<p><a href="http://nusports.cstv.com/%5B/url%5D">http://nusports.cstv.com/</a></p>
<p>Another related article: <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/campus/cst-spt-nu04.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.suntimes.com/output/campus/cst-spt-nu04.html</a></p>
<p>If only our big money-making sports did as well as our others.... Lacrosse? Tennis? Softball? Come on!</p>
<p>Well, it's much tougher for schools like Northwestern to do well in those without compromising too much on admission standard during the recruiting process. </p>
<p>
[quote]
In women's sports, athletes almost universally cite the combination of academics and athletic opportunity when asked why they picked Northwestern.</p>
<p>"In the recruiting process, the value of the education means more in women's sports than it does in sports like football or men's basketball," said Murphy, a former pro football player whose daughter, Katie, 23, played basketball at Harvard.</p>
<p>"There aren't the same professional opportunities [in women's sports], so the value of the degree is more important."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I really don't think that letting 20 people into the school with below-average NU scores will ruin the school. Moreover, the benefits of the revenue and national attention gained from having good teams would far outweigh any possible downfalls from having a few statistically below-average people in the school.</p>
<p>ru kidding...northwestern like duke does compromise admissions to let in football players and basketball players. Do not think for one second that the average football player at northwestern has above a 1350+ or let alone, a 1400 SAT. I highly doubt it.</p>
<p>....As do I</p>
<p>bball87,</p>
<p>Who said they didn't compromise??? I said "without compromising TOO MUCH". I probably have a better idea of what their average SAT is than you. Read my post again please. </p>
<p>Pretty much every school, including the Ivies, compromises and it's just a matter of how much. Ivies compromise the least while schools like Miami, Texas compromise much more. Last time I saw the stats (NCAA had stopped making it available to the public few years ago), Duke's basketball players had average SAT score in the 900s range and that's where their compromise was the greatest. It's no coincidence that their basketball has been their most successful program. The average SAT for their athletes overall was between 1100 and 1200. Northwestern compromises but it's no Texas or Ohio State..etc. It recorded a 100 percent graduation rate for members of its football squad when all members of its freshman class of 1999-00 earned a degree (they had 100% grad rate for the freshman class of 1998-99 also).<br>
<a href="http://www.wacsports.com/view_article.asp?articleid=70653%5B/url%5D">http://www.wacsports.com/view_article.asp?articleid=70653</a>
My point is very simple: the more a school compromises, the larger the recruiting pool it can choose from and therefore easier it can assemble a more talented team. The disadvantage in recruiting is relatively small in sports like softball and lacrosse because there are more academically driven players in those sports than football and basketball and that's one of the major reasons Northwestern's teams can still be able to compete well at the highest level in those sports (Ivies do pretty good in Lax).</p>
<p>well...i still think overall, being in the BIG 10 doesn't help northwestern as much as it hurts it.</p>
<p>Having to put a football team and all of these sports teams together is very costly to the university.</p>
<p>To be honest with you, if NU wasn't in the big 10, it would be a more selective university.</p>
<p>I have no idea how Duke (a big contender in sports) has such a selective student body. Northwestern could learn a few things from Duke in this respect.</p>
<p>Actually Duke is pretty much dead last in football. It's not really that much more selective than Northwestern. Like I said, their basketball players have pretty low average SAT (assuming stats hasn't changed much since last time NCAA made it available), so their success in it isn't all that magical. A better model is Stanford which has arguably the most successful athletic program in the country.</p>