<p>Vandy and Northwestern lose.........DOWN WITH THE NERDS!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>In the Ivy League, sports is still all about playing the game, not marketing and merchandising. The Ivy League adheres to academic standards.</p>
<p>The</a> Ivy League: A place where it's still all about the game, not the money</p>
<p>The</a> Chronicle of Higher Education
Over the past five years, the University of Mississippi has tripled its operating budget and staff size. In 2003 it offered 50 tutoring sessions a week; now it holds 800.</p>
<p>Like many athletics programs, Ole Miss has added full-time "learning specialists" to work with its growing number of athletes with learning disabilities and other students who need additional help. Learning specialists give advice on taking better notes, for example, or improving study habits. Five years ago, learning specialists were rare on most campuses; the Rebels now have four, whose annual salaries total about $175,000.</p>
<p>Nearly 60 percent of athletes at the University of Oklahoma are "special admits," meaning they did not meet the university's admissions requirements, says Gerald Gurney, senior associate athletic director. That is one reason the Sooners spent more money last year helping athletes manage their schoolwork — $2.9-million — than any other respondent to the Chronicle's survey.</p>
<p>On average, Oklahoma's academic-services office spends $6,213 per student on its 470 athletes — almost twice what the program spent 10 years ago.</p>
<p>Campuses with fewer at-risk students are spending more, too. Duke University just opened a $1.8-million academic-support center inside the Michael W. Krzyzewski Center for Athletic Excellence. The university will not give dollar figures but says the academic-support program's overall operating budget, staff size, and tutoring budget are now five times as great as they were 10 years ago.</p>
<p>Ohio State University, which had one of the country's biggest athletics budgets last year, at $109-million, has more than quadrupled its academic-services budget since the 1997-98 academic year. This year it plans to spend $2.3-million helping players with a full-time staff that has nearly doubled in the past two years.</p>
<p>But unlike many big-time programs, the Buckeyes have resisted the facilities arms race. All of its academic services for athletes are housed in the Younkin Success Center, where all students go for counseling and tutoring.</p>
<p>"Woody Hayes said it best," says David Graham, Ohio State's director of student-athlete support services, referring to the famous Buckeye football coach. "You win with people, you don't win with property."</p>
<p>Overzealous Tutors</p>
<p>But as programs have expanded, some veteran academic advisers worry that institutions may lack the controls to prevent academic misconduct.</p>
<p>"When you grow too big too fast, sometimes you don't have the management or monitoring of all the staff that is required," says Phil Hughes, director of academic support for athletics at Kansas State University and past president of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. "That allows for a tutor who gets too excited or overzealous to go do something stupid."</p>
<p>In the past decade, 25 institutions have committed major NCAA violations involving academic fraud — anything from university employees' writing papers or taking tests for athletes to players' passing courses without actually having gone to class. Among the more recent and high-profile scandals was Florida State University's investigation into cheating in an online course. The case, which involved some 60 athletes, including about two dozen football players who were suspended just before a bowl game last year, led Florida State to put itself on probation for two years. The NCAA could impose a tougher punishment.</p>
<p>A LEAP IN LAVISH ACADEMIC CENTERS FOR ATHLETES</p>
<p>At least seven universities with big-time sports programs plan to add new facilities for academic support of athletes, or to renovate existing space, in the coming years. </p>
<p>Baylor University is building a new, $34-million multiuse athletics complex that will include nearly 10,000 square feet for academic support, including classrooms for players' tutors. </p>
<p>Indiana University at Bloomington is spending $3-million to build an academic facility for athletes inside its football stadium. The facility will be nearly seven times as big as the athletics department's existing academic-services space. </p>
<p>The University of Kansas is more than doubling its stand-alone Hale Achievement Center, to 20,000 square feet. </p>
<p>The University of Nebraska at Lincoln plans to double the 15,000 square feet devoted to academics inside its football stadium. </p>
<p>The University of Oregon is building a 34,000-square-foot academic facility for athletes to be finished in 2010. </p>
<p>The University of South Carolina at Columbia has broken ground on a $13.5-million academic facility for athletes. </p>
<p>The University of Texas at Austin will move into a new, 25,000-square-foot academic center this fall, built as part of a major football-stadium renovation.</p>
<p>Since then many institutions have gone on a building binge, spurred in part by pressure to recruit the best players. Now at least a dozen major college programs have academic-services buildings bigger than 20,000 square feet. Facilities on two campuses — the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge — exceed 50,000 square feet.</p>
<p>Every year the bar for excellence seems to rise. Few people figured anyone could top the elegant $15-million Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes, which LSU opened in 2002. But the next year, Texas A&M University rolled out the $27-million Alice and Erle Nye '59 Academic Center inside its football complex. The Nye center is so spacious, an A&M Web site says, all 600 Aggie athletes could use it at the same time.</p>
<p>But the biggest jaw-dropper, at least so far, belongs to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, whose Stephen M. Ross Academic Center opened in 2006. The three-story glass-and-steel structure, named for the New York real-estate developer and Michigan alumnus, has the look and feel of a modern corporate campus.</p>
<p>The University of Oregon's plans may top them all. It recently started clearing space for a 34,000-square-foot facility set to open in 2010. The three-story building is expected to have 37 individual tutoring rooms, a 112-seat lecture hall, and an amenity every aspiring NFL quarterback needs — a reflecting pool.</p>
<p>Philip H. Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike, and a Ducks alumnus, is covering construction costs (neither he nor the university will say how much the building will cost). But his gift comes with lots of strings attached. Through a subsidiary, Mr. Knight will control every detail of the building's construction, and his gift stipulates that the university must provide some $750,000 to fill the facility with the latest computer equipment and $250,000 annually for upkeep.</p>
<p>Initial plans prohibited ordinary students from using the building. But faculty members pressured university administrators into opening the auditorium to the student body, as well as some classrooms — as long as they are not being used by athletes.</p>
<p>"The big question I have is, Are these buildings in any way taking away from resources for other students? And I think they are," says Gwendolyn J. Dungy, executive director of Naspa — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. "Instead of raising money for these special facilities for athletes, universities could be out raising money for buildings that serve all students."</p>
<p>Collegehelp,
I dont think that your comparisons of Ivy athletics to places like Baylor, Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, etc. add much value. There are not a lot of students who are choosing between these schools.</p>
<p>If you want to truly inform on Ivy athletic life, compare the Ivies to Division I schools with which the Ivies share common applicants, eg, most prominently Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame. These colleges can offer superb academics AND superb, nationally competitive/relevant athletics. And that is what this thread is asking for-combinations of academics and sports. </p>
<p>For students interested in a stimulating athletic life for major collegiate sports like football, basketball (men & women) and baseball to go along with top academics, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame are the best.</p>
<p>The fairy tale of an undefeated season ended for Northwestern and Vanderbilt, but both still have high hopes for a post-season bowl bid. Cal and Stanford continue to do well and this year’s Big Game might actually be BIG for a change. Wake and U North Carolina continue to chug along and somehow, two weeks after getting creamed by Duke, U Virginia seems to have righted its season. Maybe someone from U Michigan should be calling the folks in Charlottesville for advice on how to do that. </p>
<p>Here is the full attendance and results from the latest weekend:</p>
<pre><code>10/11 , BOWL DIVISION
</code></pre>
<p>With 30,689 in attendance STANFORD defeated U Arizona by 24-23
DUKE , No game<br>
With 32,527 in attendance NORTHWESTERN lost to Michigan State by 20-37
RICE , No game<br>
With 43,619 in attendance VANDERBILT lost to @ Miss State by 14-17
With 60,500 in attendance NOTRE DAME lost to @ U North Carolina by 24-29
UC BERKELEY , No game<br>
With 52,398 in attendance U VIRGINIA defeated East Carolina by 35-20
With 58,128 in attendance UCLA lost to @ U Oregon by 24-31
With 107,267 in attendance U MICHIGAN lost to Toledo by 10-13
With 84,956 in attendance USC defeated Arizona State by 28-0
With 33,988 in attendance WAKE FOREST defeated Clemson by 12-7
With 60,500 in attendance U NORTH CAROLINA defeated Notre Dame by 29-24</p>
<pre><code>10/11 , CHAMPIONSHIP SUB-DIVISION & DIVISION III
</code></pre>
<p>With 11,263 in attendance HARVARD defeated Cornell by 38-17
With 4,688 in attendance PRINCETON lost to @ Colgate by 24-27
With 7,411 in attendance YALE defeated @ Dartmouth by 34-7
With 1,405 in attendance MIT lost to @ Curry by 27-59
With 3,135 in attendance U PENN defeated @ Georgetown by 27-7
With 2,127 in attendance COLUMBIA lost to Lafayette by 3-13
With 1,770 in attendance U CHICAGO defeated Oberlin by 33-7
With 7,411 in attendance DARTMOUTH lost to Yale by 7-34
With 912 in attendance WASH U lost to Wabash by 12-37
With 11,263 in attendance CORNELL lost to @ Harvard by 17-38
With 1,100 in attendance JOHNS HOPKINS defeated Dickinson by 36-34
With 7,493 in attendance BROWN lost to @ Holy Cross by 34-41
With 2,106 in attendance CARNEGIE MELLON defeated @ Allegheny by 41-14
With 3,135 in attendance GEORGETOWN lost to U Penn by 7-27
With 5,477 in attendance TUFTS lost to @ Trinity by 27-28</p>
<pre><code> NO TEAM
CALTECH
EMORY
</code></pre>
<p>I am adding a new feature this week, the USA Today/Sagarin Computer rankings that can be updated as well. For games through October 11, here are the current national rankings for the colleges competing in Division I football:</p>
<p>National Ranking as of end of play on 10/11</p>
<p>1 USC
15 UC BERKELEY
21 WAKE FOREST
22 U NORTH CAROLINA
27 VANDERBILT
34 NORTHWESTERN
39 NOTRE DAME
40 DUKE
47 STANFORD
53 U VIRGINIA
73 UCLA
76 RICE
82 U MICHIGAN
128 HARVARD
140 YALE
153 CORNELL
168 U PENN
172 BROWN
183 PRINCETON
217 DARTMOUTH
220 COLUMBIA
222 GEORGETOWN</p>
<p>The Brown game was particulary exciting this week: In 131 years of Brown football, no quarterback had ever thrown for 500 or more yards. Unfortunately for the Bears, quarterback Michael Dougherty's Ivy League record 526 yards passing weren't enough, as the Bears fell to Holy Cross, 41-34, in a shootout at Holy Cross' Fitton Field.</p>
<p>Some of those Bowl Division attendance numbers are pretty pathetic.</p>
<p>Hawkette- I want to again point out that, despite being D1 and having a top ranked baseball team, Rice is NOT the place for someone who wants fun college sports. The games are poorly attended and many of the baseball games happen AFTER the students are finished school for the year. My daughter is thrilled with Vanderbilt (grad school) because there actually IS an athletic culture. She loved Rice, but she has confirmed to me that most of the students are completely uninterested in Rice sports.</p>
<p>tsdad,
I'm not sure how you are looking at this, but you have to take into account the size of the schools involved and where the games are being played. For Division I colleges that played at home last weekend, here is how they compared in terms of the support offered by their local community relative to the size of their undergraduate student body. There are stark differences in the levels of support.</p>
<p>Ratio , Division I College </p>
<p>7.70 Wake Forest ( 33,988 attendance on 4412 undergrads )
5.19 USC ( 84,956 attendance on 16384 undergrads )
4.66 Stanford ( 30,689 attendance on 6584 undergrads )
4.11 U Michigan ( 107,267 attendance on 26083 undergrads )
3.93 Northwestern ( 32,527 attendance on 8284 undergrads )
3.48 U Virginia ( 52,398 attendance on 15078 undergrads )</p>
<p>1.78 Dartmouth ( 7411 attendance on 4164 undergrads )
1.69 Harvard ( 11,263 attendance on 6648 undergrads )
0.45 Georgetown ( 3135 attendance on 7038 undergrads )
0.29 Columbia ( 2127 attendance on 7285 undergrads )</p>
<p>mowc,
I hear you on Rice and concede that its athletic offering (and perhaps also that of Northwestern) would be at a different level than what one would experience at Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame. However, when compared to Ivy peers, Rice is different with much greater prominence/visibility in football (on national/regional TV several times a year) in a major conference and especially in baseball with a perennial national championship contender.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that ratio is a good measure unless you have good reason to believe that the proportion of undergrads who attend games is constant across the campuses you're comparing. An institution which doesn't sell a lot of student tickets (proportionally speaking) would actually have a much higher ratio than what you are calculating--you'd be undercounting their "local" support. I put local in quotes because some programs get a lot of loyal sesason ticket holders who travel.</p>
<p>hoedown,
I have tracked the away game data as well, but I think that the truer measure is that for home games as students are far more likely to come to those (and the cost is almost always $0) and is thus more closely relevant to the prospective undergraduate experience. </p>
<p>As for the ratio, it's meant as a broad measure and actually may undershoot the level of support for major historical players like Notre Dame or U Michigan, both of which sell out all of their games. Sell-outs are frequent at most of the other privates that I have noted, but not nearly as consistently as local attendance is influenced by the team's record. </p>
<p>By contrast, outside of the Harvard-Yale game, I wonder when there was last a sell-out in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>I wasn't talking about away games, but the distance traveled to "home" games. Labeling it "local" support when you have people driving/flying in from elsewhere doesn't seem right--it's just a language nitpick.</p>
<p>I don't think Michigan's ratio is under-reported, because I know we typically have about 20,000 student tickets sold per home game. Some of those are to grads, of course, but the way you're calculating things, the ratio of non-students to students in the stands is approximately correct. But is that true for other institutions? I don't know. I'm leery of the assumption that student tickets will equal # of undergrads, or that the calculation will be at the same level of accuracy for each campus.</p>
<p>Lack of alumni and community support. Wake Forest has been playing at an extremely high level for the last several years and all they could get was 34,000? Stanford is on the rise and they could only turn out 30,000 plus?</p>
<p>tsdad,
Wake is in a relatively small town (less than 200k in the area) and Wake is a smallish university (4412 undergrads and 2376 grad students) and the official stadium capacity is only 31,500 so the Demon Deacons have been playing to overflow crowds. If anything, their attendance and local support should be applauded.</p>
<p>As for Stanford, they have had a dreadful recent football history and that will take the wind out of the sails of many fans. They may be on the rise, but these things take time to catch on and for the enthusiasm and the tailgate scene to build. Still, Stanford probably should be getting more support and I think they'll get it for the November 15 date with USC.</p>
<p>Does anyone know when the last sell-out occurred in Ivy League football outside of the Harvard-Yale game?</p>
<p>hawkette wrote: "As for Stanford, they have had a dreadful recent football history and that will take the wind out of the sails of many fans"</p>
<p>I smile -- I cannot remember its been so long, whether we went to the Football stadium more to see the football game, or the Band.</p>