Harvard: Undefeated - And Finished for 2014

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2014/11/26/harvard-football-tim-murphy-peter-may

Says what we've been saying since forever, but it's still nice to see it again.

[Go Green]

Even MIT is playing playoff football.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/11/22/mit-beats-husson-division-football-playoffs/2khgYS1BFXBBD6kLYPFhDJ/story.html

xconfusedx

[Franks Tanks]

Doesn't Harvard give exams after Christmas break anyway?

[Go Green]

Doesn't Harvard give exams after Christmas break anyway?

I think they do (as does Princeton).

But Dartmouth is going through exams this week.

Not sure about the others...

[NoDak 4 Ever]

The Ivies could compete but probably no better than the OVC.

The reason being is while there are only a few Stanford/Northwestern types in FBS, they still don't compete at the top level. As long as a NDSU can get an academically suspect John Crockett and let him work through being eligible, they will always have a recruiting advantage.

He's the most recent example of which I can think but he is not uncommon.

[Pards Rule]

I think they do (as does Princeton).

But Dartmouth is going through exams this week.

Not sure about the others...

Ugh, I do think I recall reading that in Scott Turow's "One L" but it obviously applied to the law school. Can you imagine having exams hanging over your head Xmas break? When do they return? I was glad ours were done so I had a month to recharge and earn some money!

[NoDak 4 Ever]

One other rather ironic twist to this article: while the author bemoans the elitist attitude of the Ivies, he only mentions the east coast teams in the FCS, forgetting the south and the west. Perhaps his erudite readership wouldn't respect the division if they talked about ruddy state schools on the frontier?

[Fordhamanhattan]

A friend of mine who played and coached and is one of the largest benefactors of his alma mater, told me, "The Ivy League knows nothing about football"

[ngineer]

Ugh, I do think I recall reading that in Scott Turow's "One L" but it obviously applied to the law school. Can you imagine having exams hanging over your head Xmas break? When do they return? I was glad ours were done so I had a month to recharge and earn some money!

My first year at Lehigh we had to come back from Christmas to take finals. Really destroys the holiday, and the quality of the studying is affected as well. Luckily, that changed the following years.

[Cocky]

Are Ivy players not smart enough to pass like players at other schools?

[ngineer]

Same column with slight revisions every year. The hypocracy is unbelieveable as their basketball team plays in December and January, and rubs shoulders with the proletariat in other NCAA playoffs. It all goes back to 1954.

[Sycamore62]

Are Ivy players not smart enough to pass like players at other schools?

they are the only schools with hard classes

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Same column with slight revisions every year. The hypocracy is unbelieveable as their basketball team plays in December and January, and rubs shoulders with the proletariat in other NCAA playoffs. It all goes back to 1954.

FCS football is a loss leader. The NCAA tournament makes them way more money.

[Lehigh'98]

This topic is beat to death, nothing is changing. Harvard is happy with the Yale game being their Super Bowl and frankly, so are most of their fans besides the diehards. Yes it sucks, but life goes on.

[DFW HOYA]

Bottom line, H-Y need to be convinced that The Game doesn't suffer if Fair Harvard has to play at Sacred Heart the next week.

Another, if related topic, has the H-Y rivalry made other Ivy rivalry games obsolete? As late as 1981, Dartmouth-Yale was drawing 32,500 a game. Penn-Princeton, 33,479 in 1985.

We've already discussed how Leh-Laf overshadows all other PL rivalry games, so it's asked...have all other Ivy games now become obsolete by comparison?

[Sader87]

Not defending the Johnnies per se, but the biggah and longah the playoff format becomes the bettah their argument becomes.

8 playoff teams is probably ideal though probably unworkable due to too many FCS conferences, around 12-16 teams should probably the maximum.

[Sandlapper Spike]

Not defending the Johnnies per se, but the biggah and longah the playoff format becomes the bettah their argument becomes.

8 playoff teams is probably ideal though probably unworkable due to too many FCS conferences, around 12-16 teams should probably the maximum.

Of course, the Ivies compete in a 68-team basketball tournament and the 64-team baseball regionals.

[UAalum72]

I did like that he included them as a "major college team", a term usually reserved for the P5, when some on here wouldn't even include them as a power FCS team

[Go Green]

Another, if related topic, has the H-Y rivalry made other Ivy rivalry games obsolete? As late as 1981, Dartmouth-Yale was drawing 32,500 a game. Penn-Princeton, 33,479 in 1985.


Dartmouth had awful luck with the weather this year. Several of our marquee games were played on miserable days. While bad weather didn't deter fans in the past, it does now. :(

People expect Dartmouth to be good in 2015. If we get good weather for our games against Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, we should get double digit crowds.

[Go Green]

Are Ivy players not smart enough to pass like players at other schools?

The rationale for the postseason ban has evolved over time.

Indeed, I'm not even sure "missed class time" is the official reason for the ban now. Nowadays, it's more along the lines of "because we've always done it that way."

:(

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Could this be a byproduct of the bifurcation of the football divisions as a whole?

In the modern era, college football has been the one major sport that has tolerated a division between large and small colleges which eventually turned into I-AA/I-A and FCS/FBS

Do other sports allow conferences to abstain? I'm asking because I know of none.

[Franks Tanks]

Bottom line, H-Y need to be convinced that The Game doesn't suffer if Fair Harvard has to play at Sacred Heart the next week.

Another, if related topic, has the H-Y rivalry made other Ivy rivalry games obsolete? As late as 1981, Dartmouth-Yale was drawing 32,500 a game. Penn-Princeton, 33,479 in 1985.

We've already discussed how Leh-Laf overshadows all other PL rivalry games, so it's asked...have all other Ivy games now become obsolete by comparison?

Penn-Cornell was a big game at one point as well was it not? I know a guy who played for Penn in the 80's and he has a picture of himself playing against Cornell it what looks to be a very substantial crowd at Franklin Field.

[dbackjon]

The NCAA should make a rule - either participate in ALL post-season tournaments, or you are banned from them all, in every sport.

[DFW HOYA]

The NCAA should make a rule - either participate in ALL post-season tournaments, or you are banned from them all, in every sport.

Schools are under no obligation to accept an invitation to a post-season tournament.

Your ire is with the league, not the schools.

[Cleets]

The NCAA should make a rule - either participate in ALL post-season tournaments, or you are banned from them all, in every sport.

How about you go ***** yourself...




The NCAA can blow me xwhistlex

[citdog]

It's easy for these ladies to play only each other. That way they don't get their labia bruised and exposed for being TERRIBLE.....

[Lehigh'98]

It's easy for these ladies to play only each other. That way they don't get their labia bruised and exposed for being TERRIBLE.....

True or not, they get more exposure than all teams FCS not named NDSU. See Gameday this past week. They did mention The Citadel & VMI in passing though with the whole chop block thing.

[Cleets]

It's easy for these ladies to play only each other. That way they don't get their labia bruised and exposed for being TERRIBLE.....


You taunt me... then mock my pain

https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9yhtrrMX41qdku5lo1_500.gif

[Cleets]

We've had this conversation too many times...
I hate all of you (sincerely)

http://img.pandawhale.com/65402-zoolander-crazy-pills-gif-6laR.gif

[citdog]

True or not, they get more exposure than all teams FCS not named NDSU. See Gameday this past week. They did mention The Citadel & VMI in passing though with the whole chop block thing.


At least NDSU EARNED the gameday visit.

It's a CUT BLOCK schleprock.

[Lehigh'98]

At least NDSU EARNED the gameday visit.

It's a CUT BLOCK schleprock.

Now what does a kicker know about blocking?

[citdog]

Now what does a kicker know about blocking?

I obviously know more about it than you do seeing as how you don't know the difference.....

[Lehigh'98]

I obviously know more about it than you do seeing as how you don't know the difference.....


Please, I missed hundreds of cut blocks at Lehigh, but was never flagged for a chop block.

[dbackjon]

Schools are under no obligation to accept an invitation to a post-season tournament.

Your ire is with the league, not the schools.

This would be a conference based rule

- - - Updated - - -


How about you go ***** yourself...




The NCAA can blow me xwhistlex

If I could do that, you think I would be here?

[Sycamore62]

Now what does a kicker know about blocking?

He might have been a goalie.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Of course, the Ivies compete in a 68-team basketball tournament and the 64-team baseball regionals.

My rebuttal to the "purity argument" is pretty effective.

http://www.college-sports-journal.com/index.php/ncaa-division-i-sports/fcs-football/705-plain-and-simple-the-ivy-playoff-ban-is-discrimination

[Sader87]

I'm not saying everyone else is right and the Ivy League is wrong or vice versa....but, the fact of the mattah is that the FCS playoffs can be viewed as somewhat superfluous to some. Many of the playoff games are played before smallah than regular season crowds, a lot of the games can/will be played in locations/venues were weather (bitter cold, snow etc) is an issue, does the playoff system really have to be about a month and a half long??? etc etc

College football has always been a different animal than college basketball (or other collegiate sports) in that it doesn't lend itself as well to a playoff system for a variety of reasons.

Does this make the Ivies 100% right in their stance against playoffs??? No....but I wouldn't say that they are completely wrong either.

[NY Crusader 2010]

Not defending the Johnnies per se, but the biggah and longah the playoff format becomes the bettah their argument becomes.

8 playoff teams is probably ideal though probably unworkable due to too many FCS conferences, around 12-16 teams should probably the maximum.

FCS playoffs can't be slimmed down to due an NCAA rule regarding the ratio of at-large to auto-berths in championship tournaments. I also disagree, because for most schools (someone did cite Harvard as an exception), finals are in mid-December. Therefore, after week 3 of the playoffs, teams are simply competing during their winter break.

[BucBisonAtLarge]

Whoa! What an elitist thread! Carry on with the discussion of female anatomy, like we all recently acquainted with such.

The Ivy League and the SWAC have one thing in common-- tradition that trumps the FCS tournament, from member institutions perspectives. Until that changes, neither will play in the playoffs. In the case of the Ivies, that tradition is wearing thin outside of Cambridge and/or New Haven, one day of the year. The loss of the opportunity for one sport while all others get to participate is unfair. It reminds me of the philosophical tap dance done in the Patriot League over how scholarships could be offered in all other sports in the League, but not football.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Whoa! What an elitist thread! Carry on with the discussion of female anatomy, like we all recently acquainted with such.

The Ivy League and the SWAC have one thing in common-- tradition that trumps the FCS tournament, from member institutions perspectives. Until that changes, neither will play in the playoffs. In the case of the Ivies, that tradition is wearing thin outside of Cambridge and/or New Haven, one day of the year. The loss of the opportunity for one sport while all others get to participate is unfair. It reminds me of the philosophical tap dance done in the Patriot League over how scholarships could be offered in all other sports in the League, but not football.

IMO, the Ivy League's sponsored lacrosse championship really took the cake for me, in the middle of finals, a postseason tournament, and sponsored.

Women's lacrosse players said somewhere, I can't remember where, that they were able to balance their finals and the postseason perfectly well. But football players can't? That's discrimination.

[Sader87]

Hypothetically, what do you think the crowd for Sacred Heart at Harvard would be this weekend??? I'm guessing no more than 10K if that. Probably very little buzz in the Boston media market all week etc etc

Again, I'm not saying the Ivies are right here...but they are what they are.

[Bisonator]

Hypothetically, what do you think the crowd for Sacred Heart at Harvard would be this weekend??? I'm guessing no more than 10K if that. Probably very little buzz in the Boston media market all week etc etc

Again, I'm not saying the Ivies are right here...but they are what they are.

So because their fans won't show up their FB team should not get the opportunity to compete?

[DFW HOYA]

Hypothetically, what do you think the crowd for Sacred Heart at Harvard would be this weekend??? I'm guessing no more than 10K if that. Probably very little buzz in the Boston media market all week etc etc


Maybe 4,500 (few if any students in town). That's the nature of the playoffs.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

A first-round game vs. Sacred Heart might not pack them in, but now picture a 2nd round matchup vs. UNH. That's 10,000 easy, could be many more.

Attendance for 1st round games always stink. I fully anticipate 4,000ish or so at Fordham, short of a sellout. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't play the game.

[Ivytalk]

I think they do (as does Princeton).

But Dartmouth is going through exams this week.

Not sure about the others...
Princeton is the last post-Christmas holdout.

[Sader87]

A first-round game vs. Sacred Heart might not pack them in, but now picture a 2nd round matchup vs. UNH. That's 10,000 easy, could be many more.

Attendance for 1st round games always stink. I fully anticipate 4,000ish or so at Fordham, short of a sellout. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't play the game.

Which goes to my belief that there are too many teams in this tournament.

This should be a "bye-week" completely for FCS....start the 16-team tournament next weekend.

[Ivytalk]

At least NDSU EARNED the gameday visit.

It's a CUT BLOCK schleprock.

The citadel(sic) will never host Game Day. Why should Chris Fowler and company grace a campus with a student body that looks like a casting cut from Gone With the Wind?

[ngineer]

Penn-Cornell was a big game at one point as well was it not? I know a guy who played for Penn in the 80's and he has a picture of himself playing against Cornell it what looks to be a very substantial crowd at Franklin Field.

Cornell/Penn used to be huge. Franklin Field near sellouts in decades past.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

The citadel(sic) will never host Game Day. Why should Chris Fowler and company grace a campus with a student body that looks like a casting cut from Gone With the Wind?

And that doesn't even include the Rebel soldiers.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4300000/Gone-With-the-Wind-gone-with-the-wind-4368717-1024-768.jpg

[Ivytalk]

And that doesn't even include the Rebel soldiers.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4300000/Gone-With-the-Wind-gone-with-the-wind-4368717-1024-768.jpg
I was thinking about the post-Gettysburg hospital scene.

[bulldog10jw]

This thread gives me such a feeling of deja vu. Almost like I heard the same thing, said the same way, in 2003. 2004, 2005..............................2013 xrolleyesx

[CHIP72]

One other rather ironic twist to this article: while the author bemoans the elitist attitude of the Ivies, he only mentions the east coast teams in the FCS, forgetting the south and the west. Perhaps his erudite readership wouldn't respect the division if they talked about ruddy state schools on the frontier?

You need to understand that people on the East Coast consider most of the rest of the country irrelevant, especially areas not named Florida, California, or Las Vegas. Seriously. Chicago is flyover country to many people on the East Coast. The schools mentioned are schools the primary people reading the article are aware of (not necessarily familiar with, but those people have heard of them), which is why those schools were mentioned.

I'm not saying that is good or bad; I'm saying it is.

[CHIP72]

Which goes to my belief that there are too many teams in this tournament.

This should be a "bye-week" completely for FCS....start the 16-team tournament next weekend.

I personally completely disagree, but that's just my opinion.

NCAA Division II has a 24 team playoff and NCAA Division III has a 32 team playoff. The playoff games at those levels almost always draw less than the playoff games at the NCAA Division I-AA/FCS level. Yet that doesn't stop them from having relatively large playoff fields.

The NCAA's goal with the Division I-AA/FCS playoffs, or for that matter the Division II or Division III playoffs (or the playoffs in most other sports) isn't to draw large crowds to the playoff games, it is to allow reasonably wide participation from throughout the country and to determine a champion.

[Hammerhead]

The NCAA football attendance stats from 2013 list 124 teams in FCS, 162 in D-II and 242 in D-III

24/124 = 19% of teams in the FCS playoffs
24/162 = 15% of teams in the D-II playoffs
32/242 = 13% of teams in the D-III playoffs

I think you could use those numbers to justify 16 teams in the FCS playoffs especially since two conferences don't even participate in the playoffs.

[bonarae]

Could this be a byproduct of the bifurcation of the football divisions as a whole?

In the modern era, college football has been the one major sport that has tolerated a division between large and small colleges which eventually turned into I-AA/I-A and FCS/FBS

I agree with this sentiment. It is with this fact that I can't accept it. xsmhx


Whoa! What an elitist thread! Carry on with the discussion of female anatomy, like we all recently acquainted with such.

The Ivy League and the SWAC have one thing in common-- tradition that trumps the FCS tournament, from member institutions perspectives. Until that changes, neither will play in the playoffs. In the case of the Ivies, that tradition is wearing thin outside of Cambridge and/or New Haven, one day of the year. The loss of the opportunity for one sport while all others get to participate is unfair. It reminds me of the philosophical tap dance done in the Patriot League over how scholarships could be offered in all other sports in the League, but not football.

I also agree with your sentiments also, but a rapid culture change needs to be implemented to get them to participate in the playoffs.


Which goes to my belief that there are too many teams in this tournament.

This should be a "bye-week" completely for FCS....start the 16-team tournament next weekend.

Bye week? OK, that may be beneficial to some...

My POV:

I don't want to get stuffed with many pages of threads similar to this. We're already tired of seeing posts like those. xsmhx Next season, I will cheer for two teams still: Harvard and ETSU.

You know the NESCAC, folks here? They play no OOC, they are assumed to be playoff-eligible (8 teams, should be automatic in D-III), yet they still stay home.

Centre this season is a rather fine example of how an undefeated team should never be snubbed out. Because their conference (and Chicago's starting next season for football only) is new, they were almost snubbed out, but in the end, they got in as a true at large.

[BucBisonAtLarge]

I am from Hartford, Connecticut and lived alongside Trinity College for twenty years. The NESCAC schools are definitely like the SWAC and Ivy, but on a much smaller scale. They can dominate D3 in any other sport, but hold themselves out for football. They have lots of football tradition, independent of the D3 post-season. I grew up reading about Wesleyan's chances of whipping up on Amherst and Williams for the Little Three title. The last generation of local sportswriters paid it much more attention than the current generation of UConn/UMass 'experts'. The NESCAC, like the Ivys, can list multiple schools in the elite in almost every other sport in their Division, but football players will never get to know.

[citdog]

I was thinking about the post-Gettysburg hospital scene.

I know I must be getting under your elitist, which is ironic considering most of you are the offspring of what crawled out of the sewers of Europe and then through Ellis Island where you made up your last name , yankee skin when you must bring up the result of the Late War in a vainglorious attempt to insult me you wretched poltroons

[Pards Rule]

Reported today in Phila Inquirer that Jim Schaefer, longtime Bagnoli assistant who was the defensive line coach with him at Union and Penn for 33 years, 23 years at Penn, resigned yesterday. I spent some time with Jim in the derelict Terminal D (US Air gate) at Detroit Metro in early December 2005 when our flight back to Phila was delayed for like 7 hours due to snow there and on the East Coast. There is NOTHING in that terminal and a fine punishment would be to exile people there. He was returning from a recruiting trip in Michigan and told me to visit Frankenmuth, which I had never heard of. Eventually I did in April 2010 and loved it. Very nice gentleman.

[Pard4Life]

Penn football being gutted. I like it. No wonder they stopped scheduling LC.

[Engineer86]

Penn football being gutted. I like it. No wonder they stopped scheduling LC.

I guess they saw the game last week, cause they scheduled LU

[Pard4Life]

I guess they saw the game last week, cause they scheduled LU

It is rumored that the Ivy guys have brains, even the Penn people.

[Ivytalk]

I know I must be getting under your elitist, which is ironic considering most of you are the offspring of what crawled out of the sewers of Europe and then through Ellis Island where you made up your last name , yankee skin when you must bring up the result of the Late War in a vainglorious attempt to insult me you wretched poltroons
Ha! All of you diphthong-slurring, West Point wannabe, Southern fried buzzcuts remind me of Scarlett O'Hara's first husband.

[Pards Rule]

I guess they saw the game last week, cause they scheduled LU

Saw that! I want to continue to play Penn. We have done well against them recently! Plus, easy to see away games for me at Franklin Field.

[ColgateTD]

Just have to jump in here and say how badly I feel for Harvard, and particularly the players, that they cannot go to the playoffs. After the super season they had - and their total domination of the IL - it is a shame that your admin - and the IL - does not permit the IL Champion to participate in the FCS post-season. I mean how much would this interfere with academics over the long run?? Maybe a week or two of extra games. Sure would give the Cantabs the extra exposure they seem to crave.

[Go Green]

- and their total domination of the IL -.

The Dartmouth and Yale games were close. Had Dartmouth's QB not been poked in the eye early in the fourth, and had Yale not thrown the pick six deep in Harvard territory....

You want to see a Harvard team that dominated the Ivy, their 2011 team will fit the bill.

[Bisonwinagn]

Just have to jump in here and say how badly I feel for Harvard, and particularly the players, that they cannot go to the playoffs. After the super season they had - and their total domination of the IL - it is a shame that your admin - and the IL - does not permit the IL Champion to participate in the FCS post-season. I mean how much would this interfere with academics over the long run?? Maybe a week or two of extra games. Sure would give the Cantabs the extra exposure they seem to crave.

Why would you feel for sorry for someone who knows when they select schools to attend they will never play in the playoffs? That's a personal decision and a choice.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Just have to jump in here and say how badly I feel for Harvard, and particularly the players, that they cannot go to the playoffs. After the super season they had - and their total domination of the IL - it is a shame that your admin - and the IL - does not permit the IL Champion to participate in the FCS post-season. I mean how much would this interfere with academics over the long run?? Maybe a week or two of extra games. Sure would give the Cantabs the extra exposure they seem to crave.

I'm sure they'll all sit around at the Goldman-Sachs Christmas party and have a good cry about it next year.

[bulldog10jw]

I'm sure they'll all sit around at the Goldman-Sachs Christmas party and have a good cry about it next year.

You don't really think Ivy League graduates spend the Christmas season in NY where it's cold, do you? That's why we have Hawaii, The Bahamas, The Virgin Islands, and Australia.

[bonarae]

Just have to jump in here and say how badly I feel for Harvard, and particularly the players, that they cannot go to the playoffs. After the super season they had - and their total domination of the IL - it is a shame that your admin - and the IL - does not permit the IL Champion to participate in the FCS post-season. I mean how much would this interfere with academics over the long run?? Maybe a week or two of extra games. Sure would give the Cantabs the extra exposure they seem to crave.

Hmm, I am not sure how the playoffs conflict with their academic calendar these days. As a poster who replied in one of the threads regarding Ivy football (can't remember which one, but it was created just this season), it's a decades-long story in the making, with no sign of reversing the course. xsmhx


Why would you feel for sorry for someone who knows when they select schools to attend they will never play in the playoffs? That's a personal decision and a choice.

I was feeling the same way too. I think it depends on the type of players an Ivy school gets. Look at Columbia, it's currently a revolving door due to the horrific SWAC-like situation there... xsmhx

Oh, and if a player wants to participate in the playoffs, there's FBS and D-III (be careful when choosing a school though, as FBS institutions have had academic scandals and the NESCAC plays no OOC games, even playoffs). Many high-performing academic institutions play football in either of these divisions. (Chicago almost got in this season; that would've been their first playoff bid as a D-III member. MIT got in this season as an undefeated autobid, their very first playoff bid in football.)

[World]

The amount of NCAA tournament money made by Ivy League schools is peanuts compared to their endowments...




FCS football is a loss leader. The NCAA tournament makes them way more money.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

The amount of NCAA tournament money made by Ivy League schools is peanuts compared to their endowments...

Are they getting operating expenses out of their endowments? Sounds like poor money management if that's the case.

[bulldog10jw]

Are they getting operating expenses out of their endowments? Sounds like poor money management if that's the case.

What the IL schools, at least Y,H,& P get out of their endowments is bragging rights. Something along the lines of "mine is bigger than yours." Spending any of that money on something frivolous, for example, upgrading sports facilities, etc., might affect where they stand in the ongoing contest of who has the biggest one.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

What the IL schools, at least Y,H,& P get out of their endowments is bragging rights. Something along the lines of "mine is bigger than yours." Spending any of that money on something frivolous, for example, upgrading sports facilities, etc., might affect where they stand in the ongoing contest of who has the biggest one.

exactly. Still gotta have money to buy those fancy uniforms and feed the kids.

[Pards Rule]

What the IL schools, at least Y,H,& P get out of their endowments is bragging rights. Something along the lines of "mine is bigger than yours." Spending any of that money on something frivolous, for example, upgrading sports facilities, etc., might affect where they stand in the ongoing contest of who has the biggest one.

Well said 10JW!! And true too!!

[DFW HOYA]

What the IL schools, at least Y,H,& P get out of their endowments is bragging rights. Something along the lines of "mine is bigger than yours." Spending any of that money on something frivolous, for example, upgrading sports facilities, etc., might affect where they stand in the ongoing contest of who has the biggest one.

Except that endowments aren't fungible across programs. Yale is a not just a college but a huge corporation, with a payroll of over $1.9 billion across 13 distinct schools. Endowment funds are often pegged against one of these programs, so it's not like a gift to the SOM can be redirected to football. They key is more gifts to athletics, not just a "pay to the order of" Yale.