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As for academics, the Blue Devils regularly graduate 90 percent or more of their football players, but that doesn't mean the best football players who qualify to attend Duke end up signing with Duke.

Duke recruits from a relatively smaller pool of potential recruits than most BCS programs, but Brodhead said those who worked on the plan to improve football never recommended lowering current admissions standards for athletes to widen that pool.

The plan does recommend the admissions office personal interview all potential recruits with academic questions. The school thus hopes to identify more football players and athletes who might fall on the low end of Duke's admission requirements but are motivated to succeed.

Duke already interviews all prospective men's and women's basketball players. The school feels that, with additional admissions staff, the football program and Olympics sports also could benefit from the practice.

In order to better emulate its opponents, Duke will add student assistants to help at football practices and add qualified walk-ons to increase the size of the football roster to 105 players.

Duke also wants to eventually add an indoor football practice facility that would also serve Olympic and intramural sports teams. Duke has two football practice fields, but neither is 100 yards in length.

The strategic plan also formalized things the program already was doing: Keeping coaches' salaries competitive to reduce the turnover that disrupts the recruiting process and scheduling one Division I Championship Subdivision opponent each season since wins over those teams now count for bowl eligibility.

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