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There have been numerous posts on this board and others regarding the league presidents not so secret meeting on league expansion, football scholarships and the academic index. I think its pretty much a given that the league is looking for all-sports members. Likewise, it is understood that without football scholarships the options are few.
The general consensus is that there is probably enough support at the presidential level to implement football scholarships but probably at a somewhat lower level than allowed by the NCAA. So what's the hangup? Its the super secret academic index.
As soon as we begin to talk expansion and someone mentions Albany, Marist, Stony Brook, etc we hear an outcry that they are not good enough academically and that their overall academic profile will give them hugh recruiting advantages. Thats no doubt true but it is easily corrected.
Under the current system, the athletes scores are compared to the scores of the general student population. A mathmatical calculaton allows them to be within a certain range of the general population. These numbers are not made public and only the presidents know who is bending the rules and what corrective action has taken place.
My suggestion is to eliminate the current system and implement a system of floors and ranges. It would work like this. Using football as an example, lets assume each school is allowed 15 scholarships per year. No football player could be admitted with a score under 1025, schools could have 4 players under 1075, 4 players between 1075 and 1125, all others above 1125. (Before you jump all over me, I'm just making up these numbers, floors and ranges for demonstration purposes only). The floors, ranges and number allowed could be adjusted by the presidents as needed. Obviously, each sport would have its own set of parameters. In the interest of transparency the league would publish a report annually listing the number of students by range for each school.
Thus, while the academic profile of the member schools may be different, the acdemic profiles of the athletic teams would be nearly identical. And, it may in some cases, raise the acedim profile of the member institutions.
Lafalum
The hang up is the principal that the athletic teams should represent the student body. You will not get the Lafayette faculty to agree to lower our standards to conform to some else's low averages because of football ability.
I do however believe there will be an adjustment in the AI calculations. The PL has hired consultants to look into this because it has become apparent we (the PL) are even at a disadvantage vis a vis the Ivy league the way the present AI is calculated,
I do agree the AI's or conformity or violation of the AI should be made public to insure member schools play by the rules. The NCAA does it to a certain extent with their graduation and performance indexes with public sanctions for those that don't comply.
I understand there is a meeting in December to finalize those changes and perhaps even to agree on the football scholarship issue.
The AI issue is huge as we have a requirement for scholarship athletes that is far more stringent than the PL AI at the moment and an agreement to change that might get us to conform to the rest of the league!!
TheTruth
lafalum: I think the first 3 lines of your post sums up the entire argument. The faculty will never approve of lowering standards for a student-athlete especially a football player. Quite honestly, it wouldn't be fair to offer somone a full scholarship to get a Lafayette education when they are not qualified academically. You can make the argument with our current system of financial aid but not a schoalrship. If Frank had full scholarships, he woud not need the standards lowered esp. with the new facilities.
ON the Voy forum, i am on record as being against football scholarships but it seems like this is becoming a bigger issue not only for the patriiot League but also the Ivy League. if you have a $30m facility, you may as well get the best use out of it.
Andy
For the three year period ending with the incoming freshmen class of 2004-2005, LC football players on athletic aid averaged 200 points lower on their SAT scores then the general student population, so there is definitely compromise. (or WAS, have we narrowed the gap in the last few years?)
I would think that scholarships (same old argument--eliminate the income barrier, larger pool, more selectivity, higher scores) would be more palatable to the powers that be than lowering the AI.
TheTruth
With scholarships, we would have to raise our academic requirements which I think is possible given the facilities.
