Athletic Scholarships?

Like football going to the playoffs, basketball holding a postseason tournament and Dartmouth actually settling on a mascot/nickname, the concept of athletic scholarships is an idea that comes up in these precincts on a regular basis. In light of recent changes to financial aid policies at several Ivy League schools (including Dartmouth), it's not a bad time to revisit the idea of athletic grants in aid, which is exactly what the Daily Pennsylvanian does today. From this DP story on the "financial arms race:"

The richest Ivy League schools are offering more and more money to students and are gaining an insurmountable advantage in recruiting, Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said.

Bilsky, who thinks grants in aid are worth considering, says:

"What's inevitably going to happen is that there's going to be a divide in the league. Not based on philosophy, but on resources."

In a story noting some of the advantages of grants in aid, Bilsky says:

"Qualified students right now might choose a Stanford or a Vanderbilt or a Duke for financial reasons, but would really love to go to the Ivy League. So now you'd be able to compete scholastically for those kind of students."

And Bilsky adds ...

"The fear that people sometimes have when you talk about athletic scholarships is that they think it means that the academic pool would get lower. The truth of the matter is that the opposite would happen. It would get stronger, because the number of candidates would increase."

The Columbia Spectator also chimes in on the subject. The Spec talked with several coaches, including Paul Nixon of the Columbia women's basketball team. From the story:

Nixon believes Harvard and Yale have all the advantages they need. His first reaction to hearing about the aid policy changes: “the rich get richer.”

Thoughts? Feel free to add a "comment," below and don't worry. Anonymous means anonymous, even to me ;-)

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer was one of the Tennessee Titans who turned out for a benefit to help tornado victims according to this story.

If you've been forming opinions on the Dartmouth recruiting class for football, you aren't alone. It's what all of us who follow this stuff do. Even, it turns out, a columnist who proceeded to offer opinions on a number of FCS classes after writing on The Sports Network site:

No matter how much you attempt to dissect a school's recruiting success ... the fact remains that it is all speculative, and no one really knows how good a player will be until he steps foot on campus and begins to practice.

For the record, the columnist had nice things to say about the New Hampshire recruiting class (uh oh) and also the one brought in by Georgetown and onetime Dartmouth assistant Kevin Kelly.

Former Dartmouth wide receiver Brian Evans had his best showing of the indoor track season at the 2,500-athlete Valentine Invitational at Boston University last weekend. He ran 6.58 in the 55 meters and 22.20 in the 200. From a story in the Daily Dartmouth:

“(He) looked very good in [the 200 meter], it was his fastest time of the season,” men’s head coach Barry Harwick ‘77 said.

“(Evans is) a young man who gets ready for the big meets,” women’s head coach Sandra Ford-Centonze said. Ford Centonze also coaches the men’s sprinters.

And finally, the snow/rain/ice pellets stopped last night and then the deep freeze came. After all those annoying visits by our plow when we had 4 inches of powder in the driveway, the truck didn't show this time. Now we have 6-inch ruts frozen in place. Ah, life in paradise ;-)