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September 30th, 2008 - byESPN’s Pat Forde took a minute in his Forde Yard Dash to point out the remarkable football success of some of the nations premier academic institutions. Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame and Rice all hold Top NCSA Power 
Ranking positions and have gotten off to winning starts this year.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald took the honor in stride, “Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing? When did the ’student-athlete’ term become lost? … The term ’student-athlete’ hasn’t changed at our schools. ”
Coach Fitzgerald is absolutely correct, it should be a program’s primary job to prepare its student athletes for the rest of their lives. I encourage recruits to consider how committed a team is to their academic future when trying to make their college decision.
