek and many newspapers went out of business because they pissed off half of America.  Can colleges really afford to alienate half of Americans?  At some point will the value of the "certification" (degree} from a particular college not be enough for a family?  My 2023 is smart enough to go to most schools.  (Not Caltech baby. Kudos again!)  And we wouldn't qualify for financial aid so he would have been a full pay student at an Ivy or elite HA D3.   But he's going to that next tier down, at least in terms of US News Rankings, in no small part because of issues like college free speech and tolerance.  I think there are A LOT of people like us.  Maybe if this occurs enough, this effects a change in college administration philosophy and culture?  For the people the above comments will upset.  I sincerely hope it doesn't.  I would like to think that you could accept the above as one person's opinions and thoughts and then constructively add to the discussion.