Patriot League wisely resists call for football scholarships

[CSN Log]

12-25-2010 05:57 PM

AS COLLEGE spending on football spins out of control, the Patriot League is to be cheered for not caving in to competitive envy and boosterism. The presidents of the seven colleges and universities in the league, which include Worcester’s Holy Cross, last week tabled until 2012 a decision on whether to allow football scholarships. They should not, and the colleges and universities should open up any scholarship money that would have gone exclusively to football players to all students, based on need or academic performance.

Read more ... (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/log/index.php/2010/12/25/patriot-league-wisely-resists-call-for-f?blog=2#more6999)

More... (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/log/index.php/2010/12/25/patriot-league-wisely-resists-call-for-f?blog=2)

[Kramden]

Besides the arrogance of the League's Presidents about their academic reputation, the Patriot League schools will never be Ivy academically. Other institutions, Wofford, Furman, the Military Academies, University of Richmond, Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc. are at the same level if not higher academically and slam us on the field. Yes you can have both. Athletics builds character and leaders, not some pompous liberal in the classroom.

[TheValleyRaider]

Absurd

Football and collegiate athletics in general are not some all-or-nothing game where adding scholarships eliminates any and all academic standards. Aside from the fact the PL would never have allowed scholarships without maintaining the Index, all of the League's members are more than capable of maintaining high academic standards for their athletes with scholarships because the League allows them in every other sport

Oddly enough, other FCS programs manage to maintain that balance quite nicely, as do FBS programs

Not that it really matters, as no one reads the Globe anymore....

[Kramden]

I agree with you. Last I checked the academic standards of the Patriot League Schools did not go down as they offered scholarships to other sports. I know I am not deeply into the numbers but if PL teams can get more FBS games because they offer scholarships that revenue helps offset some of the costs. It's not about logic, in my opinion, but about wanting to look like the Ivy's, which they should get over. The Ivy's are who they are. The PL should create its own identity as opposed to being wanna bees.