Urban Meyer will be home for dinner

ESPN--The Magazine ^ | August 20, 2012 | Wright Thompson

[nascarnation]

Show me the SAT scores of the football team vs the rest of the student population.

[Mase]

Yup. At Stanford, you either pull the weight or you find another school, football star notwithstanding. Good friend from high school went to Stanford and played football. I got to spend a few minutes with him when Stanford came to play PSU. All he could talk about was how tough it was to balance sports and academics. He graduated with a degree in Engineering. There are lots of schools like Stanford, even though, unfortunately, there are many more unlike them.

[Mase]

Are you serious? The football team has to meet the same requirements for admission as everyone else. They turn some of the best athletes away every year because they don’t meet the grade. Even so, Stanford consistently fields solid teams in many sports every year. I’m guessing you also don’t know much about the Ivy League or schools like Duke either. But here you are offering your opinion anyway.....

[Aurorales]

I have first hand knowledge that the admission requirements are lower for highly desired athletes. At Ivy league and other top schools.

[EDINVA]

All things being otherwise equal, being a star athlete is a distinct advantage to any competitive admissions school, whether Ivy, Duke, Stanford, or the military academies. But the athlete cannot deviate greatly from the school’s norm. The Ivies and other competitive schools are not going to take a kid with very low SATs or GPA. The highly competitive schools will only go so far as to take an athlete who’s at the low end of the school’s mid-range. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter how good an athlete the kid is.

[EDINVA]

All things being otherwise equal, being a star athlete is a distinct advantage for entry to any competitive admissions school, whether Ivy, Duke, Stanford, or the military academies. (same is true for band at schools where that is important).

But the athlete cannot deviate greatly from the school’s norm. The competitive schools are not going to take a kid with very low SATs or GPA. The highly competitive schools will only go so far as to take an athlete who’s at the low end of the school’s mid-range. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter how good an athlete the kid is.

[Mase]

I have no doubt that desired athletes are treated differently than other students when it comes to admission requirements. It's a sad reality of today's collegiate economics.

I used Stanford as an example of what college athletic programs could and should be as I have first hand knowledge of just how stringent their admission standards are, and that they are applied evenly. I would also offer Duke as a similar example.There are many others that can also be cited, Ivy League included - although I'm sure exceptions are made, especially for minorities who come from difficult environments. Even so, it's near impossible to go to Princeton if you're a dummy.

But let's not forget the comment I was originally responding to:

The whole concept of top level college football being associated with “academics” is somewhat of a stretch.

I've found that people who make broad and sweeping generalizations like this one usually don't have much of an understanding of the subject. Your mileage may vary.

[Aurorales]

Let me rephrase and not be so general with my statement...
I have first hand knowledge of Stanford and Princeton and my list could be much longer if I cared, very actively recruiting and lowering their standards to let in highly desirable athletes.

[meyer]

For the record, I have NO relation to Urban Meyer.

I am more loosely tied to the suburban Meyer klan.