Hornung owes no apology

Paul Hornung has apologized for stating the obvious after offending the ever-sensitive element of America.

In discussing the struggles of the Notre Dame football program last season, Hornung said the school must lower its academic requirements in order to have access to a greater number of the best black athletes in America today.

“You can’t play a schedule like [Notre Dame’s] unless you have the black athlete today,” Hornung said. “You just can’t do it, and it’s very, very tough, still, to get into Notre Dame. They just don’t understand it, yet they want to win.”

That is neither racist nor inflammatory. That is merely a simple truth, although it is best implemented with altruistic intentions.

The flip side to Hornung’s contention is those who argue against raising the minimum academic requirements of the NCAA, because it would leave behind too many black athletes. In the world of the extremely sensitive, this side of the argument is considered to be socially enlightened, worthy of applause.

By now, the old tug-of-war between a winning athletic program vs. the loss of a school’s academic integrity is obsolete at most institutions of higher learning.

Notre Dame is one of the noble few that clings to preserving the balance between academics and athletics.

Tim Brown, who played at Notre Dame before starring in the NFL, says his school should not compromise its principal mission, which is teaching the young, regardless of the 5-7 football record attached to Notre Dame last season. Brown clearly learned a thing or three while at Notre Dame.

Bad things inevitably happen to those programs that treat academics as an intrusion on winning. Yes, those programs go to bowl games each year. They also go to the courtroom or before the NCAA snoops.

Sometimes they have to explain why Johnny is taking several classes that would not challenge the intellect of a pet rock. Or sometimes they have to ignore the fact that Johnny sounds barely coherent in television interviews. Or sometimes they have to ignore that Johnny, supposedly a college student of modest means, is driving around awfully expensive wheels.

No one really objects to all this hypocrisy unless a scandal develops around a program.

Otherwise, the student-athlete concept in the entertainment wing of college football and basketball is mostly an illusion, and most observers, from the fans, alumni and the national press, appear content with the illusion.

Hornung has decided to embrace the illusion as well after checking the evidence.

The best of the best in football and basketball in America today are black, as anyone with a television set can gather each time a football or basketball game is being aired.

Check out the NFL. Check out the NBA. Check out the best college football and basketball programs in America.

What is the racial makeup of the majority of the leading players?

No, this is not news. This is not a dynamic that came to be last week. In America today, if you want to be among the elite on a consistent basis in either football or basketball, you need the best of the best black athletes.

Notre Dame’s football program certainly lands a good percentage of black athletes. Its spring roster has 35 blacks and 33 whites.

Yet that statistic misses the essence of Hornung’s point, which is: If Notre Dame would lower its entrance requirements, the football program’s recruiting pool would deepen considerably in terms of quality, and the vast percentage of that quality would be black.

His should not be taken as a commentary on the overall academic prowess of black athletes. There are plenty of smart black athletes, just as there are plenty of dumb white athletes.

Hornung is no social scientist anyway. He is merely a desperate Notre Dame alumnus who wants the football program to be what it once was.

To be that, the school must develop the habit of looking the other way around the athletic department while trying to spin it as a positive.

Most college presidents have turned this practice into a praiseworthy endeavor, hiding behind the shield of second chances, diversity and not leaving behind the black athlete.

If Hornung is to be criticized, it is for his willingness to have Notre Dame become like so many of its compromised competitors.