Sports
Those Pesky, Pesky Academic Standards
For the sake of argument, let’s say Weiss can’t get the job done, and we have to face the fact that Notre Dame can’t be competitive with high academic standards, a brutal schedule, and no solid recruiting base. How then can you fix Notre Dame football?
The recruiting base problem would be best served by joining a conference, but that will never happen. All Notre Dame athletics except football are in the Big East; but if Notre Dame wants football dominance, then the Big Ten is a better choice. The Big Ten gives ND a higher national profile, as well as the chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Most importantly, the Big Ten gives an extra in to the prime recruiting grounds of Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Make no mistake, if Notre Dame football does join a conference, it will be the Big Ten, and the rest of the sports will follow . . . but, as long as Notre Dame makes fistfuls of dollars being an independent, and as long as cash rules everything around, Notre Dame will remain an independent.
As far as the schedule is concerned, scheduling patsies without scheduling totally non-competitive games is a bit of a trick. The thing to remember is that scheduling is done approximately five years in advance. Back in 1999, an enterprising athletic director may have scheduled the University of Louisville for Notre Dame: U of L was a second division school clamoring for respect, but they hadn’t played at a first division level consistently. They would be the perfect nominally competitive patsies. So, you schedule the game, and in the intervening five years, U of L becomes a monster . . . and I think it’s clear that U of L would have smoked the Irish in 2004. Short of scheduling Division II schools (and some football powers do just that to guarantee a Saturday off), there’s really no way to predict who the patsies will be. And even if you could schedule patsies, the average Notre Dame fan takes pride in the fact that the Irish play one of the toughest schedules in the country. Otherwise, join the Big Ten and beat Indiana every year.
So now we’re left with those pesky academic standards, the prime scapegoat in Notre Dame’s decline. Most “experts” reason simply this: make school easier for athletes, and Notre Dame will be right back in the thick of things . . . they don’t argue for admitting anyone who breathes, just dropping the standards down to the level of most state schools. Easy, right? Unfortunately, such a move would be bad for Notre Dame.
Before we get into the thick of this thing, a point needs to be made: prospective Notre Dame athletes are not held to the same academic admission standards as regular students. They do have to demonstrate that they have the potential to be successful academically at Notre Dame. The distinction runs roughly like this: an applicant who scores a 950 combined math and verbal on the SAT and has a B average probably wouldn’t be accepted if he spends his nights and weekends playing Xbox. However, if that applicant is a Parade All-American high school baller, then he probably would be accepted. It’s important to realize that this “special treatment” doesn’t just extend to athletes: an applicant with those scores would have a good chance if, say, she had published a novel, or started and administered a local relief charity, or gained notoriety as a classical piano prodigy . . . like many elite schools, grades are not the be-all and end-all for Notre Dame admissions. But, again, they do have to demonstrate the ability to handle ND’s academic challenges, which means that, while admissions may overlook the occasional bad chemistry or physics grade, there has to be enough in the student’s record to at least exhibit potential. And, given the rigor of Notre Dame’s undergrad program, that still sets a pretty high standard. The real problem is not so much the admissions standards as the standards the athletes will be held to if they actually get in: ND’s curriculum offers no place for a student to hide.