Author:
An Observer
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Date Posted: 14:17:41 01/07/26 Wed
sparman, there is indeed irony to the snobbish attitude that the rest of the FCS and FBS football world holds toward those of us here in the Ancient Eight.
But I'm not resentful. That's human nature.
The reason stereotypes exist is that there is a foundation (or even more than a foundation) to the stereotype.
If you're going to screen athletes for academic qualifications, you're going to be left with worse athletes. That is a fact.
If you're going to screen any elite population A for a wholly different qualification X for which the rest of the population A is not screened, you're going to left with a subpopulation that is not as elite along dimension A.
So sure, smart kids are going to be worse athletes. That is 100% true, on average.
But what the FCS selection committee might be overlooking is that:
(a) We're giving out the equivalent of full scholarships as if they were candy. I'll bet that, on each of our eight rosters, we've got more guys on a full ride than Illinois State and Montana State do this year. That might change after the House settlement but, for right now, we have more guys on a full ride, not fewer guys.
(b) There will always be a handful of recruits who choose Mercer or Montana over Harvard or Princeton, but there ain't many of them. We're screening for intelligence, remember?
So we're going to do just fine over time, at least until the FCS guys really ramp up the scholarship limit or the NIL money.
Let's be honest. We lucked out this year. We were one incredible Yale comeback which included a ballsy 2-point conversion from having our two co-champions stomped on during our first step into the batter's box.
Andy Aurich apologized to the rest of the Ivy League for carrying our banner in such an underwhelming manner. I give him credit for that. Can I see, to choose just one example from many, Tom Williams ever doing that? No, I cannot. A tip of the hat to Aurich.
This was a great inaugural expedition into the FCS tournament. Let's enjoy the ride for what it was. The FCS selection will underseed us for a while. No problem. We'll have to earn their respect and that's just the way it should be.
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