Softball: NU in Championship Series!!

Sam_Lee
Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:32:42 +0000

bball87,

Who said they didn’t compromise??? I said “without compromising TOO MUCH”. I probably have a better idea of what their average SAT is than you. Read my post again please.

Pretty much every school, including the Ivies, compromises and it’s just a matter of how much. Ivies compromise the least while schools like Miami, Texas compromise much more. Last time I saw the stats (NCAA had stopped making it available to the public few years ago), Duke’s basketball players had average SAT score in the 900s range and that’s where their compromise was the greatest. It’s no coincidence that their basketball has been their most successful program. The average SAT for their athletes overall was between 1100 and 1200. Northwestern compromises but it’s no Texas or Ohio State…etc. It recorded a 100 percent graduation rate for members of its football squad when all members of its freshman class of 1999-00 earned a degree (they had 100% grad rate for the freshman class of 1998-99 also).
http://www.wacsports.com/view_article.asp?articleid=70653
My point is very simple: the more a school compromises, the larger the recruiting pool it can choose from and therefore easier it can assemble a more talented team. The disadvantage in recruiting is relatively small in sports like softball and lacrosse because there are more academically driven players in those sports than football and basketball and that’s one of the major reasons Northwestern’s teams can still be able to compete well at the highest level in those sports (Ivies do pretty good in Lax).