Scholarships Done Right

Today's Daily Pennsylvanian offers a look at what being able to give scholarships has done for the Bucknell men's basketball program, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament two consecutive years on the strength of wins over Kansas and Bucknell oops, Arkansas. What the Patriot League school in Lewisburg, Pa., has discovered is that scholarships not only bring in better athletes, but better student-athletes according to Bucknell athletic director John Hardt:

"What we've found with scholarships in the mix is that we're able to recruit a higher quality student both as a basketball player and in the classroom."

The story suggests the addition of limited athletic scholarships is in line with Bucknell's overall scholarship policy:

"Unlike the Ivy League, whose institutions officially do not offer any merit-based aid, Bucknell offers this kind of aid in 'music, dance, the arts and also high academic achievement,' Hardt said.

According to Bucknell men's basketball coach Pat Flannery, the addition of scholarships levels the playing field with a couple of his better-known recruiting rivals:

"For years, Penn and Princeton have taken kids that we tried to recruit, and we've never been able to beat them out on kids that we've recruited. But now we have a situation where we're able to go into those same homes and recruit with them.

The NFL meetings begin today in Orlando, where Dartmouth alum Reggie Williams heads to work at Disney headquarters each morning. Expect the former Big Green and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker to get even more attention as a possible candidate for NFL commissioner.

It's basketball, but it's interesting stuff if your NCAA bracket is in the kind of tatters mind would have been if I'd filled one out ;-): There have been four perfect Final Four predictions out of about 3 million attempts in the ESPN.com pool according to this New York Times story. That's compared to 4,172 who turned the trick a year ago. Blame George Mason. The story reports the cbs.sportsline.com pool was zero for 2 million!

A sure sign of spring: Our 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia camper bus (with 91,000 miles on it) came out of dry dock yesterday. I usually pull the battery for the winter but I didn't bother this time and it started on the first crank. Amazing. We plan on using the ancient VW for our cross country/national parks tour with the kids this summer. Be sure to enter the pool for where it will break down and when!