<p>@ SXSW123 - If your point is that Notre Dame football is different from, say, Alabama or Southern Cal football, fair enough. But an assertion that Notre Dame football players are, by and large, normal Notre Dame students is dubious at best. There are exceptions—I have a relative who is married to a former ND captain—but the typical Notre Dame football player has little business attending a major university. Notre Dame football’s recipe for academic success is simple: farcically high levels of tutoring. I suppose that’s better than what goes on at the Alabamas and the Auburns of the world, but I wouldn’t consider it a source of pride. For what it’s worth, Duke operates its revenue sports under the same model as ND football: admission minimums that are on par with those of the typical powerhouse programs combined with spoon-feeding the coursework to the athletes to keep the graduation rates high.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I don’t wish to start a debate here. I suspect I’m not going to change the opinions of ND’s supporters. However, I’ll add that I know not only current and former students but also current and former faculty and staff members at those four institutions. It’s old data at this point, but the Scout.com site for Stanford has postings with information consistent with the experiences of my friends and relatives affiliated with those four schools (for example, <a href=“http://stanford.scout.com/3/1997_SAT_Analysis.html”>http://stanford.scout.com/3/1997_SAT_Analysis.html</a>).</p>