How Can Davidson Obtain Good Athletes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Davidson College
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<p>Davidson admissions receives no input from coaches regarding selection of its students. How in the World is Davidson able to obtain football players ranging from small running backs to large lineman and obtain basketball players ranging from tall centers to small guards? Many of Davidson's teams are competitive. I do not see how a school as small as Davidson can select enough experienced students to fill out its sports teams. Anyone know how they do it?</p>

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<p>I claim to no special knowledge, except that the backbone of Davidson's applicant pool is composed of Southern schools, many of them the small private academies in the South. Most of these schools have competitive athletic programs including football. Football is a no cut sport at these schools, and large numbers of the boys play football, therefore the general prevalence of football experience in their applicant pool is greater than in the applicant pool in the NE. Many of these athletes are good athletes (remember at the larger schools in the South it is all about national championships, or in the case of the 2nd and 3rd tier schools, being good enough to occasionally play Alabama or georgia or Tenn for the revenue that game would generate - you have to be very good, and recruited, to play for any of those teams), and smart kids who have no chance to play at other Southern schools. Besides I really wonder if no input actually means no tips, but does in clude get us some athletes.</p>

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<p>Colleges sometimes use semantics to cloud admissions issues. In this case, 11% of Davidson's students receive an athletic scholarship. So, it is a pretty certain bet that the coaches do indeed have input into the selection of students!</p>

<p>What they probably "meant" to say is that an athlete still has to meet the admissions standards and the final say rests with the admissions office. Of course, there are some semantics at work here, too as the "standards" are not the same for every applicant.</p>