| Subject: The Dawning of a New Age in Ivy League Sports |
Author:
An Observer
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Date Posted: 12:00:41 12/31/24 Tue
In reply to:
M3
's message, "Re: Harvard WR transfer Cooper Barkate transfers to Duke" on 10:27:33 12/31/24 Tue
I don't argue that the rest of the country hates the Ivy League, never more so than now.
It's interesting that the number of applications keeps rising even as the number of 17-year-old Americans has peaked and international students plateau, scared off by visa complications and threats of travel bans. To summarize, much of America hates us, yet still wants to attend our eight colleges.
As is usually said about people who are sleeping together, there is a thin line between love and hate. The true opposite of love is indifference.
America is not indifferent to the Ivy League.
I don't doubt for a second that I could have received an equivalent or comparable education at Stanford, Northwestern or Vanderbilt. I have serious doubts about doing so at Duke, the most overrated university in America by my accounting.
The education that you earn at a top college has much more to do with YOU than with the top college.
Having said that, as I look back upon my college choice from the perspective of decades out of the Ivy gates, I would still make the same selection again, turning down other excellent options.
You don't choose an elite university for the education, as good as it is. You choose an elite university for the people you will meet and befriend, who will be your fellow travelers down the road of life for the next six or seven decades, and hopefully longer.
The education I could have gotten anywhere, including at my flagship state university. The friends and acquaintances, not so much.
That's what Ivy League colleges can and should sell their athletic recruits.
I believe that the impact of NILs and the transfer portal is corrosive and will accelerate in its negative impact on college sports. This is a terrible development for American education and American society.
But curiously, NILs and the transfer portal could be a shot of truth serum for athletic programs at the Ivies and other elite colleges.
What we are selling is an incomparable undergraduate experience (if not education per se) and an unmatched alumni network. The Ivies which do not impress freshmen and sophomores on these two dimensions are going to lose their stars to Georgetown, Michigan and Vanderbilt (I wonder how much the Princeton volleyball star will be making in Nashville).
**BUT** the Ivies which deliver upon their promises -- experience and fellow students/alumni -- will keep their star players and win on the field/court.
It's time for the Ivies to deliver on our promise of being the best undergraduate experience in America. I believe that each of us can, but not all of us will.
In fact, I think most of us on this board can guess which Ivies will and which will not.
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