Debating the merits of athletic recruiting and admissions preference at Brown

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

Pro side

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2017/04/02/betuel-16-defense-ivy-league-recruiting/

Con side

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2017/03/24/colby-20-stop-overvaluing-brown-athletics/

2

I wonder if Mr. Colby, the author of the ‘con’ essay, used sentences like this in his admission essay: "Athletes at Brown are among the most hardest-working and talented students in NCAA Division I competition. "

Mr. Colby’s argument is basically Brown sucks at athletics, so if they didn’t recruit and just assembled teams from the student body, Brown teams would only suck slightly less than they do now:

3

The fact that the member schools are actively pursuing/getting lucrative deals with businesses that want to associate their products with Ivy brand names suggests that admissions support for athletes is likely to continue, imo.

Ivy League Rolls Out Brand-New Hoops Tourney to Cash In on Brand
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-10/ivy-league-s-got-a-hoops-tourney-an-espn-deal-and-big-ambitions

Why Under Armour Is Paying Big Ten Money to Sponsor Yale Sports
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/why-under-armour-is-paying-big-ten-money-to-sponsor-yale-sports

“Under Armour announced a new deal with Yale Athletics Monday, and while the terms were not officially disclosed, a person with knowledge of them said the Baltimore-based apparel company will pay $16.5 million to outfit the Bulldogs for the next 10 years. That’s more per year than Nike Inc. pays to outfit Rutgers or Illinois, according to the Portland Business Journal’s contract database, and dwarfs the $460,000 Nike pays Iowa State – all major-conference programs whose basketball and football teams regularly appear on national TV, giving their sponsors’ logos valuable visibility across the U.S.”

4

I read both of those opinion pieces. I side with the “pro” argument that athletes provide a diversity that ought to be valued at Brown. The academic index requirements for recruited athletes assures that these applicants are qualified and will contribute to Brown’s academic community. And their extraordinary work ethic and drive will impress their classmates and serve them well throughout their lives. Surveys of those successful in the corporate world, for example, reveal that the most successful had participated at the highest levels in competitive athletics.

If Brown were to eliminate all athlete preference, it would not simply be a tad less competitive. It would become a low level division 3 program. Like it or not, even D3 schools offer some preference to athletes. Even MIT has an admissions mechanism by which coaches can flag their most desired recruits. The suggestion that athletes should just “get in on their own” denies the randomness of the Ivy admissions process. MANY students who are super qualified are rejected. Coaches simply could not form complete teams without some input in admissions.

I appreciated the “pro” piece for its expression of concern for a possible underlying anti-athlete sentiment. Do Brown non-athletes walk around campus judging harshly each and every athlete they encounter? Before they discriminate in this way, do they even take the time to distinguish recruits from walk-ons? What about recruits with near perfect test scores and 4.0 GPAs? What about math nerds from North Dakota? Remember that admissions also favors those who contribute to geographic diversity. What about those students who are the first in their family to attend college, another group favored by admissions? Are they judged harshly, simply for their membership in this “group” of students, without any knowledge of their individual skills? My best guess is that the overwhelming majority of Brown students are NOT this narrow-minded, uninformed, and harshly judgmental.

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I could not have said it any better than @profdad2021 either literally or figuratively
well said

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I know of a minority kid that got into Brown as a football player and had to take the ACT three times just to get a 25 before he got accepted. I know of similar stories all throughout Ivy League football. I wish the Ivy League would stop acting like all their football players are all future cancer researchers and computer engineers. Yes, some of the kids are smart and yes they work hard, but quit the elitism and the looking down at excellent student athletes at lesser ranked schools. The football coaches at the Ivy’s want to win and will get away with as much as the admissions department permits.