[Mick]

Seriously though, I think blaming this on the AD and finances ignores the other issue that Varsity Blues uncovered, the potential for vastly easier admissions.

It was, and still is, rather easy for families with exceptional wealth to get their kids to dabble in expensive sports (fencing, rowing, sailing, golf, etc.) as that is a much easier way to get into highly selective schools than any academic path.  Varsity Blues fabricated sports accomplishments and tossed in bribes, but the underlying problem of lenient admission decisions for athletes at selective schools remains.

I know Stanford has some of the best athletes in those expensive sports, but it is rather clear now that they often compete against schools that have rosters stuffed with quite a number of kids without a lot of ability from big donor families.

For a school only accepting 4% of its applicants that type of the sports-exclusively-for-the-elite backdoor becomes a problem, especially if 12+% of its total slots are dedicated to athletics. 

The financials made it easier to make this call in 2020, but I think the university was eager to reduce the number of athletes, especially in expensive sports primarily enjoyed by wealthy families.

I agree that admissions is "much easier" for athletes.  For example, a decade ago, Stanford men's volleyball accepted a student with an 1,880 SAT and a sub-4.00 weighted GPA, at least according to his father.  That was considerably south of Stanford's frosh profile at the time.

But I don't know that it's true across the board.  As I understand it, it's generally considered to be a way to differentiate a student in an additive way, to complement rather than supplant academic qualifications.  For example, my son's incoming class of three volleyball players at Princeton had the following SAT/GPA/AP classes profiles:

1) 800 M 720 V 780 O / 4.66, 8 APs.  
2) 720 M 760 V 740 O / 4.48, 7 APs.
3) 760 M 770 V 780 O / 4.43, 9 APs. 

I may be wrong, but my general sense was that those academic qualifications weren't all that far off of the average Princeton frosh at the time.

[Mick]

Seriously though, I think blaming this on the AD and finances ignores the other issue that Varsity Blues uncovered, the potential for vastly easier admissions.

It was, and still is, rather easy for families with exceptional wealth to get their kids to dabble in expensive sports (fencing, rowing, sailing, golf, etc.) as that is a much easier way to get into highly selective schools than any academic path.  Varsity Blues fabricated sports accomplishments and tossed in bribes, but the underlying problem of lenient admission decisions for athletes at selective schools remains.

I know Stanford has some of the best athletes in those expensive sports, but it is rather clear now that they often compete against schools that have rosters stuffed with quite a number of kids without a lot of ability from big donor families.

For a school only accepting 4% of its applicants that type of the sports-exclusively-for-the-elite backdoor becomes a problem, especially if 12+% of its total slots are dedicated to athletics. 

The financials made it easier to make this call in 2020, but I think the university was eager to reduce the number of athletes, especially in expensive sports primarily enjoyed by wealthy families.

I agree that admissions is "much easier" for athletes.  For example, a decade ago, Stanford men's volleyball accepted a student with an 1,880 SAT and a sub-4.00 weighted GPA, at least according to his father.  That was considerably south of Stanford's frosh profile at the time.

But I don't know that it's true across the board.  As I understand it, it's generally considered to be a way to differentiate a student in an additive way, to complement rather than supplant academic qualifications.  For example, my son's incoming class of three volleyball players at Princeton had the following SAT/GPA/AP classes profiles:

1) 800 M 720 V 780 O / 4.66, 8 APs.  
2) 720 M 760 V 740 O / 4.48, 7 APs.
3) 760 M 770 V 780 O / 4.43, 9 APs. 

I may be wrong, but my general sense was that those academic qualifications weren't all that far off of the average Princeton frosh at the time.