Ivy competes / Brown gets Okoji.

[Tribe4SF]

LB Chimso Okoji, out of Kennedy High in Silver Spring, MD, has spurned offers from Iowa, Michigan State, Virginia, Central Florida, Temple and William & Mary, and will attend Brown University this Fall. The appeal of an Ivy League education continues to bring excellent talent to the league. Another surprise this year was Marietta, GA DE Charles Bay who opted to attend Dartmouth over W&M, Ga Southern, and several other schools.

[WMTribe90]

I was wondering what happened to Charles Bay. WM typically does pretty well with kids choosing between scholarship FCS and the Ivies/PL. WM is about as close to an Ivy reputation you can get outside of the Ivies/PL. Personally, coming from a middle-class family, it was hard to turn a WM scholly over a "half-priced" Harvard education after financial aide. Spring practice, red-shirting, regular IA games, and the playoffs were also advantages. However, for kids from lower income levels the financial aide amounts to a scholly and WM loses the competitive advantage of offering schollies. I wish WM could afford to recruit nationally like the Ivies, since we need to cast a wider net to find student athletes that can pass admissions, but as a state school, WM has to recruit VA first and foremost. WM has a nice recruiting niche, but its a fragile niche that would be hurt significantly IMO if the Ivies and/or PL decided to offer athletic scholarships.