Fordham Scholarships a done deal

Lafalum · Fordham Scholarships a done deal

Fordham will offer scholarships beginning 2010 and they will continue their schedule with PL schools until 2012. They are eligible for PL championship and the auto-bid this year. Bucknell president says the league will re-evaluate scholarship stance in 2010 at that point Fordham will decide where to go.
My understanding is Weis fought hard for a delay in any decision which indicates to me there may be a working plurality for scholarships. Lafayette continues to insist implementing scholarships will add to present costs because of Title IX since we do not spend all of our budgeted aid for women's sports now.
My belief is that this is inevitable if the PL is survive.

RichH

Agree, from what I can ascertain, those opposed to merit aid were able to table decision However there does seem to be a plurality in favor of merit aid if we include FU. $$$ issue seems to be major issue with Pards and GU. HC is a censored to understand. Fr. Brooks has said he wouldn't mind if Football went to III. HUH????

Lehigh statement from AD and Coen basically reiterates LU support for merit aid.

TheTruth

RichH: Doesn't surprise about LC, GU or HC stance. Returned for Reunion this past weekend. Talked to many staff and cost cutting was the number one topic. Bad time for the College to even mention scholarships for football.

carney2

I also spent some time on campus this reunion weekend and heard Coach Tavani exclaim to a small group of Maroon Club/FoLF alums that he also favors football scholarships. Now there's a surprise - the head football coach favors a move to take the program to the next level. I doubt if you would get anything different from any of the Patriot League coaches.

The big differences between Coach Tavani's statements and the rumblings coming out of Lehigh seem to be

1. Coach T's comments were made more or less in private. Comments by Lehigh's Andy Coen and AD, Joe Sterett have been quoted in the media.

2. Lehigh's coach Coen was joined in these pro-scholarship comments by AD Sterett, thereby giving the appearance that there is some sort of administrative support for the scholarship issue.

We've been through this over and over, but each school has its own cross to bear:

Moving the money from equivalencies to merit aid would not create much of a problem in terms of actual cash outlays, but would be a public relations disaster in this economic climate.

One of the biggest differences among the schools is the status of their Title IX compliance. Some fear that they would have a financial mountain to climb here. Lafayette appears to be among this number.

A second difference among the schools is the state of their endowment and their dependence thereon to meet operating costs. Each school took a hit as the market tanked, and I have no idea if Lafayette did better, worse, or the same as the others. Lafayette however, is reputed to depend on the endowment for 30% of its annual budget, while Lehigh, as an example, only requires 15% of its annual expenditures from that source. Obviously, recovery in the endowment is a bigger deal for Lafayette than for Lehigh - and this will not happen overnight.

The question becomes who will now be for, and who against, football scholarships. Obviously Fordham is "for," while Georgetown and Holy Cross are reputedly "against." I don't know how this sort of thing is decided, but it would appear that 3 of the remaining 4 would be required to vote "yes," and I would think that there would have to be something better than "me too" or lukewarm support somewhere along the line. Of course, it could be like like basketball where everyone was green lighted to do whatever they desired - or (not mentioning any names) do nothing and spend a decade jousting at windmills.

RichH

Geez, Please promise me that LC wontdo the same with fb aid as it did with bball. I do think the pro side needs LC as well as us to prevail.

NU to PL as an assoc. isnot a half bad idea assuming the major CAA shakeup everyone is awaiting

Pard4Life

What was lehigh's official statement? Does anybody have a link?

Not sure what else there is to talk about and debate on this subject since the options are pretty straightforward. I thought there would be more to talk about when the time came.

Pard4Life

And it must be a slow news cycle, but this topic is one of the sidebar headlines on the yahoo sports college football page. "first time scholarships since 1954"

RichH

lehighsports.com click on football

cr

Lehigh may say they are for merit aid, but how much? Will they endorse 60 schollies which is the number that Fordham will be offering?

Kiltedpard

NU to PL as an assoc. isnot a half bad idea assuming the major CAA shakeup everyone is awaiting[/quote]

NU = Northeastern?

Lafalum

Why not a full member. Its close to HC.