Curious to hear thoughts on this. It earned a big eye roll in my house, particularly the “The suit argues Ivy League schools illegally conspired to limit financial aid” part. In my experience, several of the schools have some of the most generous financial aid policies out there. I also don’t buy the whole exploitation angle.
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if athletes want athletic scholarships, then perhaps they shouldn’t be looking at the Ivy League? It’s a well-known policy. And these schools offer zero merit scholarships, so should athletes be favored over musicians, artists, promising STEM students, or others who also don’t get merit aid at Ivies? Moreover, I doubt that athletics generate significant income at Ivies (at least they surely didn’t at mine, which wasn’t strong in the usual big-time sports when I was a student there). Perhaps if there were athletic scholarships, the Ivies would be able to field stronger teams, but this is a decision the conference has made.
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Many schools are upfront on scholarship policy. I would wonder why they chose to play there ? I’m not a lawyer but it seems a pointless lawsuit to me. They didn’t have to sign to play there. No one is entitled to a scholarship. They are ‘given’ at the discretion of the provider.
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I will admit I’m a bit ignorant when it comes to college sports, but I mean, if you want to attend a university that offers athletic scholarships then…maybe choose a university that offers athletic scholarships? Is anyone forced to attend Harvard or Brown or whatever? They chose to accept admissions at a school that they knew would not provide an athletic scholarship. CHOSE. Were not forced. I get that some sports bring in a lot of money through ticket sales and such, but all the same…They made an informed choice in accepting admission. They were not deceived or forced to sign. No one promised them a scholarship then rescinded it. And I have to admit I have a bit of emotional reaction to it, too - so many people would LOVE to be in their position, and this seems like they don’t appreciate it. I get that’s emotion, however, and not an actual argument.
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I hope they win that suit. That would give the Ivies a reason to give up their athletics programs and free up more space for academic admits. Those who want big time sports excitement can head on over to Fairleigh Dickinson.
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The Ivy League is literally an athletic conference. Is it even the Ivy League without athletics?
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I don’t understand how the athletes suffered damages, as others said, they didn’t have to choose an Ivy League school with no athletic scholarships. If this lawsuit stood, wouldn’t all D3 schools be at risk too?
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I have yet to meet an Ivy sport that is a cash cow. I don’t think anyone is being financially exploited by Brown Basketball. Don’t people have better things to do with their time?
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They can retain lacrosse and crew to preserve the traditional pipeline from prep schools.
Yeah, I don’t really know. I’ve heard at some colleges they do bring in a lot of money, but as I said, I don’t know much about it. And the sports that do bring in money are pretty limited (like football and men’s basketball). Unfortunately women’s sports don’t tend to make much if any money, so that would not count in favor of one of the plaintiff’s who plays for the women’s basketball team.
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And what about underfunded programs? Not every team offers athletic money. Not every team is able to. Some are allotted no scholarship funds at schools that offer big scholarship dollars to other sports (basketball I am looking at you).
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They could just stop recruiting and just take walk on players. Also, even at ivys that recruit, I don’t think the obligation is for more than a year.
Even for popular games like football, the only rivalries that matter on campus are between Harvard and Yale or some other ivy pair. Even these games are poorly attended — I’ve heard that the stadium tends to be 15-20% filled.
Not a certain type of lawyer, no.
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There’s often no obligation that an Ivy recruited athlete makes the team. Generally, they would of course, since to earn a slot they are likely competitive for the team…but obligation no (and many Ivies require teams to hold tryouts each year). Some recruits never see playing time either.
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I can tell you that when I was an undergrad, students didn’t have to pay for tickets. Maybe they do now? I have no idea. There are no lucrative television contracts. Maybe some merch sales, but probably not a lot. I just don’t see how athletics pull in a lot of money for Ivies.
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Perhaps kids should also be suing for academic merit awards that other non ivies offered that they didn’t receive by attending Ivies😀
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Haha. I told DH “maybe all those Rhodes Scholars should sue for exploitation of their achievements on social media.”
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These type of comments make it sound like you have a chip on your shoulder and an axe to grind.
I don’t understand all the resentment against Ivy athletes. You’d be surprised how many were/are top students in their own right all while dedicating endless hours to a demanding activity.
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I find it impressive how strong the Ivy League schools are at some sports without offering any athletic scholarships.
However, students went into this knowing that the Ivy League does not give athletic scholarships. If they wanted athletic scholarships, there are lots of other very good universities that do offer athletic scholarships. If you want to attend a top university and you also want an athletic scholarship, then apply to Stanford, Duke, Michigan, UC Berkeley, UCLA, or any one of a very long list of other very good schools that do offer athletic scholarships.
And yes, I do know some students who had the stats to be competitive for Ivy League schools (understanding that “competitive” does not mean “admitted”), but that applied to schools that offer merit based aid. We each make our own choices based on what is important to us.
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Princeton just made the top 16 at March madness. People are in shock. Incidentally these athletes don’t get any special respect for being on the basketball team. Other students are polite and congratulate them of course.
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