UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

Hear, hear.

The service academies absolutely belong in any serious “academic conference” discussion — honestly, they’d make the cut ahead of almost everyone except maybe Notre Dame and Stanford.

If I were ranking schools by actual non-waivable academic standards for football, I’d put it roughly as:

Notre Dame
Stanford
Air Force
Army
Navy
Northwestern
Duke
Vanderbilt

If I’m forced to go to 10:
Cal
Georgia Tech

Going to 12 is where it really breaks down. At that point you’re pulling from:
Michigan, UCLA, Wake Forest, BC, Rice — all of which have the ability to (and demonstrably do) admit football recruits who would not be admissible under their normal academic standards.

Worth noting: Michigan and UCLA’s problem isn’t low standards (their average football recruit clears the bar at many of these schools) — it’s selective enforcement. The floor disappears when the talent is good enough.