I dont know if I buy the mom line. Maybe I'm not a representative sample but I can't imagine me or my friends ever picking a college against the wishes of our moms when we were in high school. You're truly still a kid at that age. If I had a full ride to ND but wanted to go to some SEC school against my parents wishes I know what would've happened:
"Mom and Dad, I think I want to go to Tennessee."
"Lol no."
"Its not up to you, it's up to me."
"Lol no it's not."
I don't know...
Nothing says loving and trusting your kids more than (1) handing them over to professional salespeople who will say anything to get their signature and (2) letting them make a lifetime decision based on their 17 yo criteria.
Shaun Davis said that if the top 100 recruits could all get into ND and if the decision was up to the moms, ND would be able to get all but 1-2 of the top 100 players.
Haha! This is not close to true. A lot of mom's grow up in a football-obsessed cultures and are excited to see their kids become part of it. They also want them to stay close to home because they love them. And it's not all thoughtless. UGA, for example, is very hard to get into these days, even for excellent students. If your kid is not a great student, from a family of not great students, and now he is going to the flagship state University... no need to think about it much more than that.
But
the real reason ND is better academically for these kids is not rankings but because it actually forces their athletes to get an education--and a good one at that. For this reason, business people expect ND athletes to be more capable. Many excellent schools, like USC and Miami, many of the Big 10 programs, and pretty much all of the SEC football programs put no value on that and pressure kids to pay as little attention to school as possible. Some moms get that, many don't.
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