<p>Do Ivy Leagues like some sports more than others? I've heard that they prefer sports with small, harder to make teams like tennis than sports with huge teams like soccer or football</p>
<p>Every Ivy League school has a football team and each year every team in the league must replace players whose eligibility has expired after four years. That means each team needs freshman candidates for football. In my opinion, having been a football recruit at one time, I know that Yale coaches like their other Ivy counterparts have to work hard to recruit athletes who can fit Yale's Academic Index. Yale coaches attempt to recruit (from a pool of hundreds) about 30 talented high school football players who they think will meet the Admissions Department criteria for a potential student. Tennis and soccer team coaches probably present the Admissions Office with a smaller list-those teams have fewer players. Overall, in my opinion, Yale attempts to recruit the best students first and this means the coaches have to be precise in the candidates they present to Admissions. I would think that football gets more recruits because on every Ivy League campus it is the sport with the most players.</p>
<p>Rowing is a HUGE deal at the Ivies as well (specifically Harvard and Yale).</p>
<p>I also poke fun at my history teacher (who went to Harvard and was a varsity rower) that he only got in b/c of rowing. He counters by saying that he was only on the Freshmen team and then JV for the first 3 years :p</p>