Wouldn't most of the other colleges say that the recruit can get a good education at that school. I would not think any school would say come here as it is easy and our education sucks. All schools think they are good academic school or they would not have any students go there. Just go out and look at some other school's website.
I went out to o$u's website and found this on the home page:
Ohio State grads plan to "Do Something Great"
Grads have impressive achievements in academics, community service, study abroad, and research
The company I work for is out of Columbus, OH and they think that o$u has great academics.
Even U$C has on the home page:
Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the University of Southern California is one of the world’s leading private research universities.
scUM even talks about all the great things they have done.
It is really up to the recruit to figure out how good the academics are, but they are hearing the same thing from most schools on how good the academics are at that school. I can understand that most ND fans think the recruit is just saying this, but they are hearing if from most schools.