[NU Sports] bowl frustrations

[hakirsch at aol.com]

I m sure we lower numerical standards for a strong athlete more than we would for a French club member--as we should. Hardly any private undergraduate school just takes the best  numbers alone. Amongst other factors are well roundedness of the applicant. And it sure seems well rounded of a kid if he is pretty smart and can play football really well.   Percentagewise there aren't a lot of these kids,so to me they are more well rounded than a lot of others. Success factors in the real world many times point to those who played on team sports in college as well as being bright 

As to big bucks for the coach ,mike asks a good question.  I don't have a figure but I was thinking more in the line of hiring a new coach with big bucks vs paying Fitz what he is worth in the open market as he has grown in the position.  That is you don't let him go just because his market value may have gone from a relatively low amount in 2005 ( I seem to recall he was paid under 100 K back then) to low 7 figures today.  I don't know the circumstances surrounding our loss of Ara but I can guess had we ponied up a lot  more money he may have stayed rather than go to South Bend (then again maybe not) 

Harry
------Original Message------
From: Mike Nolan
To: Harry
Cc: Beamsley Jeff
Cc: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Cc: Brad Wilson
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] bowl frustrations
Sent: Jan 1, 2012 3:56 PM

> When Morty said to me that Stanford lowered their standards, I didn't ask in what way.  Assuming its true I wonder if it was a wholesale lowering of the minimum numbers on GPA/SAT or was it allowing a more flexible response from the admissions committee if a candidate was a strong blue chipper. (I.e. For a real blue chipper we might be able to bend a bit ). I would oppose the former but not sure where I come out on the latter

I don't know that an unconfirmed report of Stanford's (otherwise secret) admission protocols is reliable.  NU
isn't very open about how they deal with the borderline cases, either.  Does participation in varsity athletics
at the HS level bump someone up a notch or two compared to someone who is part of the French club?  

And had those two recruits qualified for admission, that's no guarantee they would have signed with NU,
much less lived up to their potential on the field.  

> One thing I would not compromise on is paying huge bucks for a coach, because I think it sends the wrong message about the university's priorities. 

Define 'huge'.  Fitz probably makes well over a million dollars a year, which I'm sure is several times what 
the best paid NU faculty member makes.
--
Mike Nolan


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