<p>Greenshirt - very good point - much easier to stash 3-4 b-ball players who may not even stay for 4 years than 15-20 football players, none of whom are going early. </p>
<p>Maybe I’m drinKing the Koach-K Kool-aid here, but I don’t believe we go after top b-ball recruits who are academically challenged. Not saying some haven’t been near the left tail of the ol’ SAT/GPA bell-curve for our fair school, but I don’t recall us having anyone who was academically unfit.</p>
<p>Bottom line - it’s extremely tough to get a critical mass of smart, above-average college football prospects to commit to a program with zero recent winning history when many of those same guys are considering ND, or even Stanford, NW, Vandy or several of our semi-selective ACC rivals all of whom have had more recent successes. </p>
<p>I don’t believe 1-AA is an option within the agreement with the ACC. The whole reason the ACC voted to expand and let 3 football powers in (UMiami, VT, BC) was to get the 12 teams the BCS requires to have a playoff and get a front row seat ($$$) for the BCS Championship. So all ACC schools must must field a D1-A football team. Duke, UNC, and Wake all strongly opposed this expansion, as they realized it was all about the football, and what we see now, 3 basketball schools getting smeared on the gridiron every Fall with pressure from students and alums to open up football recruiting, as we are discussing, is what would result. </p>
<p>Now, I read on Duke’s website that we are ‘investing’ $15M into a new student-athlete center, more practice facilities, etc. Don’t know if this is from increased rev from ACC football or not. Dirty little not-so-secret - pretty sure that somewhere in there Duke does make a piece of change everytime those ‘student-athletes’ from Miami or VT show up on New Year’s Day. </p>
<p>IMHO, I think the whole LAX issue has probably hardened the admin and faculty position against any further relaxation of standards and turning away more potential academic stars in order to go 6-5 in football and get to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on for an ESPN2 audience on December 28. I don’t think you can be serious remaining a top-10 school and retaining/recruiting top faculty if those faculty feel they have to baby-sit a certain percentage of students. </p>
<p>Personally, I will consider this season a success if we beat the Tar-Holes, which is doable if you have watched them play this year. Hang in there guys!</p>