very recruited athlete is assigned an academic number by the schools admissions office. The academic number is based mostly on test scores (SAT or ACT) and GPA, there might be some consideration given to course load, but I\'m not positive. It\'s important to note though, that the coaches don\'t know everyone\'s exact academic number, so they have to estimate it based on the information an athlete provides them. [Also important to note: extracurricular, community service, NHS, and that stuff that kids kill themselves over in high school doesn\'t really matter for recruited athletes.]
On each team, every recruiting class has to average a certain academic number specific to that sport. For instance, cross country runners tend to be good students, so the average academic number a cross country recruiting class must achieve is relatively high, whereas men\'s hockey or football is on the relatively lower end.
Generally what happens is coaches try to recruit smart kids who are also fast, but they also recruit some really smart kids who aren\'t so fast, and some really fast kids who aren\'t so smart. The goal is to have most recruits at or above the average academic number, with one or two recruits with a much higher academic number in order to get a couple of studs with a lower academic number. The admission\'s office will normally let around 10 cross country runners per gender receive a coach\'s endorsement, and it those ten guys who get their numbers averaged.
So, the game plays out like this: It\'s best to be smart and fast. But if you\'re not so fast, you can still get in by being smart so long as you\'re just fast enough that a coach will support your application. And if you\'re not that smart, but you\'re really fast, a coach will still want you and they will try to get some smart recruits to offset your lower academic number. I also think there\'s a minimum academic number that you have to achieve to be recruited.
And mid 600s is good enough if your pretty fast, there will be other guys in your recruiting class with much better scores, which will help average the academic number.