I'm a graduate of NU and was friends with many football players, as well as baseball players. If you think I don't know all of this, you're mistaken.
The current system is arbitrary in the sense that it is not based on our peer institutions in FBS. It's not based on NU admissions for regular students (which is much, much, much stricter). It's not based on NCAA academic qualifications. I'm saying that we should adhere to the same standards as every Big Ten team at a minimum. We should continue to seek the best and brightest students, but our coaches should not be prevented from recruiting a student whose grades and/or scores are acceptable to every other FBS program except ours.
I'm also not saying that I would give Coach Fitzgerald total discretion. He has to follow NCAA and conference rules. He should receive input and recommendations from admissions because they can evaluate the likelihood of a student's academic success. But, he should not be handicapped by arbitrary, artificial standards that aren't consistent with NU admissions, aren't consistent with FBS peers, and aren't consistent with NCAA rules.
Ultimately, Coach Fitzgerald would be held accountable by the Athletic Director if the program recruits too many poor students. If Coach wants to take more minimum qualifiers, he has to maintain the GSR and APR. His staff will have tough decisions to make, but at least the decisions will be theirs and based on actual NCAA and Big Ten rules that our opponents also follow.
So to summarize, I'm not saying we should drop our pants and take everyone. I'm not saying Fitzgerald should be allowed to do whatever he wants. I'm not saying we should accept lower GSR and APR scores. I'm saying we get rid of the unfair competitive disadvantage that we have created for ourselves, almost as a built-in excuse for losses. We simply follow the rules for our conference and let the staff balance the roster. If the GSR numbers fall, heads roll. If the team fails to reach bowl games, heads roll. Everything is based on real numbers and not built-in excuses about why we can't recruit better players.