Previous |
Next |
March 02, 2008, 04:14 PM ET
The Rich Get Richer
In his New York Times article today, Pete Thamel tells us in the first paragraph of the story that “…like all the universities in the Ivy League, Harvard does not award athletic scholarships.” I think it is worth asking what that means.
When Harvard charged tuition in the same manner as other institutions, athletes from financially challenged backgrounds who succeeded in being admitted to Harvard were awarded financial aid for justifiable fiscal reasons but athletes from middle and upper middle as well as wealthy families were obliged to pay tuition. Thus many talented sports-minded youngsters turned away from Harvard to matriculate at other institutions with robust intercollegiate athletic programs that proffered athletic tuition scholarships.
Now that Harvard has functionally done away with tuition for all those families that earn less than $180,000 a year, it seems a bit cute to say that Harvard does not award athletic scholarships. They may not be called athletic scholarships but if you give them to athletes that doesn’t make them any less athletic scholarships, money being fungible.
Among the other benefits accruing to Harvard and Yale as a result of their new generosity is a repositioning of their athletic teams, competing for youngsters who can go head-to-head with the Big Ten, the ACC and all the other major conferences. It is a subtle collateral benefit unremarked upon in the media but likely to be revealed in the win-loss columns and N.C.A.A. tournaments in the years to come. Not only are the richer institutions going to be able to cream the very best students but also they will increasingly be able to attract the fastest, the biggest, the tallest and the strongest.
It is worth asking whether the N.C.A.A. rules that apply to universities and student athletes offering and receiving athletic scholarships will also bind students going to Harvard and other Ivy leagues institutions who are nominally not getting aid because they are athletes but apparently being treated like everyone else in their entering class.
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.