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Post being replied to

Question for you, or whoever is inclined (long) by ribs

One of my closest and oldest friends is highly placed in athletics administration at a mid-major school in Ohio. He and I spoke for a bit Saturday about Notre Dame and Ohio State football. He is well aware of my connection to Notre Dame. He genuinely believes that Friday was as good as it can get for Notre Dame. The only thing that surprised him was the fact that ND made it as far as they did. For the record, I don’t necessarily agree with him. He is NOT an OSU fanboy at all and he claims to be agnostic. But he is well-connected in Columbus. He’s actually shown good respect to Notre Dame over the years, and knows a few people within the program.
Nonetheless, he claims that ND is playing by substantially different rules. For example, the minute an Ohio State player sets foot on campus his freshman year, he is majoring in Football. Everything else is secondary. Everything. Classes are scheduled entirely around football activities. Every minute of every day is structured around their major- Ohio State Football. The players take pride in it. They don’t even pretend to be regular students. It is celebrated. Players are expected to enroll in classes and “focus areas” (his words) which allow for their major to be exclusively Ohio State Football. Recruits enroll at Ohio State knowing that they will compete DAILY with the best of the best in their major- Football- and they will likely graduate with a Football degree from Ohio State. And when they graduate from OSU with a degree in OSU football, the world is their oyster. It’s a hell of a sales pitch to a prospect. To the surprise of no one, apparently Urban was a phenomenal closer- he would supplement all of these “football” points with the value of an Ohio State diploma, for the benefit of Mom and Dad. Total package.
My friend believes 100% that ND is not recruiting or signing from the same pool of prospects, and it’s not particularly close. The "business" of college football is moving things further and further away from the ND model.
I imagine this perception is nothing new. I assume it wasn’t that different in 1990. Am I wrong?