Why is it less ethical to allow an NCAA minimum qualifier in vs a 1000/1100/1200 kid who are considered ND's athletic exceptions? None have "earned" or "qualified" as compared to the general student body?
You've likely heard the argument before, but it's because ND sees itself as an elite university first, and still believes in the
student-athlete ideal, particularly in the ordering of those two words. They don't want to admit anyone who cannot successfully complete a course of study available to the general student body. 1000-1200 SAT kids can do it with a lot of help from tutors. NCAA minimum qualifiers probably can't.
I think a major called Sport Society would wonderful with its goal to educate tomorrow's coaches, AD's, Director's of Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA's, Youth Leauges, Park Dept's, Athletic Clubs, Sports Marketing, Social Media in Sports, hell... even Kinesiology because to beat the Weasel you must think like the Weasel.
The argument against this is similar. No fake majors for hiding athletes, because they're students first, and we're both exploiting them and debasing our own academic reputation if we allow them to "graduate" with a degree that no self-respecting member of the general student body would choose freely.
I guess what I'm trying to say is... If Michigan, Cal, UNC and UVa can all live off the reputation's of their grad schools while taking the same athletes as Alcorn St, what damage would it do to ND's? I mean, has Duke been pushed out of the Top 50 for taking kids who go to school for 5 months after graduating from seedy charter schools in North Phoenix. I'd think the more times they can share a quality Catholic education with someone the better we as society would be. In any other endeavor, it seems to be the church's #1 mission. I'm not usually a WWJD referencer but I'm sure the student body would be drastically different if he was in charge of admissions.
If we accept an NCAA minimum qualifier and park him in a fake major like kinesiology, can we really claim to be giving him a "quality Catholic education?"
We could go down the list of all the things OSU, 'Bama and Clemson are doing now to gain an advantage over us. For any single one of them, we could probably argue that adopting the tactic is justifiable in light of the rest of what we're doing right. But if we adopt them
all, how are we any different? What would we have to give up in order to chase grid-iron glory again?
Could we close the gap by just copying them? Absolutely. Though I'm certain the administration, who's more concerned about our US News and World Report ranking, would not agree that the trade-off is worth it. But by the same token, it's not fair to the players or the fans to claim we're still aiming for national titles with all these self-imposed handicaps the other blue bloods aren't operating under. So we need to figure out
what really matters for closing the gap (I'm convinced that some of the stuff fans focus on really doesn't) and then finding creative ways to do that while maintaining our integrity.
If they can't or won't do that, then it's time to join the Ivy League. That's what our admin is striving toward in most other areas anyway.
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