I don't get this. Don't we care about winning championships? Don't most teams care about winning championships? Shouldn't everybody do what they have to do within the confines of the rules to win championships?
I think we care about academics, and other things, more than championships.
As far as the schedule goes, we care about loyalty (Navy), and giving NBC ($$$) a good slate of opponents, as much as championships.
If all we cared about were NCs, we'd relax our academic requirements, and join a conference.
My $.02 worth from an outsider's POV.
There's nothing wrong with putting academics first of course, but academics and success in football aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. There are good football teams with high academics. You guys certainly had loads of success in football during the 60's & 70's without sacrificing academics.
I know that many of you have complained that the powers that be at ND don't really care about football, but I think that's a huge mistake. Football is your calling card to much of the country. I'll guarantee you that a LOT more people across the entire country know about ND football than know about ND academics. ND having a nationally prominent, successful football team that's constantly in the news and winning championships is a HUGE boost to getting your name in front of the type of kids you want in the classroom. We can all think of a handful of private, top-tier academic schools that most people don't even know exist or at least couldn't tell you anything about. ND football is why you aren't one of them.
I don't see anything wrong with lowering admission standards slightly in a few cases to greatly help the football program. The success it would bring about on the field would be a big boost to the university as a whole. Most universities have a "Special Admissions" loophole (they call it different things at different schools, but it's all basically the same principle). It allows a school to admit someone who brings something special to the table even though they may not fully qualify academically. You deem their contribution to the university or the program they're going into as worthy of making an exception, then work to get them up to speed in the academic areas where they're lacking. A super
I'd argue that a football player who is capable of doing university level work, but doesn't completely meet all of ND's academic standards (but is capable of being brought up to speed) should be a good candidate for special admission due to being able to contribute to the university. I'm not advocating that you accept kids that can barely do HS work but are freak athletes. I'm talking about kids who would do fine at most universities and are capable of succeeding at ND with some extra help. Their contribution to the football team and making you a consistent national powerhouse would be an overall plus for ND.
