Paul Horning screwed it up. The Irish can get lots of black athletes to go to Notre Dame, just not many of the best ones.
The black athletes who grew up in pathetic public school systems like they have in Florida, Texas, California and Oklahoma don't want to go to Duke, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice, and Notre Dame. The ones who did nothing but lift weights, and play sports and take joke courses aren't subject to being recruited by those schools. Those players aren't dummies; they just don't have the necessary foundation so they choose to go places where they can stay elligible anyway.
Of course, many white athletes have the same burden, which Horning ignored.
The real tragedy is there is a separation of educational opportunity in the US. If you go to a private school in grade school and high school, you have a much higher chance at success in life, than if you go to public schools.
My guess is a vast majority of blacks still have no choice but to go to public schools for financial reasons.
The Oklahomas, Miamis, Florida States, and Nebraskas don't limit their recruiting pools to just the "good student" population. Of course they get some good students who are good athletes. They also are willing to recruit the poor students in order to win.
Anquaan Boldin would have succeeded anywhere. Nebraska regularly has academic all-American football players.
What's missed in all this is that Paul Horning was correctly pointing out Notre Dame's hypocrisy. The school wants it both ways - to maintain high academic entrance requirements for athletes, and to compete for national championships.
Frankly, I don't think you can do both anymore, given the deterioration of public school systems. It's my opinion that Penn State's problems are similar. Paterno runs a program where he tries to not take in many poorly qualified students and it's biting him in the butt.
I went to both Notre Dame and ASU. There were sharp students in my classes in both places, a lot sharper than I was. The difference was that approximately the bottom 40% of the students in my ASU classes wouldn't have gotten into Notre Dame. Extrapolate that to an 80 member football team and remember that many of the very best athletes, white or black, skipped taking tough courses in high school to remain eligible.
So what Paul Horning should have said is that if Notre Dame wishes to compete for National titles, the school should lower entrance requirements so more public school kids from poor backgrounds can get into Notre Dame. Proportionally, more black high school football players go through poor public educational systems than do white high school football players. Can I prove it? No, it's just my casual observation.
That ignores the second problem - how to keep these disadvantaged kids to stay in school. In my opinion, you can't. The competition in the classroom will overwhelm them and they will be weeded out unless the school then cheats on grades. Again that's my opinion formed by observation.
So Horning's remedy is self-defeating. Notre Dame should resign itself to 6 and 7 win seasons, with an occasional 9 win abberation and quit whining.
Let the schools who choose to be realistic about admissions compete for the national title.
The black athletes who grew up in pathetic public school systems like they have in Florida, Texas, California and Oklahoma don't want to go to Duke, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice, and Notre Dame. The ones who did nothing but lift weights, and play sports and take joke courses aren't subject to being recruited by those schools. Those players aren't dummies; they just don't have the necessary foundation so they choose to go places where they can stay elligible anyway.
Of course, many white athletes have the same burden, which Horning ignored.
The real tragedy is there is a separation of educational opportunity in the US. If you go to a private school in grade school and high school, you have a much higher chance at success in life, than if you go to public schools.
My guess is a vast majority of blacks still have no choice but to go to public schools for financial reasons.
The Oklahomas, Miamis, Florida States, and Nebraskas don't limit their recruiting pools to just the "good student" population. Of course they get some good students who are good athletes. They also are willing to recruit the poor students in order to win.
Anquaan Boldin would have succeeded anywhere. Nebraska regularly has academic all-American football players.
What's missed in all this is that Paul Horning was correctly pointing out Notre Dame's hypocrisy. The school wants it both ways - to maintain high academic entrance requirements for athletes, and to compete for national championships.
Frankly, I don't think you can do both anymore, given the deterioration of public school systems. It's my opinion that Penn State's problems are similar. Paterno runs a program where he tries to not take in many poorly qualified students and it's biting him in the butt.
I went to both Notre Dame and ASU. There were sharp students in my classes in both places, a lot sharper than I was. The difference was that approximately the bottom 40% of the students in my ASU classes wouldn't have gotten into Notre Dame. Extrapolate that to an 80 member football team and remember that many of the very best athletes, white or black, skipped taking tough courses in high school to remain eligible.
So what Paul Horning should have said is that if Notre Dame wishes to compete for National titles, the school should lower entrance requirements so more public school kids from poor backgrounds can get into Notre Dame. Proportionally, more black high school football players go through poor public educational systems than do white high school football players. Can I prove it? No, it's just my casual observation.
That ignores the second problem - how to keep these disadvantaged kids to stay in school. In my opinion, you can't. The competition in the classroom will overwhelm them and they will be weeded out unless the school then cheats on grades. Again that's my opinion formed by observation.
So Horning's remedy is self-defeating. Notre Dame should resign itself to 6 and 7 win seasons, with an occasional 9 win abberation and quit whining.
Let the schools who choose to be realistic about admissions compete for the national title.
