Wesleyan has cheerleaders now??? Last time I attended a game there, for Parents Weekend (admittedly like 15 years ago), there were no cheerleaders, though there was a very entertaining group called the “Queerleaders” which seemed much more in the spirit of Wes. As far as I could tell, the only tailgating going on was the Williams fans who were trying to take the game seriously. No one on the Wes side appeared to be.
I guess things have changed. I found the whole thing charming when I visited.
Yeah, the article makes it seem as if the 20% number is some sort of leading edge. It’s not. I can’t think of any present-day sports team (other than field hockey) Wesleyan didn’t field forty years ago. They’re just winning more games.
@BooBooBear I went to Williams in the late '70’s and my stepson is a junior now. Williams regularly wins the award for best D3 sports school, based on most success in national championships across all sports – and so athletics is a huge focus there. Having said that, my stepson and I have had the same experience 35 years apart: a very quirky, interesting group of kids, many of whom are athletes and you don’t even know it. The campus is not divided among groups; it’s very fluid. Many many many athletes are also brilliant in the classroom. A small, rural LAC isn’t for everyone but I wouldn’t let sports be a worry in that regard.
The discussion on attendance made me laugh out loud. We used to live in Western PA and our 1400 student high school regularly got 4,000-5,000 people at their home games. My kids’ much larger HS in Massachusetts is lucky if it can pull in 250. It’s all perspective.
Texas high schools have football stadiums that hold thousands of fans every Friday night, with the concessions stands professionally run, not just a bunch of boosters selling soda and hot dogs. My kids’ high school in California had a $40M athletic facility - and no football stadium! It had a football practice field with the track around it and it was used for soccer and lacrosse, but the football games were played at the community college stadium about 5 miles away. The pool cost $10M.
@twoinanddone Now I can support a $10M pool…especially if they open it up to a master swim team. 
They ran the athletic complex separate from the school. The school teams had to pay to participate ($1500 PER SPORT). That pool was used by 10 or more teams, clubs, organizations, and there was almost always someone in it. There were 2-3 baseball fields, under the lights and used constantly. Same with soccer. If I drove by Sunday night at 9pm, the lights were on. There was a $1M golf pitch and putt that was donated by a parent.
My daughter’s college probably has similar value in its facilities, but they are spread out across the campus so don’t seem as impressive. It also has a beautiful pool for you, SwimmingDad.
Hmmm. My D was a recruited athlete (from many of Wes peer schools) who will be attending Scripps next year. At every school she got a pre read, she was told she needed to be at least in middle 50%. One coach that recruited her asked her to explain those few B’s she got. We visited Wes and and attended an elite camp there, I am surprised. But, maybe not, womens sports vs mens helmet sports. I also read that may of the football players are economics majors, that is not a sluch major. So maybe these white kids are not at the top of the academic profile, but I doubt they are bottom of the barrel. I would hope though, these schools don’t end up with the frat/bro attitude that many have.
It comes up in the race threads from time to time, as at elite schools it is mostly white (and often fairly wealthy) athletes who benefit from the admissions hook.
Other articles on this generally -
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-j-park/the-white-admissions-adva_b_6932670.html
https://psmag.com/education/affirmative-action-minority-students-and-rich-white-kids
…mostly these discuss Daniel Golden’s book The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges which posits that athletic admissions preference, like legacy and development admits, are in place to keep wealthy white numbers high.