Academics and Athletic Recruiting at Duke

A recent article in the Chronicle on academics and athletic recruiting at Duke may explain this whole complicated issue (and then again it may not):

"Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Gutentag described the admission process for varsity athletes as similar to that of non-athletes with a stronger emphasis on extracurricular athletics.

'Athletics is one of the many things that is taken into account in the admission process for all students.' Guttentag said. 'It is true that one of the many things we look carefully at is the ability to contribute to our athletic program. We pay very careful attention to the recommendations of coaches and their interests. For athletes that have accomplished at the level that they're going to catch the attention of a program at Duke, their extracurricular activities are going to show some impressive areas in athletics.' "