Some Facts to make Notre Dame Fans Proud.

Terry O'Keefe · Jul 3, 2006

From a Rivals Article.

When Notre Dame Athletics Director Dr. Kevin White and associate athletic director John Heisler met with the media a few weeks ago, they came bearing exciting news for their new monthly forum with the media. They provided statistics that were quite astonishing in an age when academic and athletic success simultaneously is a rarity.

• The combined GPA of the athletics teams at Notre Dame was 3.226 in the fall and 3.224 in the spring.

• All of Notre Dame's 24 teams (male and female combined) had a semester GPA of better than 3.00 in the fall of '05; 22 teams had a semester GPA over 3.00 in the spring of '06.

• Eighty percent of Notre Dame's athletics teams had a graduation rate of 100 percent; the other 20 percent of the teams all had graduation rates above 90 percent.

• In the fall of 2005, 72.3 percent of the student-athletes (473 of 654) had a GPA over 3.00; in the spring of 2006, 73.4 percent of the student-athletes (469 of 639) had a GPA over 3.00.

• In football, Notre Dame achieved a 96 Graduation Success Rate (GSR) from the NCAA. Only the United States Naval Academy, with a 98, had a higher ranking among Division 1-A schools. The football team's cumulative GPA was above 3.00 for the first time in the history of the school.

Yet with the exception of Notre Dame's website itself and a few Notre Dame-related websites, such news was not reported. Even White himself, who was ecstatic about the news, put a bit of a ho-hum twist on it at one point.

"These aren't things we're giddy about; these are things that are expected," White said.

You see, the graduation rates of college student-athletes aren't very exciting. No one runs past another person. There was no physical contact. No goal line was crossed, no jump shot was made and no run was scored. It's merely classroom work and Notre Dame did it better than just about any major college athletics participant in history.

That same day in the newspaper, we learned about certain athletes who were involved in domestic violence and simple assault. But Notre Dame's academic success was brushed under the carpet.

That's not to say that we don't need to know about the athletes who run afoul of the law. That's important information too. But someone in the national news media should have seen the significance of Notre Dame's accomplishments. When 56 of 98 major college football players at a school that finishes among the nation's top 10 on the field record a grade-point average above 3.0, that is news, major news.

Likewise, Notre Dame finished among the nation's top 10 in all sports. It's not like the Notre Dame student-athletes who achieved this academic success are a bunch of eggheads that can't compete athletically on a national scale.

• The Irish won a school- and Big East conference-record 13 championships with a school-record 44 All-Americans.

• Nine sports achieved a Top 10 ranking at the end of the season, with 13 in the Top 15 and 16 in the Top 25.

There are amazing things going on at Notre Dame academically at a time when graduation rates and grade-point averages are declining among the major players in intercollegiate athletics. But that's viewed as pretty boring stuff, not worthy of mention in a sports page.

As was suggested a couple of weeks ago, you might want to save this information, put it in your wallet or glove box, and hand it to the next person that says ND stands for No Different.

Notre Dame is plenty different. The media simply chooses when it's willing to notice.
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kp · Jul 4, 2006

Truely impressive

<t>Those are amazing accomplishments!</t>

Gator Bill · Jul 4, 2006

Ditto to what KP said.

That's a lot to be proud of!

Happy 4th of July to everyone.

gipper · Jul 4, 2006

OK first year Fr. Jenkins. We expect that you can do better. <G>

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Some Facts to make Notre Dame Fans Proud.

Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

kp Well-Known Member

Gator Bill Well-Known Member Administrator

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Some Facts to make Notre Dame Fans Proud.

Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

kp Well-Known Member

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