Northwestern defeated Iowa by a score of 14-10 on Saturday, November 10, 2018, to claim the Big Ten West division championship, after both Purdue and Wisconsin had lost earlier in the day. The Wildcats won the division for the first time ever, and will make an appearance in the Big Ten Championship game for a chance to go to at least the Rose Bowl (A Northwestern win would send them to the Rose Bowl, but if Northwestern's opponent wins, it will get no less than the Rose Bowl). Northwestern will face either Michigan or Ohio State for the conference championship. If you're a Northwestern fan, you have every right to be excited.

Why am I writing about this? It's important for you to take the schools with tough academic standards seriously on the gridiron. It started with Stanford when Jim Harbaugh turned the program around and has been continued by David Shaw. Stanford won two Rose Bowls in four years. They also have won three Pac-12 championships under David Shaw. Northwestern has finally gotten over the hump of winning its division in 2018. What do Northwestern and Stanford have in common? Tough Academic Standards.

On average, from the 2016-17 school year, students who got admitted to Stanford have an ACT score between 31 and 35. The same metric was between 32 and 34 for students who got admitted to Northwestern. That includes the athletes, mind you. That's reason number one why schools with tough academic standards can be good at Division I-A football.

Head coaches David Shaw and Pat Fitzgerald both did their studies at the universities in which they coach at. That carries a ton of value when it comes to knowing what it takes to be successful at their university. Coach Fitzgerald was on Northwestern's last outright Big Ten championship team in 1995. (Northwestern won two additional conference co-championships in 1996 and 2000) but lost the tiebreaker for the Rose Bowl). They recruit the right players for their program, and they recruit players who also are academically gifted to get admitted to their university too. That's reason number two why schools with tough academic standards can be good at Division I-A football. They get some good athletes too. Think about Christian McCaffrey for Stanford or Bennett Skowronek for Northwestern making this touchdown grab.

Stanford and Northwestern are also two of the universities that have the least trouble with academic ineligibility since they understand the importance of being a student-athlete. Northwestern has had an APR rate in their football program of 990 or above (out of 1000) for each of the last 10 years and Stanford hasn't been below 977 in the same department over the same time period (courtesy of APR search). That's reason number three why schools with tough academic standards can be good at Division I-A football.

Both schools are the best they've ever been when it comes to consistency in the football program. Stanford has been bowl eligible 10 straight seasons counting this year, and Northwestern has won 33 games and counting in the last four seasons, which is the highest mark for any senior class to go to Northwestern. Northwestern also has three 10-win seasons in the last seven years; the only other Big Ten schools that can boast that claim are Ohio State (7), Wisconsin (4), and Michigan State (4), and Michigan (3). Of those three schools, Wisconsin is the only one with tougher academic standards. That's reason #4 why schools with tough academic standards can be good at Division I-A football.

If those four reasons aren't enough to convince you to take your opponent seriously, I don't know what will. If you don't take them seriously enough, they'll beat you with brains. Because yes, schools with tough academic standards CAN be good at Division I-A Football.