Lafayette Adding Hoop Scholarships

A story in the Allentown Morning Call reports that Lafayette, which had been the Patriot League's last holdout against basketball scholarships (not counting Army and Navy), will begin awarding them in the 2006-07 school year. The story is interesting for the insights it offers on the difficulty Lafayette had recruiting without scholarships against schools in its own conference. (The Patriot League does not offer merit-based football scholarhips.)

A little background: When the Patriot League was founded in 1986 (as the Colonial League), it was considered the "sister conference" of the Ivy League and eschewed athletic scholarships. (That was the basis for the unofficial scheduling arrangement between the two leagues that to this day has Dartmouth football hamstrung.) What the Patriot League schools came to realize soon enough is that, everything else being equal, fishing in the same small pool with the Ivy League for elite student-athletes was a losing proposition. Adjustments in the football financial aid policy at some member schools helped the league regain its competitive footing against the Ivies in football and the reintroduction of scholarships has done, and should do, the same in basketball, as a quote from Lafayette athletic director Bruce McCutcheon in this Express-Times story suggests:

"This allows these coaches to go after the kids everyone else has been going after. When we go head-to-head with (Patriot League member) American, with their scholarships, or the Ivy League for a student-athlete we have an opportunity to get them. Before this, we didn't have a shot."