Mississippi
Hicks: Indiana falling behind Mississippi
MUNCIE, Ind. – Readers of this column know that I am deeply concerned about the rapid decline in college attendance in Indiana. This is the deepest economic problem Indiana now faces, and it risks defining the state’s economy for much of the 21st century. After all, the children whom we invest in today will have a 50-year work life. So, today’s high school students will still be working in large numbers in 2070.
Over the past few years, in this column, and in technical studies, I’ve offered considerable evidence about the risks for Indiana. I’ve reported the fact that the U.S. has not created a net new job for anyone who has not been to college for 30 years. I’ve noted that during this time the college wage premium actually grew, confirming that there remain fewer college grads than labor markets can absorb. I’ve explained that nearly all the economic growth in the U.S. is clustered in a few hundred counties with very high shares of college grads.
These facts are just the highlight of a large assembly of evidence that we should be better educating young Hoosiers. I write this in a puzzling environment where a surprising number of policymakers from local school boards to the legislature dismiss the importance of higher education. They are dangerously mistaken.
It is worth noting that I am not especially concerned about the survival of individual institutions of higher education. I’m not writing this to boost Ball State’s enrollment. No one at the university has ever asked me to write a column on this issue, or indeed any issue. Colleges should be competing for students on price, quality and offerings. Public universities should also worry about serving other interests in research and expanded opportunity for citizens. Private schools have no such obligation.
I’m also not especially worried about individual students who choose not to attend college. For most of us, happiness and satisfaction in life are not tied to completing higher education. No matter how much education we pursue, most of us keep on learning and growing long after we leave school. I’ve never seen a tombstone with a college degree on it. They do memorialize faith, marriages, children and military service.
Most kids who decide not to further their education will be fine. This is an extraordinarily rich nation, and even adults whose incomes remain stagnant over the next 50 years will be among the most prosperous people to have ever lived. Still, lack of post-secondary education will drag down earnings, increase the probability of cyclical joblessness and heighten risk of job losses from automation. There are many other negative outcomes from skipping college, which I’ll save for another column.
The real concern I have is that places with a low share of adults who’ve gone to college will stagnate. They’ll experience more economic inequality and continue to fall behind those places who educate more of their population.
One way to really get the gist of the importance of education is to consider the past 50 years of technology in the workplace. In 1973, robots were scant, desktop computers still a distant vision, and calculators were slide rules. There were no cell phones, digital devices, no algorithms for advertising. No industry or occupation is untouched by the giant steps in technology that we’ve experienced over the past half century.
The 50 years before that were equally fantastic, as were the 50 before that, and the 50 before that. We are in the midst of a 2-3 century explosion of technological advances. There is no evidence of a slowdown.
On the contrary, all the world is rushing to educate their young people. In the second half of this century China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Nigeria and Iran will have made enormous educational gains. We will see more genius unleashed on the globe in the coming decades than in any time in history. We should expect the next half century to offer as much job morphing technological wonder as any in the past.
Now, ask yourself about the skills a high school graduate had before 1973, and how adequate they are to the modern workplace. One need not do a skill inventory to appreciate that—just ask some of us who were in school in 1973 how well we program our VCR. That many of us still have a VCR should tell you all you need to know.
The efforts to streamline schooling to get students into work earlier appears wholly uninformed by the reality of the 21st century, the 20th century or the 19th century. Moreover, the push toward vocational education and away from college is deeply cynical.
I hear a lot of elected leaders suggesting college is not important, and that there are plenty of available jobs without additional schooling. But, none of those folks are living out that reality in their own lives. When it comes to pushing students into vocational track, the loudest voices across the state have elite academic credentials themselves.
I haven’t heard a single one of them ask their children to give up college to drive a truck, work in a canning factory or run a CNC machine. Again, there is nothing wrong with these occupations, but it is almost as if the folks promoting a vocational pathway have something other than the best interest of other people’s children in mind.
The next time you hear someone running for office talking about how many jobs there are in the warehouses, trades or manufacturing, ask what their children did after high school. Of course, you know the answer, but ask them anyway. At best, this is sloppy thinking. It is already causing long term damage to the Hoosier economy.
Back in 2010, Indiana spent a modest 0.67 percent of state GDP on higher education. At the time, our share of students going to college was rising towards the peak of 65.8 percent. Both money and attendance has dropped substantially in the ensuing years. By Fiscal Year 2021, the state government spent 0.52 percent of GDP on higher education. That is a cut of almost $600 million per year. Over the same time period, Mississippi raised their spending from 2.3 percent to 3.0 percent of GDP, and increase of $786 million per year.
Folks, that is why Indiana now sends 52.9 percent of high school graduates to college, while Mississippi sends 81 percent. Today, Mississippi is a poorer, less well-educated state than Indiana. But, by my calculations that will change in a little over a decade. On the bright side, at that point, our Mississippi strategy will finally be aspirational.
Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.
Outside of Mississippi State, Arkansas and Auburn, the SEC had a very successful Week Two of the college football season. The latest AP Top 25 poll reflects the strength of the SEC with 6 of the top 7 spots belonging to SEC teams.
Here’s a recap of how the ranked SEC teams fared in the second full week of the college football season:
Click here for a recap of the unranked SEC teams.
With the exception of giving up three points, this was probably exactly how Georgia expected this game to go. Carson Beck threw five touchdowns and the defense held Tennessee Tech to less than 150 yards of total offense. Anything less would be a surprise.
More than 100,000 people saw Texas come into Ann Arbor, Mich. and leave with a huge win. The Longhorns looked like the better team from the first drive of the game where they easily marched down the field. That Oct. 19 game in Austin against Georgia is looking better and better.
It was a lot closer than Alabama would’ve liked, but it’s a win that will fend off the “Nick Saban is gone, we’re doomed” crowd. At the same time, though, there were some things that crowd could point to at a later time.
Two games against inferior competition and Ole Miss has outscored its opponents 129-3. They’ll take a slight step up in competition next week against Wake Forest, but the Rebels are still about a month away from playing a team that will truly test them.
Missouri’s schedule just took an unexpected bump in its level of difficulty with No. 24 Boston College joining the top 25. Bill O’Brien is brilliant at game planning and calling plays (not so much with making trades, but that hasn’t reached the college ranks yet). Missouri needs to be on upset alert (and ready to stop the run).
This happens every year. Tennessee looks really good to start the season and by the end Volunteer fans are saying next year is their year. But maybe this year is their year with the way Nico Iamaleava has been playing.
Of the two SEC newcomers, Texas is getting most of the attention which makes sense based on the current teams. But folks, don’t sleep on the Sooners. They ruined many of my own childhood memories growing up in Texas. This week’s way-too close game doesn’t help that argument, but think long term.
LSU was one of three SEC teams to play FCS schools after playing top 25 teams last week. The Tigers and Texas A&M both lost, while Georgia won. So, it’s not surprising to see each of them play FCS teams and neither were any of the results.
SEC Week 2 Power Rankings: Which Teams Are Contenders or Pretenders?
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Mississippi State Crumbles in the Trenches: What Went Wrong Against Arizona State?
Mississippi
Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo ‘disrespected’ by Mississippi State football’s defensive game plan
Cam Skattebo slammed Mississippi State on the football field on Saturday night and also took another jab afterward in his postgame press conference.
The Arizona State running back, following a 30-23 Sun Devils win at Mountain America Stadium, took exception to MSU only utilizing three defenders on the line of scrimmage. The results were damning.
Arizona State (2-0) rushed for 346 yards. It was the most allowed by Mississippi State (1-1) in a game since Arkansas in 2016. Skattebo’s 262 rushing yards on 33 carries were the second-most in ASU history.
“They couldn’t stop us in that three-down front,” Skattebo said when asked what made ASU’s run game successful. “Honestly, we all felt disrespected with them in a three-down front. You can’t come in here and put five guys in the box and expect to stop six. I don’t know. We took that a little disrespectful, and we rushed for what over 300 yards? Something around there. It is what it is.”
Skattebo, a 5-foot-11, 215-pound junior, also led Arizona State with 35 receiving yards on three catches.
“I knew these dudes were big and heavy,” he said. “We knew going into the game they weren’t as physical as most other teams but they’re heavy. So when they hit you, it hurts, no matter how hard they’re coming — 300 pounds at 10 miles per hour or 16 miles per hour hurts the same. I just kept my feet moving.”
Mississippi State trailed 30-3 in the third quarter but scored 20 unanswered points to cut the score to 30-23 with 5:27 to play. The Bulldogs never touched the ball again, with the Sun Devils running out the clock on 12 plays.
Skattebo had a game-sealing 39-yard rush that allowed ASU to kneel down.
“Until the end, we had our ups and downs there, but that was fun,” he said. “You can ask these guys up front, bullying dudes, grown men that are 300 pounds, that’s fun to us. That’s fun to the front-five, the front-seven and the running back. The quarterback probably hates it. He probably likes watching, but he didn’t complain one time the whole game.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Mississippi
Why Mississippi State football loss to Arizona State revealed a strong Jeff Lebby culture
It was 11:10 p.m. Saturday in Starkville when Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt barreled into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game.
At that point, it would’ve been fair for Mississippi State football fans to call it a night. The Bulldogs (1-1) trailed 27-3 at ASU in the final minute of the second quarter. They were dominated in just about every statistical category. New coach Jeff Lebby looked like he was headed toward his first loss, and an embarrassing one.
And even if you gave the second half a chance, eyes just a crack open, that wasn’t encouraging either. Arizona State (2-0) took the opening drive of the third quarter for a field goal while eating 8 minutes, 27 seconds of game time. That just about decided the game before Mississippi State touched the ball in the second half.
Wrong.
Instead, MSU scored touchdowns on three of its next four drives and cut the score to 30-23 with 5:27 to play. The defense, which was torched for 346 rushing yards, needed one more stop to let the offense try to tie it. It would’ve been the largest comeback in program history.
Mississippi State’s path to a bowl game seems murkier than it was a week ago. But in the long-term, there’s still encouragement after the 30-23 loss.
“Our guys battled in an incredible way in the second half, and we’re going to hold on to that,” Lebby said in his postgame radio interview. “We’re going to find ways to get back in the building, get back to work and be able to walk into Davis Wade (Stadium) with a ton of confidence and ready to go win a football game.”
The encouragement from Mississippi State’s comeback effort
Lebby said after beating Eastern Kentucky 56-7 in Week 1 that there is an abundance of teachable moments in wins, just like losses.
There is plenty to point to after losing to Arizona State.
Mississippi State came out incredibly flat. The Sun Devils scored on their first five possessions. The MSU offense had one field goal, two punts, a fumble returned for a touchdown and a turnover-on-downs in the first half. MSU had -13 rushing yards in the first half.
There were concerns entering the game about the travel distance, late kickoff and high temperature. But let’s be real, Mississippi State was playing so poorly at the start that it was hard to judge if those were factors.
“I got to do a better job getting these guys ready to go play out of the gate,” Lebby said. “I thought our energy, our effort and our emotion was really good, but then we did not play clean there in the first quarter, so that part was frustrating.”
The Bulldogs outscored the Sun Devils 20-0 in the final quarter and a half. It was a surprise. Arizona State was rolling. Mississippi State was not.
MORE: Introducing Sam Sklar, the Clarion Ledger’s new Mississippi State beat reporter
For Lebby, a first-time head coach at any level, let it be a learning moment for him. It was his first time getting pinned in a corner. The Bulldogs adjusted correctly in the second half like good coaches do.
The rushing offense and defense both need to improve. Badly. Quarterback Blake Shapen has been impressive in his first two Mississippi State games and the wide receiver room is deep and talented as ever, but they can’t be the only answer.
That’s just for this season.
Mississippi State has its first tally in the loss column. But it isn’t a strike against Lebby leading the future of the program.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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