[msqueri]

Others know much better than I, but weren’t there once stories of Ivy League schools accepting athletes denied admission to Stanford?

Yes, undoubtedly has happened across Stanford sports, including football. Ivy League schools make very significant concessions for athletes too. Additionally, Stanford has more and less stringent periods/philosophies around athlete admissions. My time in college (the Robin Mamlet years) were famously/infamously difficult for athletes and focused heavily on traditional academic credentials and prestige. Under Rick Shaw it seems admissions has been much more attuned to the benefits of bringing in athletes who are elite in their sport, as opposed to elite students who may be merely good in their sport.

By the way, I notice many on this board conflate football admissions with other athletic admissions at Stanford. Other sports get breaks too, but it strikes me as perilous to assume the number one revenue sport would have the same standards/arrangements as the other sports. I would strongly suspect that the median unweighted GPAs/test scores/etc. of scholarship football players are lower than they are for partial scholarship or non-scholarship players in much less prominent sports.

P.S. Would have to wrack my brain for specific examples of accepted at an Ivy after being denied admissions at Stanford, but I do recall that in one signing class alone there was Keith Simms (ended up at Oregon after not being able to get into Stanford and having Harvard and Yale offers), Beau Bisharat (ended up at Colorado after not being able to get into Stanford and having a Yale offer), and Nygel Edmonds (ended up at Cal after not being able to get into Stanford and having a Harvard offer); we also rejected Brandon Stephens that year, who flamed out at UCLA but then had a remarkable transfer success story switching sides of the ball entirely at SMU and becoming an NFL corner. We also had a decommit in the Harbaugh era who ended up at Harvard, Blake Barker, but given all the recruits Harbaugh jerked around as he upgraded to more enticing football players I wouldn't chalk that one up to admissions.

[msqueri]

Others know much better than I, but weren’t there once stories of Ivy League schools accepting athletes denied admission to Stanford?

Yes, undoubtedly has happened across Stanford sports, including football. Ivy League schools make very significant concessions for athletes too. Additionally, Stanford has more and less stringent periods/philosophies around athlete admissions. My time in college (the Robin Mamlet years) were famously/infamously difficult for athletes and focused heavily on traditional academic credentials and prestige. Under Rick Shaw it seems admissions has been much more attuned to the benefits of bringing in athletes who are elite in their sport, as opposed to elite students who may be merely good in their sport.

By the way, I notice many on this board conflate football admissions with other athletic admissions at Stanford. Other sports get breaks too, but it strikes me as perilous to assume the number one revenue sport would have the same standards/arrangements as the other sports. I would strongly suspect that the median unweighted GPAs/test scores/etc. of scholarship football players are lower than they are for partial scholarship or non-scholarship players in much less prominent sports.

P.S. Would have to wrack my brain for specific examples of accepted at an Ivy after being denied admissions at Stanford, but I do recall that in one signing class alone there was Keith Simms (ended up at Oregon after not being able to get into Stanford and having Harvard and Yale offers), Beau Bisharat (ended up at Colorado after not being able to get into Stanford and having a Yale offer), and Nygel Edmonds (ended up at Cal after not being able to get into Stanford and having a Harvard offer); we also rejected Brandon Stephens that year, who flamed out at UCLA but then had a remarkable transfer success story switching sides of the ball entirely at SMU and becoming an NFL corner. We also had a decommit in the Harbaugh era who ended up at Harvard, Blake Barker, but given all the recruits Harbaugh jerked around as he upgraded to more enticing football players I wouldn't chalk that one up to admissions.