is the environment these players are in. I can't speak to what sort of an environment Alabama's players are given, but in my opinion Notre Dame does a tremendous job of providing an environment where this type of thing is very strongly discouraged.
That's not to say that that Alabama encourages or allows this sort of thing, but there are a lot of things at Notre Dame, from the academic expectations and support, to the integrated dorms (our players are not held separately or above the other students), at least not from a housing perspective), to the leadership on the team. There's a culture at Notre Dame, I think, that encourages positive interaction between athletes and other students.
