[Mick]

Stanford admits football players with transcripts, GPAs, and test scores that wouldn't get them admitted if they weren't playing sports, so the 5% acceptance is a bit of a canard, isn't it?

I look at it this way: athletic ability and achievement is the primary attribute or talent that football players possess on their applications and that they are bringing to the university, apart from general academic excellence. This skill/attribute is not substantively different from the horn player that the music department needs or the history buff that the history department needs, etc.; it is part of creating a diverse entering class. These days, just being a very intelligent person in general is not enough to get you admitted, there are too many of those. If you take away football from the football applicant's application, his chance of acceptance would be less than 5%, but same for the horn player or the history buff if you took away their primary attribute/ability. 

Another response is that if the top 25% academically of the nation's 3-to-5 star football recruits, or 4-to-5 star recruits, applied to Stanford, the acceptance rate would be far less than 5%. It is very difficult to get in, even as a good football player.

Bottom line is that I don't view the 5% acceptance rate as a canard. The admissions standards are a big barrier to recruiting players who we'd like based purely on football ability.

At a large national tournament, I was looking over a Stanford Head Coach's recruiting list.  He had four names of fifty highlighted.  I asked him "Are those the players you really want?"  He said "Those are the four who can get into Stanford."

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My answer to Martyup. A leader has to step up on his own. Doesn’t have to be a rah rah, especially at Stanford. Looking back I can think of Mike Simone, Tom Williams and Gordy Ceresino as the type of player who inspired others with his hard nose play. I agree that somebody has to step up but who?

Wish Dave Wyman had eligibility remaining...

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So if you've got a kid who's already thinking that way, it shouldn't be surprising when he finishes his senior of college and begins to think about other things. It also shouldn't be surprising when those thoughts change. Two of my strongest memories from my senior year involve this. I arrived on campus in late September, and I was kind of heartbroken that it would be my last September. I couldn't imagine leaving the place that had given me the best three years of my life to that date, but in the spring I couldn't have been more ready to leave. It was shocking, really, how dramatically my feelings changed in such a short time. I was tired of the academic grind (even though those who knew me then would never have described me as a grinder), and I wasn't spending four to six hours a day on football. It never surprises me when players want to graduate and move on.

In short, this is just the way it is, and I wouldn't have it any different.

Great post, Hank.

My son competed in a different sport, but had shoulder surgery that took away a year of competition.  In short, he was eligible for an immediate fifth year transfer after graduation.  Stanford, Harvard and a few other schools with great graduate programs had recruited him from high school, and he'd had a solid four years...but he was just done.  He loved playing, had played year round since he was in sixth grade, but was tired of the injuries, tired of school, and a little bit tired of the sport.  So he fully retired and never looked back.

[Mick]

Stanford admits football players with transcripts, GPAs, and test scores that wouldn't get them admitted if they weren't playing sports, so the 5% acceptance is a bit of a canard, isn't it?

I look at it this way: athletic ability and achievement is the primary attribute or talent that football players possess on their applications and that they are bringing to the university, apart from general academic excellence. This skill/attribute is not substantively different from the horn player that the music department needs or the history buff that the history department needs, etc.; it is part of creating a diverse entering class. These days, just being a very intelligent person in general is not enough to get you admitted, there are too many of those. If you take away football from the football applicant's application, his chance of acceptance would be less than 5%, but same for the horn player or the history buff if you took away their primary attribute/ability. 

Another response is that if the top 25% academically of the nation's 3-to-5 star football recruits, or 4-to-5 star recruits, applied to Stanford, the acceptance rate would be far less than 5%. It is very difficult to get in, even as a good football player.

Bottom line is that I don't view the 5% acceptance rate as a canard. The admissions standards are a big barrier to recruiting players who we'd like based purely on football ability.

At a large national tournament, I was looking over a Stanford Head Coach's recruiting list.  He had four names of fifty highlighted.  I asked him "Are those the players you really want?"  He said "Those are the four who can get into Stanford."

---

My answer to Martyup. A leader has to step up on his own. Doesn’t have to be a rah rah, especially at Stanford. Looking back I can think of Mike Simone, Tom Williams and Gordy Ceresino as the type of player who inspired others with his hard nose play. I agree that somebody has to step up but who?

Wish Dave Wyman had eligibility remaining...

---

So if you've got a kid who's already thinking that way, it shouldn't be surprising when he finishes his senior of college and begins to think about other things. It also shouldn't be surprising when those thoughts change. Two of my strongest memories from my senior year involve this. I arrived on campus in late September, and I was kind of heartbroken that it would be my last September. I couldn't imagine leaving the place that had given me the best three years of my life to that date, but in the spring I couldn't have been more ready to leave. It was shocking, really, how dramatically my feelings changed in such a short time. I was tired of the academic grind (even though those who knew me then would never have described me as a grinder), and I wasn't spending four to six hours a day on football. It never surprises me when players want to graduate and move on.

In short, this is just the way it is, and I wouldn't have it any different.

Great post, Hank.

My son competed in a different sport, but had shoulder surgery that took away a year of competition.  In short, he was eligible for an immediate fifth year transfer after graduation.  Stanford, Harvard and a few other schools with great graduate programs had recruited him from high school, and he'd had a solid four years...but he was just done.  He loved playing, had played year round since he was in sixth grade, but was tired of the injuries, tired of school, and a little bit tired of the sport.  So he fully retired and never looked back.