<p>I have what is probably a dumb question. I hope you guys will bear with me. I have been looking at this ivy league academic index business and see that it has these four bands, from high (say over 201, I have seen different numbers) to low (minimum 171 or elsewhere I have seen 176). I notice that there are fewer spots for players both on the top band and the bottom band, while the lion's share of 20+ spots are reserved for the middle two bands.</p>
<p>This seems counterintuitive to me, but say a player improves his test scores or gpa and moves from a middle band to the high band, say from a 190 to a 202. Does this mean there are fewer chances for him to have a recruiting spot? 202 would still be significantly below the statistics for most very well qualified applicants to the Ivy League, so football would have to be part of the equation.</p>
<p>I know there is a logical answer to this that is not jumping out at me just now.</p>
<p>The AI floor was adjusted from 171 to 176 last year - so disregard the 171. If a coach is allowed 2 in the 176-186 (arbitrary numbers I’m making up), 8 in the 187-195 band, 12 in the 196-205 bands and 8 must be in the highest (over 206) band…it’s okay if he has more recruits in a higher band. In other words, think of it like this: all recruits must be above 176, 28 must be above 186, 20 must be above 195 and 8 must be above 206.</p>
<p>Hope that makes sense.</p>
<p>Oh! I see. When you phrase it like that, I understand. So, theoretically, all the spots could be filled by student athletes in the highest band, it’s just not likely statistically?</p>
<p>And is this because football players in general have poorer grades and scores than their peers in other sports? Or is it that many of the football players with great grades and scores are either not at the top of their sport, or are attracted away by Division 1 scholarship programs? I was reading about one top California recruit with over 2100 SATs who was being courted by ivies but who ended up going to a large D1 program.</p>
<p>Seems strange that it’s possible to fill a swim or tennis team with high AI’s but not basketball, hockey or football. All sports take a lot of effort, so the time commitment can’t be it.</p>
<p>I don’t think the band system in football is necessarily due to football players having lower grades and test scores. I think it has more to do with preventing coaches from bringing on 10 guys at the AI floor and balancing it with 20 high AI recruits that will never play. When you’re bringing on 30 recruits like they do in football, there’s a lot of potential for index shenanigans. </p>
<p>Along those lines - I don’t think there’s an inverse relationship between AI and athletic ability, but there is obviously a much bigger pool of athletes at the 176 cutoff than the 205 cutoff.</p>