So, you’ve heard by now that Jaylon Smith verbally committed to ND on Saturday. Grantland-X did a great job covering the high points and what it means yesterday. I want to continue that analysis, but into an area that caught my eye. Not like this did, but also in a profound way. You see, to Jaylon Smith, football wasn’t the important thing about ND. When you read the quotes, and hat tip to Tony Krausz for laying most of them all out there, the school, and its proximity to mom, was the thing. To Jaylon Smith, it matters that ND graduates “99%” of its African-American athletes.
Let’s face it, the loss of Aaron Lynch to sunnier climes, and his girlfriend, gave the haters the opportunity to trot out the old tropes: ND can’t compete for premier athletes, ND needs to lower its standards, no one wants to play for ND anymore. Years back, Paul Hornung put race on the table in ham-fisted, and offensive, fashion. So now that Jaylon Smith put race back back on the table in a more positive and much more tweetable form, I wanted to explore the importance of race and academics to premier recruits. So I asked one.
“This is one of my pet peeves,” said Oscar McBride, former ND and NFL great. “If you’re an African-American, and even if you are not, and you go to a football school and you get hurt or you don’t get drafted, you’ve used your eligibility and you’ve got nothing. What Notre Dame is presenting an athlete is an opportunity beyond athletics.” And that opportunity is better now than ever, as “Notre Dame goes above and beyond to help the student-athlete. They have a development office that didn’t exist when [we] were there.” And he’s right. Notre Dame’s Student Welfare and Development office takes the student-athlete from admission through graduation. The value of that degree? Almost $1,000,000 according to the good people at payscale.com. That’s over-and-above anything the player makes in the NFL and is, in fact, a huge under-statement, because the recruits we’re talking about are scholarship players.
“Notre Dame is not for everyone,” Oscar continued. “Let’s put that out there. It’s different. It’s calm. But there’s an arrogance: we are ND and you are not.” When I pressed Oscar if ND means anything to today’s young, African-American top recruits from Florida, as opposed to a young, African-American top recruit from Florida in 1990, he said it did. “We were in a recruiting lull for a few years. The last great class was Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija. Now, we’re starting to see what ‘great’ means: you’re five stars on the field, and off.” When asked if ND faced a challenge in recruiting African-American athletes specifically, Oscar responded, “Coach Holtz was able to find student-athletes all cut from the same cloth. If you put us in a bag and shook it up, we’d come out the same. We’re still great friends.” So, it’s not about race, it’s about cloth.
Oscar went after another implied assumption in my questioning, that ND isn’t competitive. “What’s that mean? Winning the championship? No. Competitive means you can win the game with five minutes left on the clock. You’re telling me we’re not competitive? You realize we were three plays away from 11-2, right?” He has a point. And not just in football. “We beat number one Syracuse [in men’s basketball], go to the championship in women’s hoops and get to the finals in lacrosse. We can combine athletics and academics in every other sport, and if you think it can’t be done in football, how do you explain Stanford?”
I get it now. It’s not about race, or the number of stars attached to a recruit’s name. It’s about putting 85 young men together who, twenty years later, value their education and each other. ND comes in for a lot of what I, now, believe to be highly unfair criticism that sells our student-athletes short and vastly undervalues the achievements of our non-football playing athletes. But if you believe Oscar McBride, and maybe you should, ND’s building something on, and off, the gridiron. Thanks for opening my eyes, O. And you, too, Jaylon Smith.
Author’s note: you can reach Oscar on Twitter @ask_oscar and on Facebook at Ask Oscar McBride.
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Steve in Iowa
I support every sentence of this post.
David
I think you hit the nail on the head. NFL dreams can be made a reality at Notre Dame, just as easily as any school. But academics separate schools like ND and Stanford. That needs to be preached. In football in 2011, there was only a one player difference between ND and Stanford, Reese vs Luck. That’s it. Kelly inherited a tough QB situation and that can still be blamed on the previous regime. Kelly is developing quality depth at QB, so I’m optimistic for the near future. We were three plays off from 11-2 and ONE player away from maybe better.
NDtex
I think I take the 99% stat for granted. Probably because I can’t remember a recruit so bluntly laying it out there like Jaylon did.
Among the comments from Oscar, the “cut from the same cloth” quote sticks out to me. It’s definitely RKG-like.
chi-sports14
I think it’s worth noting that Jaylon Smith is yet another recruit from a different state. Isaac Rochelle would be another too.
To this point all of Notre Dame’s recruits are from different states with the exception of the two Ohio guys.
Smokehead
This article ought to be handed out to every African American recruit ND pursues.Or just take McBride along on all the home visits. What a great ambassador.
Twibby
Great work, Bayou. The value of an ND degree is far-and-away the best recruiting tool, and it’s great to see top players like Jaylon Smith recognizing that.
HerringBoneSports
I really appreciate you spreading the words that Oscar McBride has started to get out there in regards to what ND really means and stands for as well as his push to improve integrity and character in youth sports. Having been lucky enough to work with him recently, I can attest that he believes and lives the things he claims.
Fantastic article, perfect links, important message. Bra-Vo.
Bayou Irish
Thanks for the kind words and you are welcome. Oscar is the man.
HerringBoneSports
Yes … yes he is. He’s opened a lot of doors for us and is as humble and thankful as anyone ever. I think that spring 2012 is the tip of the iceberg in regards to him becoming a more prominent face for ND Athletics and maybe more.
Obviously by reading from this interview and others he’s been a part of, we’d love if he became more active in whatever legal regards he can on the recruiting and selling of the program. Jaylon Smith, Malik Zaire, and others have certainly taken a step towards being a fantastic muse for this kind of message. Not to discredit Te’o, Quinn, and other current or former players of course.
Brian
It’s a shame that so many college programs are blatantly exploiting 17 and 18 year-old kids. I’d be interested if anyone has looked at what percentage of SEC players fail to graduate. …and what percentage make the NFL.
Whiskeyjack
Wonderful article, Bayou. Forgive me for shamelessly plugging my Football ROI Ranking (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AmLGzmpC86GYdEdDNTNKMFR5MGJ6U2lQZ3JCOE5TNkE&rm=full#gid=0) as it’s entirely relevant to this subject. The degree value ND offers its African-American recruits is better than any other program in the country– even Stanford.
irishfanatic
First and foremost, well done Bayou, this is a fantastic article. I’ve always believed that whether you’re white or black, Notre Dame provides a lifetime security that is second to none. Granted, there are other schools out there that provide great academics, but if you’re a football player (and of course I’m biased here) , I truly don’t think that you can make an argument for ANY school being a better choice than ND to be a student athlete at.
Jaylon isn’t the only blue chipper out there with this forethought and understanding, and when ND finds more like him, the cycle will have turned yet again, and that crystal football will be back where it belongs.
fossilman
Awesome thougts Bayou. It’s nice to read something that discusses issues that other schools just will not talk about. ACADEMICS! The average career of an NFL player is less than four years. So at age 26 and some money in your pocket what do you do with the rest of your life when you don’t have a degree to fall back on. By the way if you haven’t read Oscar’s book Relentles Wisdom you are missing something. Great father’s day gift.
Terry
The story is told that many years ago ND was after a top rated H.S. kicker whose dad had played at Notre Dame and so it was assumed that he would choose ND over Florida State. At the last minute the lad chose Florida State, and as the story goes Lou Holtz said “he didn’t make a four year mistake – he made a FORTY year mistake.”
Bruno
I don’t like to dump on any conference, and the fact of the matter is that the SEC has several outstanding universities that in recent years have made great strides to improve their academic standing. The football programs are another matter. A prior post asks about graduation rates among athletes at SEC schools. Graduation rates are published; just run a google search and you should find information. Less well known are other statistics. This brief article from the NY Times three days ago caught my attention. I think it fits into the theme of the how ND differs from many other schools.
You can interpret the article as you wish (perhaps the SEC just wants their super athletes on the field, no matter how often they screw up. Alternatively, perhaps the schools are simply giving the athletes, who may come from tough backgrounds, additional chances. An additional possibility, for all we know, is that all conferences follow the same policies as the SEC does, described below).
Players testing positive for marijuana in the Southeastern Conference do not face the one-year suspension that comes with being punished by the N.C.A.A. Players routinely get third, fourth and even fifth chances before they are suspended. Failed drug tests administered by the N.C.A.A. result in automatic suspensions. The finding comes from an Associated Press examination of the drug policies at 11 SEC universities. Vanderbilt, a private institution, declined to make its rules available.
All the SEC universities examined had more lenient drug policies than the N.C.A.A., though the penalties varied.
Bayou Irish
Don’t even get me started on the SEC, bra. Down here on da bayou…. cher!
Mark G.
“So, it’s not about race, it’s about cloth.”
When I see the GSR stats, particularly for black football players, the phrse “subtle racism of low expectations” comes to mind.
GSR rates can be found in a very user unfriendly fashion on the NCAA website. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/newmedia/public/rates/index.html
The NCAA has a target of 80% GSR. Note how few schools meet this standard, particulary in football.
The NCAA does not focus on racial disparities in GSR, but the University of Central Florida Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports does. http://www.tidesport.org/ The studies show GSR disparities among white and black football players of over 20 percentage points at many schools.
I remained shocked that no body, and I mean NO BODY, in the sports press focuses on this not very subtle instance of racial exploitation.
Lisa
Fantastic article. Notre Dame may not be for everyone, but for those student athletes looking for a premiere education and an almost 100% promise of graduation, it is a win-win for sure … regardless of whether or not you win a National Championship! Great job guys!