<p>Uh, Division III status? Let’s not be silly, here. Although football games don’t have a great attendance record in recent history, the programs are pretty good. Penn finished ranked #14 in the nation for the FCS (Divison I-AA), which means it was better than 131 teams in the Football Championship Subdivision. If not for a completely stupid Ivy League rule prohibiting teams from playing more than ten games in a season, Penn would have received an automatic bid to the 20 team FCS playoffs this year; last year we also would have received an automatic bid. In addition, Harvard and Yale both have reputable football teams which get consideration for the top 25 every year in recent memory.</p>
<p>Think of it this way… Penn’s football team this year was probably good enough to beat Indiana and Purdue, considering it hung tight with the best teams in the FCS and considering that some of the better FCS teams routinely beat the worse FBS teams. Is Penn as good as, say, Temple, UNC or any of the unmentioned Big Ten teams? No way. But for not having scholarships and having next to no pro recruiting, we don’t do too badly for ourselves.</p>
<p>Honestly, the Ivy League is really shooting itself in the foot by continuing its policies. Although the idea of “no athletic scholarships” in order to promote academics is great in principle, it just doesn’t make practical sense. Student-athletes are asked to dedicate just as much time at Ivy League schools as they are at any other division I school, and the schools make money off of some of the programs (Cornell hockey, Penn basketball, etc), yet the athletes get no compensation? It’s senseless! Start allowing schools to offer athletic scholarships; they can, like Stanford, maintain high academic standards for athletes (Stanford recruits must have academic credentials similar to non-athletes in order to get in!). The progression is pretty simple. Offer scholarships to student-athletes; those athletes who would love to go to an Ivy League school but who get a full ride offer from another school could be persuaded to go to the Ivy; the level of play increases over the course of a decade, generating more student body interest in the sports; student demand for tickets increases, causing ticket prices to increase; schools begin to attract attention from networks, and the league gets a modest TV deal (think basketball for this one); schools receive more and more money, allowing them to recruit better student-athletes but also allowing them to divert money to other academic pursuits (just look at Duke, for heaven’s sake! their basketball team was their ticket to academic excellence!); the level of both athletic and academic success is necessarily raised over the course of 25 years. Plus, a school with well-known successful sports teams kinda recruits without having to try.</p>
<p>Just sayin’</p>