To those who are pleading for NU to lower its academic requirements even more for basketball... explain why Fitz has largely been able to put a winning product on the field, where he has to recruit ten times the guys Collins has to recruit. Simple logic tells you that if admissions are a big problem, Fitz would not be able to do that.
NU received 51,000 freshman applications this year. They're going to accept 2000 or so.
To me, "college sports" is supposed to be students competing against students. If there are kids on your team who aren't remotely comparable to your other students academically, they're what we used to call "ringers."
I think anyone who looks at NU’s history knows there are a number of factors that have inhibited success — including NU’s history itself. Certainly academic demands create a much smaller pool of potential recruits — not just of kids who can get in, but who want to get in. At NU, if you’re not a one-and-done (and we’ve never had one), you’re going to work hard just to stay eligible. Not every kid wants to make that commitment.
I used to be violently opposed to lowering admission standards, but I’m to the point now where I say, hey if the coach and player know what they are getting into and think they can do it, go for it. I still don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference because we’re still not going to get one-and-dones and we still have those nagging institutional issues like lousy fan support, miserable history, and maybe an NIL problem, although none us really know if there are NU-related NIL activities out there and if so to what extent.
I’ve said it before, but I think Collins has done a pretty good job of recruiting, just based on the rankings and other offers NU recruits have gotten. But he and his staff have done a lousy job of development and winning games. So I suspect recruiting is going to get a lot harder for him, especially after Gragg announced he’s on the clock.