2020 TE Nick Patterson to Princeton

Submitted by Magnus on February 5th, 2020 at 9:09 PM

San Antonio (TX) Christian tight end Nick Patterson, Shea's younger brother, tweeted out that he's "committed to the admissions process" at Princeton. So that ends several months of speculation about whether he would end up in Michigan's class.

Coincidentally, this is the second legacy tight end in recent years to "decommit" for Princeton in recent years, joining Carter Dunaway from a few classes ago. (Dunaway ended up not playing for Princeton.)

UM85

February 5th, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^

Given how hard it is to get into Princeton and they (illogically) consider academics more important than football, all he can say is that he's committed to the admissions process.  Unless he has an acceptance letter in hand, there are no guarantees.

JPC

February 5th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^

Most Ivy coaches have three tiers of athletes and the school limits the number in each tier. 
 

tier 1: great athletes that wouldn’t get a second look without sports 

tier 2: good athletes, good students

tier 3: ok athletes, great students that raise the teams gpa. 
 

source: I’m a professor at an ivy.  

blue in dc

February 5th, 2020 at 10:07 PM ^

this may all be fake news, but there are certainly studies that suggest being a recruited athlete makes it significantly easier to get into an Ivy
 

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/applying-to-elite-colleges-as-an-athlete/

https://usatodayhss.com/2018/dont-be-fooled-ivy-leagues-do-care-about-admitting-athletes

JPC

February 5th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^

There’s no question. I had a student last semester who had no business being at ANY university, let alone a top 15 worldwide school. 
 

There are definitely a small number of legitimately terrible students on every ivy team that the university cares about (lacrosse and hockey being big ones where I am). There are lots more good ones though. 
 

before people think I’m being harsh to student athletes, I’ll mention that a lot of legacies are as bad as the worst athletes - with some being much worse. 

Eph97

February 6th, 2020 at 10:56 AM ^

No doubt every Ivy has ways to sneak in subpar student athletes for the teams it really cares about. Had an all american lacrosse playing classmate of mine who scored in the 900s on the SATs get into Cornell via its Ag School. Ths was in the early 90's.

UM85

February 6th, 2020 at 8:02 AM ^

Thanks for that, JPC and Ezeh-E.  I always suspected that the elite academic schools like the Ivy's and Stanford had elbow-room on admissions for top-echelon athletes but hadn't had anyone working at one confirm it.  Good info and +1 to both of you.