Bloomberg article: How the recession has impacted Ivy League athletics

[Go...gate]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aUk1WZ0za8J8

[Lehigh Football Nation]

It's an interesting article, but isn't totally surprising either.

Most worrisome is what Dartmouth's AD is saying:


“If we had to experience another round of serious reductions. . .cutting programs would have to be in the discussion,” Bob Ceplikas, 53, interim athletic director at Dartmouth, said in an interview. “The kind of reductions we’ve made so far have stripped things down to the core.”

Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire, has halted its project to replace the press box and rebuild 7,000 seats on the west side of 90-year-old Memorial Field.

The Big Green also cut $500,000 from their $16 million budget, eliminated two positions, reduced fitness center hours and say the $2 million they usually receive from annual fundraising has dropped 10 percent to 15 percent.

When you look at it closely, you see a more nuanced picture - H-Y-P are making some cuts, Penn is actually expanding, and Penn and Cornell have to make new financial considerations - but nothing like what the Big Green have been proposing.

You could make the case for the following headline instead:

DARTMOUTH USES RECESSION TO HAMMER ATHLETICS MORE; REST OF IVY LEAGUE HANDLES DOWNTURN

[Go...gate]

Lends credence to the claims that Dartmouth is more and more becoming a glorified D-III athletic program, Division I mostly in name.

[ngineer]

Change of name to "Downinmouth"...;):D

[Go...gate]

The idea of Harvard playing "guarantee" games in BB is also amusing.

[Husky Alum]

Ivies are actually a ripe opponent for money games because of the novelty. Try scheduling a money game against an Ivy, it's not easy.

Ivies typically don't ask for as much money as low-major hoops teams, and in a rare occaasion an Ivy gets a home game from some name teams.

If a Stanford or a Northwestern play Yale or Harvard it somewhat masks the fact that they're playing a relatively bad team, because of the cache' of the name.

[DFW HOYA]

Ivies are actually a ripe opponent for money games because of the novelty. Try scheduling a money game against an Ivy, it's not easy.


In basketball, anyway.

(Georgetown vs. Harvard, Dec. 23.)

[Go...gate]

Having John Thompson III as coach will never hurt Georgetown in getting Ivy matchups. He was highly liked and respected throughout the league. Not as easy with other major teams. Getting a return game at home can make a difference as well. Harvard got that with Michigan and Duke, and Princeton has gotten it with UNC and Kansas (had the pleasure of meeting Roy Williams when Kansas visited PU, and he was a class act, very down to earth all the way).

[DFW HOYA]

I'd like to see Georgetown return the game at Harvard--with the loss of BC Georgetown hasn't had a game up there in a number of years.

Thompson has been generous in scheduling home and away games where he didn't have to, playing away at Navy, Old Dominion, Ball State, James Madison, and this year at Savannah State and at Tulane.