[NU Sports] 4th Quarter

[Arthur Miller]

> I didn't graduate from UoM or OSU and don't care about either one. You seem > trapped in 1995 with a "Hoosiers" mentality. Yes, '95 was fabulous. Yes, > it's great when David slays Goliath. But it's time to move forward. Time > to take the next step. And in all due respect, you're coming off very much > like an elitist who don't want no stinkin', dumb athletes on his team. 
Dennis, I tend to agree with you.  Frankly, the only (and I mean ONLY) measurement of the academic success of a football team should be its graduation rates.  Average SATs, high school GPAs, and other such statistics are meaningless.  If we can keep our graduation rates among the best in the nation (generally, >90%) I personally don't give a whit how dumb or smart our players are compared with non-athlete students.  If they put in the work to complete their degree, that should be all that matters.
 
I didn't always feel this way.  I like the fact that there are no Sports Management or General Studies majors at NU, or that you can't take b.s. Phys Ed courses like Intro to Bowling for credit towards an NU degree.  But perhaps it's time to accept the simple fact that we cannot maintain our idealistic standard of a student-athlete and expect to be reasonably competitive in Big Ten football & mens basketball.   Unlike life, football is a zero-sum game; why should we set the bar so much higher for ourselves than our conference-mates are willing to set for themselves?
 
I say its time to gradually relax admissions standards, while stepping up academic support services to help ensure those admitted will graduate.  If our graduation rates fall from 98-100% down to 85-90%, so be it--at least we'll be putting a little more talent on the field on Saturdays.
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