JDP
Masters Student
Posts: 581
Reg: 11-23-04
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04-29-23 03:54 PM - Post#356035
In response to CM
I did not realize the magnitude of the admissions issue at Dartmouth. Clearly each school should address their unique constraints from most binding.
I also agree turning on scholarships will have not immediately have all the Stanford players transfer to Ivies or even make Wharton the #1 transfer choice for finance major Hailey Van Lith. The elite players want to play against top competition and have tournament success. The Ivies would have to grow into that level of conference, but on the women’s side, the conference is close, top 10.
I acknowledge your point on there is an academic constraint limiting who teams may recruit. But, the Big Green aside, I feel the financial cost is greater than the academic. One can look at the recruits who post that they were offered by an Ivy and then go Power 5 or top Mid Major and see the talent drain due to economics. The top Ivy teams routinely attract top 100 women's players and those student athlete graduate and are successful. Princeton has attracted three WNBA draft picks to undertake thier course work and thesis. I believe the pool of admissible student that are top to elite athletes is larger than you may believe (we would need to calibrate our measures) and scholarships would see more elite student athletes choose to attend an Ivy.
But your point on some schools operating more like DIII schools is an important point. Institutional support is key. Not just admissions but from the president to provost to alumni to students. The more all constituencies are working together, the greater the potential for high level success. A coach who operates without consistent support, has a lower likelihood to build a consistently completive team. This institutional reality will shape who applies for the Dartmouth or any Ivy position.
Columbia would have made the tournament if the NET scores of the rest of the league were just slightly higher – as we saw close games (10 point winning margin or less) vs. low NET league teams will drop your NET rating when your NET ranking is in the 40s. And to the extent a member institution is actively instituting frictions to the athletic department that are detrimental to the overall league success, that member institution and the league should be intellectually honest and ask if that member institution’s vision remains likeminded to the other institutions. The Ivy League label is an athletic designation, not an academic designation.
Ivy Women’s Basketball could be an internal catalyst for change. Princeton women’s basketball has had phenomenal league success over the past decade. And no doubt they want to replicate their Field Hockey and Lacrosse national successes. And while recently they have won the opening round game, is their basketball ceiling constrained by the League’s DI – DIII effective bifurcation – either by what recruits will consider Princeton or how high the NCAA will seed the Tigers – what would it take for Princeton to host an opening round game, and can that be done without the Tigers absorbing more recruiting competition and having all Ivy teams being more competitive nationally?.
Scholarships could also be a catalyst for change. If the lawsuit settles with scholarships, will the DIII leaning schools want to remain and offer scholarships? Or could the settlement cause a reconstitution of the athletic conference?
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