On the first floor of Ray Tompkins House next to Payne Whitney Gymnasium, there is a modest sign with a powerful message. Beside photos of Yale head football coach Carm Cozza and the Yale Bowl is a list of the nation's all-time winningest collegiate football programs. As expected, Notre Dame and Michigan are there, as are Harvard and Princeton. And at the top of this elite group stands Yale with 778 victories. A simple reminder of an incredibly rich Eli tradition.
Countless Yale athletes have reached greatness in years past. Many went on to grander exploits off the field as well, such as first baseman and team captain George Bush, DC '48. In 1959, Eli basketball star John Lee, BK '58, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. When asked about the inspiration for a new strategy, Notre Dame's gridiron legend Knute Rockne once said, "Where everything else in football came from - Yale. All football came from Yale."
Despite this impressive history and 33 varsity sports on campus today, many doubts about Yale athletics prevail. In contrast to the multimillion-dollar, high-profile world of major-conference collegiate sports, the Ivy League's rejection of athletic scholarships and adherence to strict academic standards seem like an anachronism. Bulldog football no longer engages in epic battles against Tennessee and Nebraska, but instead plays in Division I-AA against teams like Central Florida and Fordham. Meanwhile, prestigious private universities such as Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, and Georgetown successfully compete in conferences with markedly different athletic philosophies than the Ivies.
What does this all mean? Along with recent concerns about coaching, deteriorating facilities, and bad luck, the quality of athletes remains a top consideration. The school's admissions policy, financial aid, and scholarships are concerns for any prospective Yalie. These issues are crucial to the success of varsity sports as well, and the Ivy League has adopted unique ways of dealing with them. Ivy League enforcer In luring athletes to New Haven, Yale faces different rules and expectations than most major American universities. Formed in 1954, the Ivy League is the athletic regulatory body of its eight member schools, and outlines its policy in a set of general principles known as the Ivy Group Agreement. Most important are the prohibition of athletic scholarships and a set of rules regulating the quality of student athletes. Unlike at most Division I programs, financial aid packages are not affected by the students' athletic ability.
Responsibility for enforcing the League's high academic standards rests with the deans of admissions. However, there are specific rules to aid this process, the most significant of which is the widely misunderstood Academic Index (AI). [See graph below.] The AI is a complex formula using class rank, SAT scores, and Achievement Test scores to measure academic qualification. Implemented in 1986, the AI ensures that each Ivy League school maintains admissions standards for recruited athletes that are comparable to the requirements for the student body as a whole.
"With exploding national television coverage in college sports in the '80s, some were concerned that if requirements such the AI weren't set, schools would be under pressure to self-determine academic standards for athletes," Ivy League Executive Director Jeffrey Orleans, PC '67, said.
The impact of the AI is particularly evident with the emergence of football at Columbia. In the early 1990s, after the Ivy League relaxed AI standards exclusively for Columbia football, the Lions went from a 2-8 record in 1993 to a strong 5-4 last season. "Getting more recruits in the lower bands has definitely helped Columbia," Cozza said.
"The AI relies on precise data and is really a pain. But it seems to have done its job," Yale Associate Provost and Ivy Policy Committee member Lloyd Suttle, ES '69, said.
Yale and its H-Y-P counterparts in Cambridge and Princeton have traditionally held an advantage in drawing top student-athletes because of their unparalleled prestige. But, as the most selective of the Ivies, these three schools have higher AI averages that further limit the pool of qualified athletes available each year.
"There is really a narrow band of players for us to choose from," Yale men's basketball coach Dick Kuchen said. "At summer camps, I'm always asking about academic background and PSATs right away." Yale fights an uphill battle
With scholarship restrictions, the AI, and Yale's rigorous application process, coaches face an uphill battle. What draws athletes to New Haven despite these challenges? The number one reason is the recognized value of a Yale education and degree. The wide variety of academic and extracurricular opportunities is also a big factor. Not bound by scholarships, many athletes choose at one time or another to walk away - often to concentrate on another activity.
"Yale subscribes to a philosophy of looking at athletics as one part of the undergraduate experience and not as an end in itself. This is not stressed enough at the college level anymore," Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, said.
Football and men's basketball face particularly daunting obstacles in the recruiting process. Out of more than 300 Division I men's basketball programs, the members of the Ivy League and the Patriot League are the only schools that do not offer athletic scholarships.
"If a recruit accepts a full ride from Stanford, Duke, or a similar school, I can't argue. But if someone is offered a scholarship from a place like James Madison, then Yale looks better and better," Kuchen said. Upholding the scholar-athlete ideal
Yale's recently announced policy change regarding "likely letters" is perhaps an indication of athletic director Tom Beckett's efforts to revitalize Bulldog sports. Likely letters inform prospective athletes of their chances to gain admission, and had long been used by other Ivies to gain an early edge in the recruiting competition. Previously, Yale only notified recruits of their likely admission when they had been offered a scholarship from another school. Now, Yale sends these letters to more recruits - regardless of whether they have a scholarship offer.
The dominance of some Ivy League schools in specific sports has elicited allegations of cheating and excessively liberal interpretations of Ivy principles. Most prominent is the recent success of the University of Pennsylvania's football and men's basketball teams, which have both gone undefeated in Ivy competition for three straight seasons. Led by potential NBA players Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney, the Quakers have been ranked in the nation's top 25 and have defeated national powerhouses such as Michigan and St. John's. Amid this stunning success, widespread claims surfaced that Penn has lowered academic standards and influenced financial aid packages for certain athletes.
"In my knowledge, there hasn't been a single formal complaint about Penn brought to the Ivy League," Orleans said. "When Pete Carril and Princeton basketball were winning all those titles, they were never under the same scrutiny. People tend to pick out who they perceive to be the easiest targets - which is now Penn."
Nevertheless, competing schools must be very cautious concerning admissions and financial aid practices. Yale, as one of the most faithful to the spirit of the Ivy League, cannot afford to ignore possible breaches. Regarding Yale's attitude toward alleged deviations, Brodhead said, "It is incredibly stupid to run an athletic program in which you have hobbled yourself against other competitors, whether you like it or not." Ivies lose hold on sports dominance
The last couple of decades have marked a widening gap between the Ivy League and the rest of big-time college sports. The fall of Ivy League football and men's basketball from the national spotlight has been especially steep.
As recently as 1979, Penn advanced to the Final Four to face Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Bill Bradley, the future Rhodes Scholar, New York Knicks star, and U.S. Senator, led Princeton's march to a third-place national finish in 1965. Though Yale ranks in the top 10 in Division I-AA football attendance, season after season, the Elis fail to fill the cavernous Bowl. NCAA regulations such as Proposition 48, which requires student athletes to adhere to a minimum of 700 on the SAT and a 2.0 high school GPA, seem almost laughable compared to the Ivy League's high academic demands - both for admissions and while in college.
Offering athletic scholarships and further distinguishing between recruited athletes and the general student body has certainly helped schools like Georgetown compete for national titles. Has it been worth it?
"Let's admit it...for a big-time college athlete, sports are like a full-time job. Instead, at Yale, it's not that sports take a back seat, but you realize you're here for an education," baseball player Matthew Bird, TC '97, said.
What is lost amid the talk of falling attendance and the declining influence of Ivy athletics are the great on-field success of less prominent sports. Princeton won the men's national lacrosse title last year, while Yale fencing, women's gymnastics, and squash are perennial national title contenders. Benefiting from the lower-key nature of college baseball and the existence of the minor leagues, Yale baseball has gained national recognition while sending nine of its players to the pros in the past five years. Where to go from here The future of the Ivy League seems bright. Based on athletic ideals long abandoned by many other major universities, the Ancient Eight has struggled to compete on a national level for both wins and athletes. Yet they have withstood the tumultuous changes in college athletics while aiming for league crowns and occasional national exposure. Unless the NCAA and university leaders nationwide halt the increasing influence of professional sports, the Ivy League will never again dominate at the national level in football and men's basketball. "I don't think that Yale or any other Ivy League school will ever compete again for a national championship in men's basketball or football," Beckett said. "It's simply not practical. Yet we can still present an exciting brand of competition for the athletes and fans."
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