Espin, David J.

English

Marquette University Law School

Marquette Sports Law ReviewVolume 18Issue 2 Spring Article 11Book Review: Playing the Game: Inside AthleticRecruiting in the Ivy LeagueDavid J. EspinFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslawPart of the Entertainment and Sports Law CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, pleasecontact megan.obrien@marquette.edu.Repository CitationDavid J. Espin, Book Review: Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League, 18 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 445 (2008)Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol18/iss2/11PLAYING THE GAME: INSIDE ATHLETIC RECRUITING IN THE IVYLEAGUEChris Lincoln[White River Junction, VT: The Nomad Press, 2004]257 PagesISBN: 0-9722026-6-8When one thinks of the college arms race, recruiting scandals, andNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) infractions, the Ivy Leagueis usually not the first thing that comes to mind. Ivy League schools and theathletes they recruit are normally thought to be "above" this type of behavior,demonstrating the highest degree of moral and ethical responsibility. TheseIvy schools are thought to perceive athletics as merely a spoke in theeducational wheel, not the wheel itself. In "Playing the Game," Chris Lincolnattempts to argue that the entire Ivy recruiting process is flawed, resulting inless deserving athletes gaining admission over other more deserving students,athletes lying to schools, schools misrepresenting themselves to athletes and toeach other, and endowment sizes determining which teams are mostsuccessful. Although Lincoln makes valid and coherent arguments identifyingmany of these issues, he seems to overstate the extent of these concerns. Hepresents them as creating a "broken system" with "no end in sight" instead ofa necessary by-product of a league with incredibly high academic standardsthat places its athletics in context with the rest of a student's education.Lincoln begins by introducing the Academic Index (AI), which IvyLeague schools use to monitor and regulate the admission of every Ivy athlete.The Al is comprised of a mathematical formula that takes into account anincoming applicant's test score (66 percent of the "weight") and either his orher class rank or G.P.A. (the other 33 percent). Al scores range from a scoreof 240, which would represent perfect board scores and a 4.0 G.P.A., to 171,the League imposed "floor" under which schools cannot even consider anapplicant for admission.One contention that Lincoln had with the system was the use of academic"boosters" used in hockey and basketball. Because league rules required thateach incoming class of hockey and basketball players were to have an Alaverage within one standard deviation of the mean of the rest of the incomingstudent body, coaches would find kids who listed hockey or basketballparticipation on their application and who had already been admitted, andwhile they had no chance of actually playing, would raise that incoming class'MARQUETTE SPORTS LA W REVIEWAl. However, in 2003 these boosters were virtually eliminated by a newformula that lumps hockey and basketball in a large "cohort" with every otherIvy sport, which must also have an average Al that falls within one standarddeviation of the mean Al of the incoming student body as a whole.Ivy football teams have attempted to eliminate the problem by placingrecruits in "bands," which are basically just different standard deviationmeasurements declining from the school's mean Al. Therefore, a school canhave two recruits from the bottom band, which will be the recruits closest tothe Al floor, eight players from the next highest band, twelve players from thenext highest band, and so on. Because the bands are based on each individualinstitution's mean Al, the bands for each program vary. Lincoln insists thatthe bands are fatally flawed and that the system needs to be reconstructed.However, Lincoln himself argues that the problem is not that Ivy schools areadmitting less deserving athletes who are then underperforming in theclassroom, as some pundits have asserted. Lincoln waxes on about thenumerous success stories involving Ivy athletes and puts forth statisticsshowing that athletes with lower AIs actually outperform their fellow athleteswith higher AIs. Although it is possible that an athlete with a relatively lowAl might get the nod over a fellow student with a higher Al, this admissionpreference is also given to gifted musicians, legacies, and minority students.The lower Al is likely a by-product of the time spent by the student honing hisor her talent, and usually has no correlation to the potential of that student tosucceed in the classroom.So then, what is the problem with the Al? Lincoln argues that footballcoaches should not be forced to take a certain number of kids in the higher Albands because it is likely that many of these players will quit the team beforegraduating. By eliminating these bands but keeping the Al floor, Lincolncontends that coaches will recruit according to their football needs and getrecruits who can actually play. These recruits will be more likely to stay onthe team, and coaches can spend more time looking for players instead oftrying to pigeonhole recruits into Al bands. Although this theory has somevalidity, the crux of this "crisis" is that Ivy League football teams aremarginally less talented than they could be without the bands (although all areaffected equally, since they all play under the same rules), and that the ten orfifteen players who are admitted as athletes but later quit the team could bereplaced by ten or fifteen students in the general admission pool. As Lincolnpoints out, these general admission athletes will likely perform at a similaracademic level to the athletes who quit anyway. Again, just how big of aproblem is this?Lincoln also takes issue with the inequity of the financial aid packagesgiven by Ivy schools. Until 1991, the Ivy schools had an agreement on the[Vol. 18:2PLAYING THE GAMEmaximum amount of financial aid that could be given to students. However,the Justice Department found that this agreement violated federal antitrust law,and the eight Ivy schools were forced to sign a consent decree agreeing not totalk about their financial aid policies, except to discuss publicly announcedpolicies that have already been adopted. Because there are no athleticscholarships given in the Ivy League, schools with the biggest endowmentscould then award the most need-based aid. Princeton University has eveneliminated need-based loans altogether and only gives grants. Although thistheoretically creates a certain degree of inequity, there seems to be a largeamount of parity among Ivy League teams when they are examined across theboard. Although there are particular programs that dominate certain sports(such as University of Pennsylvania and Princeton basketball), this seems tobe more of a function of the history and tradition of these programs, not theirfinancial aid packages. This is true of programs in conferences across thecountry and is not normally perceived as a problem in need of a solution.When a student decides to attend an Ivy League institution to play a sport,he or she is not forced to sign a letter of intent. Lincoln argues that this allowsrecruits to verbally commit to one school while visiting additional institutionsand possibly backing out of his or her verbal commitment. While the potentialfor this type of abuse of the system is present, most coaches that Lincolninterviewed stated that because of the type of character-driven athletes thatthey recruit, this has only happened to them a handful of times throughouttheir entire coaching careers. While theoretically this could present a problemfor Ivy coaches, in practice it only affects a few each year.Despite the doomsday scenario that Lincoln attempts to portray, in realitythe Ivy League consists of student-athletes who not only succeed in theclassroom at similar rates as their non-athlete peers, but who also go on toprestigious careers in a wide array of fields. Although problems persist withthe lack of letters of intent and the varying endowments among the Ivies, theseare relatively minor issues compared with those faced by other conferencesaround the country. Certain programs will go on to dominate certain sports,and a handful of athletes each year will continue to lie about where they intendto go to school. While Lincoln portrays these problems as pieces of a"flawed" system with "no end in sight," I believe they are small and relativelyunimportant concerns in a league that in most respects should be put on apedestal and emulated by other conferences throughout the NCAA.David J. Espin2008]

Book Review: Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League

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Book Review: Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League

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