<p>I agree Originaloog. That is an issue that Dartmouth and Columbia have been wrestling with. The ivy league has its roots as an athletic league. Which means really that it is the sports that in a sense define them as we refer to them by their sports handle. Schools like Cornell and Penn are large enough to support full sports rosters, and HPY get cream of the crop in every discipline. But Dartmouth has been struggling mightily with its sports identity. It tried to get rid of its swim team a few years ago, and I think there are many who would like to get rid of NCAA sports entirely. Let Syracuse take its spot in the Ivy League. That would shake things up a bit. So, yes, the smaller schools can be greatly impacted by the sports teams because of the sheer numbers. </p>
<p>However, for students looking for a school where they can enjoy a sport, possibly get some money for it, and yet not get in the way of academics, the best way to go, is to look at the team rankings within the NCAA, and then call about scholarship info. Ivy sports that are under the auspices of NCAA are tough on the schedule. Even the lowest rated ivy team is playing against Cornell and Harvard, and they get creamed. Club teams are the other way to go, but there is no money in them, and the quality of those teams really vary from school to school. S played on a club team recreationally for a secondary sport, and though he had the athletic prowress, the time commitment was too much with a primary sport. But there are schools where it would have been less demanding and he would have been able to do this. And there are club teams in the big 10 that would have rivaled his NCAA team. The variance is so great, that you do have to check each school individually. In fact, S visited every single coach at the schools where he applied to see how the team fit into the university infrastructure and how the students liked being student athletes. That was the most important issue, and though I was a bit put back at the time, after seeing his time commitment to the sport and team, it made sense. It affected schedules, majors, other ECs, where he lived, who he spent his time with. And this was at a D-3 school that revered the sport, and could roundly whip most of the D-1 schools in its area.</p>