Needs to make a decision: Dartmouth vs Notre Dame

collegealum314
Sun, 04 May 2014 16:14:30 +0000

On the other hand, Stanford and Northwestern have the highest admission standards in 1A football. While the average Cardinal or Wildcat football player would have no chance at gaining admittance to his university minus his football ability, he actually is smarter than the average man on the street. He can function as a normal college student to a certain degree, and he doesn’t require the hand-holding that the average ND player receives. If you want to criticize Stanford and Northwestern for the compromises they make as power conference schools, fair enough. Just be aware that they’re less severe than those made at ND and Duke



I don’t think this is accurate either. I doubt the academic standards for football players at Stanford are anything but slightly higher than at Notre Dame. I remember reading in Sports Illustrated that Jarrett Payton (Walter Payton’s son) was rejected from Notre Dame;Notre Dame was his first choice. He ended up playing at U. of Miami. He ended up seeing the field as a running back and was MVP of the Orange Bowl, so Notre Dame could have used him. That was 15 years ago.

The academic standards at places like Notre Dame and Stanford are in flux. My guess is that when Harbaugh was recruited to Stanford as coach, he made it a condition that the academic standards were lowered.

From 2010
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/415794-college-football-schools-can-offer-majors-in-nfl-studies

But Notre Dame didn’t want any part of Hornungs message. Today, the average student scores just under 1400 on the SAT, and the average football player scores 1025.



1000 SAT is average, so you can also make the claim that the average football player at Notre Dame is slightly smarter than the average college student.

Stanford avg. football team member SAT score: 1176 (1990s through mid 2000s)
Another source listed the average SAT score in 1997 as 1108
Stanford football avg. high school GPA: 3.63 (1990s through mid 2000s)

I’m going to guess that the avg SAT score is now lower than what it was in the 1990s through mid 2000s, considering the sudden rise in the rankings of the Stanford football.