1. Its B1G and PAC Presidents pushing this and this is a critical point in the debate. As someone who has taught both basketball players and football players, rest assured these presidents are talking out of their arse. Those who did teach college or university haven't taught in ages and frankly FAR TOO MANY TAs/GTAs to Lecturers to Profs never had the gift of teaching. BUT very few of admins teach at ALL these days and have zero experience dealing w/today's students.

2. You'd be surprised at how diverse the student body is when it comes to freshman year and even beyond. Schools no longer teach writing and as such student -- both those who went to fancy private schools and those who went to the worst public schools don't know how to write a 5 page paper. They fail to organize their thoughts and its painful. What's more you don't know until they write. I've had every type of student you can imagine from all socio-economic backgrounds and it really is the luck of the draw.

I've taught brilliant football players as well as students in science/math majors who were just terrible at anything out of their field.

4. With a lot of athletes, all it takes is confronting them. Same with other students who are either unmotivated or have been told their not good enough.

5. It's rare to play as a true frosh as is and it's dumb to make a one size fits all rule.