Let’s make it even easier for top football recruits as they seek to earn admission to America’s highly selective universities. And let’s make it easier for them — more so than anyone else — once they enroll. Said no one ever, except maybe football players, their parents, and coaches. Now, don’t get us wrong. We believe intercollegiate athletics, including football, are vital aspects of a college experience. But top football recruits already have it rather easy in the elite college admissions process, often earning admission to these schools with grades and standardized test scores well below the mean. And now Stanford University is rolling out the red carpet, specifically for football recruits, to enroll before the fall?

As Scott Jaschik reports for Inside Higher Ed in a piece entitled “Stanford Changes Admissions Policy for Athletes,” “Stanford University’s Faculty Senate last week approved a three-year pilot program that would allow athletes who are admitted to enroll before the fall. Currently athletes are admitted to enroll with other freshmen each fall. Stanford’s pilot will allow athletes — primarily football players — to enroll before the rest of the freshman class. The policy responds to changes in football recruiting. Officials cited the University of Southern California and the University of Notre Dame — two institutions with which Stanford competes for students — where some 60 percent of football recruits began matriculating early. During the past year, 68 students were given football scholarship offers to study at Stanford. Sixteen of the students chose Stanford. Of the 52 who did not, 27 began their college careers in January at another institution.”

So, basically, it seems to us that Stanford is worried about losing out on recruits to the likes of the University of Southern California and the University of Notre Dame. This pilot program is designed in the hope of keeping them in the fold. What next? Will football players get lobster dinners every Thursday? We kid, we kid. And yet we’re not kidding. How much is too much? Are football players really that much more valuable than award-winning science researchers and thespians?