How smart is Manti Te’o? In one form or another, that is a question that everyone has asked in the last week. What’s the best way to determine how intelligent someone is? No, not by seeing if he or she will enter into a year-long relationship and fall in love with a man pretending to be a woman over the Internet! The best way to determine someone’s intelligence is standardized testing. With a college kid we must look no further than the SATs.

According to a Scout.com/True Blue Sports article from 2008, Te’o scored a 1540 on his SATs. Under the old, 1600 SATs, 1540 would be pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately, Te’o would have taken the SATs after the newer 2400-point test was put into effect in 2005. This chart on the Internet tells us that a 1540 on the new 2400-based SATs is equal to around 1050 on the old 1600 SATs. If you look at the Notre Dame admissions page, you will note that 1050 is below the average SAT score of Notre Dame students.

Looking back at this article from USA Today, the average SAT scores in 2008 were just above 1500. That means that Te’o is of average intelligence when compared to high school kids who were planning on attending college. There you have it. How smart is Manti Te’o?

Manti Te’o is not as smart as the average Notre Dame student, but he is as smart as an average college student. Unless you believe in stuff like racial bias in the SATs. Or would like a common sense component brought into the conversation. How smart is Manti Te’o? I don’t know.