Shrewsbury QB Picks Fordham over Harvard and Columbia

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110123/NEWS/110129913/1009/SPORTS


After the Rams snatched up Griffin Murphy from the Pioneers in 2009, St. John's quarterback Dan Light, who spent the weekend visiting the New York campus, committed today.

“I fell in love with the campus,” Light said. “I liked the coaches and the players. It just felt like the right fit.”

Light, the Hometeam Magazine Offensive Player of the Year, helped St. John's win the Division 1 Super Bowl this year. After making the switch from running back as a junior, Light stepped under center after Murphy graduated and completed 130 of his 238 passes for 2,171 yards and 32 touchdowns. Light also ran for 1,131 yards on 140 carries and scored 16 touchdowns.

Those numbers were enough to persuade Fordham to offer Light a full scholarship. The Rams, who play in the Patriot League along with Holy Cross, beat out the University of New Hampshire, Harvard and Columbia for Light's services.

“The full offer definitely helped,” Light said. “I wanted to help out my parents as much as possible.”

Discuss.

[superman7515]

Isn't it against the Patriot/Ivy arrangement for a student athlete to choose a Patriot school over an Ivy? :D

[DFW HOYA]

Isn't it against the Patriot/Ivy arrangement for a student athlete to choose a Patriot school over an Ivy? :D

Full offer? What's that?

[Go...gate]

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110123/NEWS/110129913/1009/SPORTS


Discuss.

I'd like to, but the Presidents don't seem to listen.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Imagine that. With football scholarships, Fordham can compete and win against... Harvard... for high-academic recruits.

So much for attracting "dumb jocks" with football scholarships - they're getting Harvard and Columbia men with them instead.

Perhaps that's why Harvard is so against football scholarships.

[bonarae]

Imagine that. With football scholarships, Fordham can compete and win against... Harvard... for high-academic recruits.

So much for attracting "dumb jocks" with football scholarships - they're getting Harvard and Columbia men with them instead.

Perhaps that's why Harvard is so against football scholarships.

The Ivies aren't certainly moving forward even in light of these decisions by student-athletes. The whole Ivy football hierarchy NEEDS to be fixed IMMEDIATELY.

[Go...gate]

Give credit to Fordham. They did what they had to do to truly be competitive on the highest level of FCS. It is beginning to look like the rest of us in the PL are happy just to qualify for a playoff game which we will lose most of the time (no offense to Lehigh, which won this past season).

[Franks Tanks]

The Ivies aren't certainly moving forward even in light of these decisions by student-athletes. The whole Ivy football hierarchy NEEDS to be fixed IMMEDIATELY.

You lost one recruit. Harvard gets virtually everyone they want, including a young man who turned down UCONN this year. Also nothing will change with the Ivies, its not even worth discussing.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

You lost one recruit. Harvard gets virtually everyone they want, including a young man who turned down UCONN this year. Also nothing will change with the Ivies, its not even worth discussing.

True, but doesn't it seem like Harvard's biggest problem with scholarships is that they'll lose more recruiting battles to the Patriot League? Not "non-scholarship philosophy" - after all, they're going after the same types of kids as Fordham is, adhering to the same (basically) academic index - but the fact that the PL will be closer to their equals?

The Ivy League appears to enjoy the Patriot League if they're a cuddly, inoffensive lapdog to them. But once they start become closer to equals with Harvard, all of a sudden the cry is "boo, scholarships will give them an unfair advantage!" and they threaten to terminate their scheduling practices if it happens. Not philosophy. Pure spite.

[ccd494]

How is the issue here Harvard being against athletic scholarships?

Shouldn't the issue be YOUR SCHOOL NOT GIVING ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS? Harvard, and Yale, and Columbia, and the other Ivies have found a work around- their high academic reputations plus the massive amounts of need based aid the schools give. Thus, they can compete in recruiting with schools giving full academic scholarships, and even FBS schools. It's plainly evident that you view their actions as unethical, and the money they give as scholarships by any other name. I understand that the Ivy would threaten to end the scheduling agreement. So what? There are 100 or so other schools out there that would be happy to play you. The Northeast CAA schools would fall all over themselves to schedule Lehigh instead of Monmouth.

You know what, who cares what they call it? It is legal pursuant to NCAA rules. I think the TRUE issue is that the Patriot League schools (minus Fordham) can't work the system like the Ivies do. Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate et. al. are showing up to recruit with an academic reputation a step behind the Ivies and a financial package a step behind both the Ivies and the full scholarship schools. What's the selling point?

How about instead of posting everytime the word "Harvard" and "recruit" appear in the same article (do you have a Google Alert set up? I feel it would save you time), you just assume we know you are feeling angry and impotent.

[TheValleyRaider]

The issue isn't necessarily that Harvard opposes athletic scholarships, but that Harvard's opposition to them is accepted and picked up by other members of the PL as justification for not having them

We're plenty disappointed with our own institutions for not jumping on the bandwagon, or at least permitting scholarships, this is part of it. The fact that Harvard can stick its nose in the air, say they don't want scholarships, and then turn around with practically guaranteed financial aid, and futhermore threaten PL schools with ending scheduling certainly rubs us the wrong way, though given Colgate's (lack of) history with Harvard, I can't say I would notice

Furthermore, there is a not insignificant faction at PL schools that views athletics as anti-intellectual, and fears the addition of scholarships would dilute the academic quality of the student body. Here is proof (albeit anecdotal) that scholarships have in fact aided an otherwise less-prestigious school (Fordham) to claim a student desired by more highly-regarded competition (Harvard, Columbia)

As usual, the problem here is the PL's apparent insistence on being led as an Ivy lap-dog

[DFW HOYA]

The fact that Harvard can stick its nose in the air, say they don't want scholarships, and then turn around with practically guaranteed financial aid, and futhermore threaten PL schools with ending scheduling certainly rubs us the wrong way, though given Colgate's (lack of) history with Harvard, I can't say I would notice.

The grand Ivy-PL scheduling agreement is really just four schools. Georgetown, Fordham, and Bucknell are on the outside looking in as the majority of Ivy games stay with the same four. If the Ivies cut all ties, Colgate would survive.

[DetroitFlyer]

Hmmmm.... This is one kid.... I doubt that Fordham offering athletic scholarships hinders the Ivy League from getting a player they REALLY want.... This makes for good reading but I do not think it is reflective of the bigger picture. Recruits are always talking about who they turned down.... Rarely, if ever, do you hear the so called "jilted" schools explanation. My guess is the other programs just did not want this kid as much as Fordham because they had what they considered to be better options.

[DetroitFlyer]

http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=4871437

OK, here is my headline based on the above information from Scout:

Shaquille chooses Dayton over Harvard!

[TheValleyRaider]

.

The grand Ivy-PL scheduling agreement is really just four schools. Georgetown, Fordham, and Bucknell are on the outside looking in as the majority of Ivy games stay with the same four. If the Ivies cut all ties, Colgate would survive.

Certainly Colgate would survive, though Harvard is an easy target based on our relative lack of history with them. Heck, even Dartmouth's already dropped us in the future. Really the only Ivy I would hate to lose from the schedule would be Cornell, but even then our program is stronger than that

The Ivies' attitude on PL scholarships would bother me more if I wasn't more disappointed by how much some members of the PL clearly care what they think xtwocentsx

[Doc QB]

I think the TRUE issue is that the Patriot League schools (minus Fordham) can't work the system like the Ivies do. Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate et. al. are showing up to recruit with an academic reputation a step behind the Ivies and a financial package a step behind both the Ivies and the full scholarship schools. What's the selling point?

That is a great, great point.

And to be honest, stealing a kid from Harvard to play QB is not the same as Fordham stealing a kid offered by JMU, Delaware, UNH, W&M. That is where scholarships really need to take us...