(In ESPN 30 for 30 voice)
What if I were to tell you that Stanford has a lower admittance percentage of applicants than Harvard, than Yale? What if I were to tell you that of Stanford’s student body population, 76 percent graduated high school with a 4.0 grade point average or better? What if I were to tell you that the only school in 2014 with a lower acceptance rate than Stanford was the Curtis Institute of Music in Pennsylvania?
What if I were to tell you that David Shaw was right, and you shouldn’t be offended by it?
Stanford football coach David Shaw ripped off some faux offensiveness regarding satellite camps when he basically noted that he doesn’t care what the NCAA’s ruling on them was, because it doesn’t matter to Stanford. Have a look:
David Shaw says no reason for satellite camps “where there might be one person in the entire state that’s eligible to get into Stanford.”
— Ted Miller (@TedMillerRK) April 10, 2016
People got offended, because that’s sort of how people do, but the truth is, he’s right. The bigger picture is that in the NCAA anti-satellite camp ruling, we all are in it for ourselves, and the rules sort of fall into “it matters this much to me, or it matters that much to me.”
There is no altruism in competitive sports. The ACC and SEC don’t like them because they have the best football players in their regions and want to limit their options. Is it cold? Hell yes it is. Is it colder that the NCAA decided they agreed with it? Of course. It’s one thing to be cold and self-centered. It’s another to convince those in power that your coldness and self-centeredness is the right way to go. That’s either good or bad politics depending on which line you fall on.
A lot of folks were put off by Shaw’s comments, but the reality is that for teams like Stanford, Duke, to a degree, Notre Dame, and others who have restrictions on who fills out the roster based on their academic standing, they don’t really matter.
What, is Shaw supposed to lie?
Stanford's David Shaw tosses out a mighty big academic dig https://t.co/jNPUlJSDoN pic.twitter.com/VanWa9A0RE
— SN College Football (@sn_ncaaf) April 10, 2016
Did Stanford coach David Shaw take a shot at the Southeast? https://t.co/figHCz6Hpp
— SEC Football (@SECfootball) April 10, 2016
"Everybody in America is stupid."
-David Shaw https://t.co/t4lVd5opMl
— Charlie Burris (@Charlie_Burris) April 10, 2016
The NCAA’s ruling restricts players from potentially being seen, which is abhorrent and goes against everything “NCAA,” or what “NCAA” should be. The reality, though, is that it affects the many rather than the few, and the few have no reason to act otherwise.
The ruling sucks, but let’s not act like there’s anything more to it. Most people can’t get into Stanford. In fact, by “most people,” we’re talking about more people percentage wise than any college that plays Division 1, 2, 3, or NAIA sports.
Shaw wasn’t wrong. The ruling wasn’t right. Neither of those are mutually exclusive, so channel thy disgust elsewhere.
