PUNT, PASS, PROUST

ON CAMPUS A frequent theme with sports columnists such as the Dallas Times Herald’s SKIP BAYLESS and The Dallas Morning News’s RANDY GALLOWAY and CATHY HARASTA has been that SMU’s academic standards for athletes are unreasonably high, leaving the school with jocks who can handle Proust and polynomials but can never compete in the real world of college sports.

But are (he standards really that tough? Athletes at SMU must post a 700 or better (1600 is tops; you get 400 for writing your name) on the SAT. Any hopefuls with scores under 900 must be reviewed by a faculty admissions committee (which okays about half of the cases it reviews), after which the admissions director passes judgment. The truth is that SMU’s jocks run the gamut from excellent to poor students-certainly nothing like the reverse stereotype created by Bayless et al. For example, freshman football players in 1989, the first post-death penalty year, were pulling an “unacceptable” GPA, according to SMU president A. KENNETH PYE.

One SMU insider (not a coach) says that the columnists’ jaundiced view is understandable, given their likely sources. “Look, all assistant coaches bitch and whine because they can’t land recruits. And those are the people that these columnists talk to. It’s easy to pass the blame onto our admissions standards for athletes. “