I hear a lot of complaining but I have never seen any robust, real data to show that our admissions for basketball are far different than our academic peers--most of whom besides Duke are not perennial basketball contenders either. There are some old wive's tales floating around, but no real and recent data. Here are some observations that make it hard to believe that admissions is some all-powerful empire within the administration that is idiotic, unreasonable and unequaled in their influence.
1. Patrick Ryan, long time board chairman, donated tens maybe even hundreds of millions of his own money to NU sports. He was among the two most powerful people at NU for a long time--why would he donate so much if he felt admissions was unfair and prevented us from being highly competitive. Certainly he would be motivated and capable of doing something about it, or otherwise could have withheld donations.
2. Morty and Bienen are the past 2 presidents and most powerful people at NU and also huge sports fans. Are we suggesting they have no ability or will to make reasonable adjustments to revenue athlete admissions?
3. Fitz has been turning down NFL interviews and other major college opportunities. Is he so wedded to mediocrity or comfort that he is willing to take a dead-end coach job where he cannot compete long-term at a high level due to admissions?
4. We raised a quarter billion dollars for facilities upgrades--presumably the mega-rich donors who are smart enough about money to become mega-rich didn't care that admissions was stupid and would prevent success? Were they all duped?
5. Jim Phillips is one of the most acclaimed ADs in the country. He has the wherewithal to raise hundreds of millions, attract and retain excellent coaches, but not to influence reasonable admissions standards? And despite that he has stayed here all these years settling for mediocrity as a result of the all-powerful and incompetent admissions office?
6. In the 90s apparently Tommy Amaker turned down the job because admissions was too difficult--who knows if this is true. But now another Duke alum, CC, is teary when accepting this "dream job" with the full support of Coach K. Presumably Coach K and CC are smart enough to ask those questions about reasonable admissions before taking the job particularly after their fellow Dookie was so turned off by it 25 yrs ago.
I think there are many reasons for NU being an amazing yet challenging place for revenue sports, but the all-powerful and incompetent admissions narrative has a lot of gaps and nobody ever presents any real, robust comparative data to support it. In truth the data likely is not available because NU and most peers are private schools that don't share this. But we blame admissions on a regular basis with anecdotal and dubious evidence at best.
1. Patrick Ryan, long time board chairman, donated tens maybe even hundreds of millions of his own money to NU sports. He was among the two most powerful people at NU for a long time--why would he donate so much if he felt admissions was unfair and prevented us from being highly competitive. Certainly he would be motivated and capable of doing something about it, or otherwise could have withheld donations.
2. Morty and Bienen are the past 2 presidents and most powerful people at NU and also huge sports fans. Are we suggesting they have no ability or will to make reasonable adjustments to revenue athlete admissions?
3. Fitz has been turning down NFL interviews and other major college opportunities. Is he so wedded to mediocrity or comfort that he is willing to take a dead-end coach job where he cannot compete long-term at a high level due to admissions?
4. We raised a quarter billion dollars for facilities upgrades--presumably the mega-rich donors who are smart enough about money to become mega-rich didn't care that admissions was stupid and would prevent success? Were they all duped?
5. Jim Phillips is one of the most acclaimed ADs in the country. He has the wherewithal to raise hundreds of millions, attract and retain excellent coaches, but not to influence reasonable admissions standards? And despite that he has stayed here all these years settling for mediocrity as a result of the all-powerful and incompetent admissions office?
6. In the 90s apparently Tommy Amaker turned down the job because admissions was too difficult--who knows if this is true. But now another Duke alum, CC, is teary when accepting this "dream job" with the full support of Coach K. Presumably Coach K and CC are smart enough to ask those questions about reasonable admissions before taking the job particularly after their fellow Dookie was so turned off by it 25 yrs ago.
I think there are many reasons for NU being an amazing yet challenging place for revenue sports, but the all-powerful and incompetent admissions narrative has a lot of gaps and nobody ever presents any real, robust comparative data to support it. In truth the data likely is not available because NU and most peers are private schools that don't share this. But we blame admissions on a regular basis with anecdotal and dubious evidence at best.