Sure you did.
I wrote, channeling you:
"NU should raise its academic profile on the backs of students who they do not expect to succeed at the university based on their high school academic profile."
This was based off of what you wrote:
"In fact, if NU lowers its football and basketball admission standards and wins more games, applications to NU will increase by A LOT, and NU's selectivity will actually increase."
Written another way:
"In fact, if NU lowers its football and basketball admission standards [read: "if NU admits students who they do not expect to succeed based on their academic profile"] and wins more games, applications to NU will increase by A LOT, and NU's selectivity will actually increase [read: "then NU will raise its academic profile"]."
The only way what you wrote differs from what I wrote is if you believe that all students, or at least all NCAA qualifiers, can be successful at Northwestern, regardless of high school academic profile, and that admission standards for athletes are simply arbitrary.
Now, we should consider what you also wrote:
"And one of their evidentiary points is NU itself after 1995, where applications jumped 20%+ and NU started to become the NU that many of us couldn't get into today. "
I got into NU after 1995, so maybe I just *get* it more than you do.
Alright, alright, alright.
Well, since the last part of your post is irrelevant let's focus on the important part: that we could decrease the standards and graduate at the same levels. Yes. That's what I believe. What you conveniently left out of my argument is the idea that we can and should do what great schools are supposed to do: do a great job of teaching. We can up our game for athletics BOTH on the field and in the classroom. If we're half the academic institution we claim to be, we should put our money and efforts where our egos are and teach the crap out of these kids and graduate lesser qualified kids at the same levels. THAT would be teaching. Anybody can teach the brainiac kids.