Academics
and Athletics Square Off
by Noah Hutson-Ellenberg and Scott Judah The Ivy League, as a collective athletic
entity, is getting better, and in some sports
(basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey
especially) it is getting much better. These successes
comprise a phenomenon that has widely been celebrated
from Hanover to Philadelphia, and no doubt it should be.
The atmosphere within which the Ivy League currently
conducts its operations, however, gives some reasons for
long-term concern. The current Ivy League scholar-athlete
often operates in a system increasingly indifferent to
his scholarship while increasingly demanding of athletic
success. The newly national scope of recruiting, the
full-time nature of athletic participation, and the
pressure on coaches to keep up with the Jones’
— those Ivy League programs that are regularly
producing professional-level athletes — seem
dangerously likely to combine with existing trends in Ivy
League athletic and admissions departments to change the
nature of Ivy League athletics to something approaching
the mentality of a major, Division I conference.
“Far better it is to dare mighty
things, to win great triumphs, even though
checkered by failure, than to rank with those
poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer
much, because they live in the gray twilight that
knows neither victory nor defeat.”
The Ivy League, as a collective athletic
entity, is getting better, and in some sports
(basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey
especially) it is getting much better. These successes
comprise a phenomenon that has widely been celebrated
from Hanover to Philadelphia, and no doubt it should be.
The atmosphere within which the Ivy League currently
conducts its operations, however, gives some reasons for
long-term concern. The current Ivy League scholar-athlete
often operates in a system increasingly indifferent to
his scholarship while increasingly demanding of athletic
success. The newly national scope of recruiting, the
full-time nature of athletic participation, and the
pressure on coaches to keep up with the Jones’
— those Ivy League programs that are regularly
producing professional-level athletes — seem
dangerously likely to combine with existing trends in Ivy
League athletic and admissions departments to change the
nature of Ivy League athletics to something approaching
the mentality of a major, Division I conference.
