Dear Ivy League presidents:
I have tried to warn you for almost three years.
The warning signs were there. The arrogance was pervasive. The lack of understanding of the current landscape of college athletics on your part was mind-boggling.
I was told by one coach a few years back that no Ivy basketball player would eschew an Ivy degree for greener ($$$) pastures, that it was above all a 40-year and not a four-year decision.
And then in April, 2022-23 Ivy Player of the Year Jordan Dingle entered the portal and signed up to play for St. John’s and Rick Pitino.
“I was just trying to do what I thought was best at the time and that’s what these kids are doing now,” Dingle told The Daily Pennsylvanian, which cited a NCAA NIL data dashboard note that the average power conference men’s basketball player was bringing home $171,000.
I was told by Ivy coaches and administrators that it was a one-off. That it would probably never happen again.
And then the dam broke last spring. Danny Wolf from Yale to Michigan. Tyler Perkins from Penn to Villanova. Malik Mack from Harvard to Georgetown. A reputable source told me that Harvard could have salvaged Mack for 15% of what Georgetown would pay him, but coach Tommy Amaker and athletics director Erin McDermott apparently vetoed, or strongly suggested against such payment.
I was told in the fall that the Ivy presidents were spending 70% of their time on NIL. After making some inquiries, though, I am not sure how accurate that information was. Doesn’t seem remotely possible.
In January, the Ivy opted out of the revenue-sharing element of a pending $2.8 billion NCAA settlement forged last year aimed at paying athletes a share of the revenue colleges made from their performances. The ability to spend up to $20.5 million of institutional revenue on athletics was bypassed. Three months later, the Ivy is the only league or conference to do such.
Is the Ivy so much more well-informed? Is the Ivy really acting for the best interests of its student-athletes?
No on both counts.
Princeton AD John Mack told The Daily Princetonian in April 2024, “I don’t think we institutionally see [collectives] as a path of success.”
I wonder what Mack was thinking “path of success”-wise when star guard Xaivian Lee announced last week that he was entering the portal. Lee was at St. John’s yesterday and is weighing a hefty seven-figure offer.
Former Penn star Clark Slajchert did a grad year at USC and told The Daily Pennsylvanian last year, “In terms of sports like football and basketball with high major scholarships in addition to NIL, there’s no way the Ivy League can compete.”
One of Yale’s prized recruits and Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year in Minnesota Nolan Groves has decommitted from Yale, he announced Saturday. He will probably be picking-up some large NIL in Minnesota or Texas.
So, Ivy presidents, it is no longer 1954. You are not better than the likes of Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. You shouldn’t even be that different. Get your heads out of the sand, recognize where we are in college athletics in 2025 and avoid what appears to be a possible slide into low-major or Division III status.
You can do it. Athletics are a huge fiber of your institutions. Just try.
Amen
Absolutely correct…..the leftist Ivies have lost their way on all counts….the arrogance of the Group has/ will lead to its demise in basketball …..reality has never been accepted ….the fantasy will crumble…..if it has not already…..NEC will be its model……
I agree Ivies seem unlikely (read: unwilling) to play ball in the modern era of big money D1 athletics. Perhaps the athletic directors and coaches were naive, especially about the rate of change.
But I’m also not sure that the answer is obvious; should Ivies pay some players to get to first weekend of March Madness or even more to try to win a game or two? Should Ivies mine the transfer portal to get players to wear a jersey for a year?
Perhaps D3 is a good solution that better aligns with institutional values of athletics as a part of the student experience. Plenty of other prestigious academic institutions play D3– Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, and other top-rated colleges; Emory, WashU, NYU, UChicago, Rochester, Tufts, among research universities.
Sorry, Mr. Kent. The Ivies have better things to do than get in money wars with jock houses who place athletics over education. To win that war would be a Pyrrhic victory given what some schools are willing to pay for athletes. If that means Division 3 in basketball, then so be it. We’ll sling it out with good athletes, perhaps not NBA prospects, against schools that embrace similar priorities of education over athletics. Sure, there will be the Stanfords, Vandys, Dooks, etc. cited that manage to excel in both. But, there is a lot of hypocrisy and conflict in equating the two. I’ll be fine with my Tigers pursuing the Ivy, and possibly National, Division 3 Championship.
This is a pretty important topic. I was hoping more people would share their views on this.