President Nan Keohane's and Director of Athletics Joe Alleva's comments concerning academic standards for football players are Orwellian. In the past, Duke has admitted athletes for playing football despite their marginal to poor academic credentials. In the future, Duke will admit a greater percentage of these kinds of athletes. As a result, graduation rates for football players undoubtedly will drop. Duke is in fact lowering its academic standards for the purpose of winning a couple of football games a year.
It is one thing to trade academic standards for athletics success. To do this is something that I don't agree with, but has some measurable benefits. It is also likely that Duke could avoid its backsliding in academic standards by hiring a better head coach. Previous coaches have managed to win, on average, at least a few games every year without any changes in admissions standards. That Duke leadership prefers to bring in more athletes with poor academic ability than to hire a talented coach is a strange choice for a school that considers itself to be a serious institution of higher learning, but there are some modest benefits to maintaining continuity.
What is transparent and not debatable is that Duke increasingly is trading academics for athletics. When Duke leaders deny and try to obfuscate this trade, they not only adversely affect their personal reputations, but also cast a shadow on the integrity of the University.
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