Revenge of the Nerds: How the 'smart schools' got good

[dcpony]

SI.com
Revenge of the Nerds: How the 'smart schools' got good at football

Duke coach David Cutcliffe spent 25 seasons in the SEC. He knew he'd arrived in a different world upon boarding the bus for the Blue Devils' first road game in 2008. "I'd never seen a kid on a road trip carrying books," Cutcliffe said. "Guys were carrying laptops, working on papers. That was brand new to me."

Stanford assistant Mike Sanford spent a season at Western Kentucky before returning to The Farm in 2011. Amid the monotony of two-a-days that August, he noticed that stars Andrew Luck and Shayne Skov both had their heads buried in the tome-length A Song of Ice and Fire books. "I thought, 'Wow, this is not Western Kentucky,'" Sanford said.

Defying the stereotype of most teen sitcom and movies, today's nerds are proving they can play football, too. "There's nothing wrong with being a nerd," said Northwestern center Brandon Vitabile, a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. "It's something I'm proud of."

Proud or not, nerds weren't very good at football for much of college football history. Suddenly, that's changed.

Last year four schools -- Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern and Vanderbilt -- ranked among the top 20 in both the U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings and the final USA Today college football coaches rankings. In November the Irish became the first team to simultaneously rank No. 1 in both the BCS standings and FBS graduation rates. In December, Vanderbilt completed its first nine-win season since 1915, while Duke played in its first bowl game since 1994. And on Jan. 1, Northwestern won its first bowl game since 1949 by beating Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl, while Stanford beat Wisconsin for its first Rose Bowl win since 1972.


Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/colleg ... z2c96lpKvi

[dirtysouthpony]

This is a great story. Do we stress academics in our recruiting?

[Water Pony]

There must be worse things than to be elevated to the academic and athletic reputation of Stanford, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. I just think of what it would be. ;-D

Great quotes:

""I'm not going to lie and say I didn't fall for the party scene at some schools, the great facilities at others," said Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, an Englewood, Colo., native. "... My dad played at Colorado and had a great time there, won a national championship, but he realized some of the degrees some of the players got there are meaningless. Football is going to end for us at some point. There's life after football, and Northwestern is the platform I needed to get that going."

"Vandy, long the SEC's punching bag, has clearly gone all in with football, paying Franklin a reported $3 million salary (more than in-state foe Tennessee pays Butch Jones) and investing significantly in facilities. In July, Williams did not shy away from the fact that he'd convinced the school to relax its admissions standards for certain athletes, so long as the program maintained its high graduation rate. "You're not going to compete in Division I football with all of your team acing the SAT," Williams said. "It just doesn't happen, because the Alabamas, the Georgias, the Tennessees, they're going to have a wide range in there."

[BigT3x]

This is a great story. Do we stress academics in our recruiting?

Haven't you heard? SMU requires all football players to write a 30 page paper, have a 4.0 GPA in high school, complete an interview with the ghost of Ken Pye, and then the mean liberal professors fail them unless they accept Stalin as their personal savior.

Or that's how the oldtimers think it is, at least. SMU's academic standards nowadays aren't any more strict than other schools. We have a dedicated tutoring center for athletes and are literally building them a school filled with athlete friendly majors.

[Fresno Mustang]

This is a great story. Do we stress academics in our recruiting?

Haven't you heard? SMU requires all football players to write a 30 page paper, have a 4.0 GPA in high school, complete an interview with the ghost of Ken Pye, and then the mean liberal professors fail them unless they accept Stalin as their personal savior.

Or that's how the oldtimers think it is, at least. SMU's academic standards nowadays aren't any more strict than other schools. We have a dedicated tutoring center for athletes and are literally building them a school filled with athlete friendly majors.

Bingo. Walk into any sports management class and its 90% athletes.

[SMU2007]

This is a great story. Do we stress academics in our recruiting?

Haven't you heard? SMU requires all football players to write a 30 page paper, have a 4.0 GPA in high school, complete an interview with the ghost of Ken Pye, and then the mean liberal professors fail them unless they accept Stalin as their personal savior.

Or that's how the oldtimers think it is, at least. SMU's academic standards nowadays aren't any more strict than other schools. We have a dedicated tutoring center for athletes and are literally building them a school filled with athlete friendly majors.

[SMU2007]

We have a ways to go before we should be comparing ourselves with duke, northwestern, and Stanford academically.....

[SMU2007]

Secondly, the vast majority of football players are definitely dumber than the average student at that school, whether they are at Stanford or LSU.