Quote Originally Posted by Baron Sardonicus View Post
Yes, you are missing something.
Georgetown gives many partial football scholarships, but Fordham gives many more partial scholarships. Put those partial scholarships together, and Georgetown has maybe 35 equivalencies. Fordham has about 60 equivalencies.


Yale gives no athletic aid. Lowered admission standards for players, but no athletic aid. All the need-based aid in the world, but no athletic aid. Thus, Yale has 0 equivalencies. I've noticed that some Ivy League fans think Georgetown football, like the Ivies, is non-scholarship. Nope--the Hoyas offer fb players athletic aid... also known as merit aid for jocks...also known as equivalencies. If you are a Hoya player receiving football money in your financial package, and you quit the team, you lose that athletic money.
That's not accurate. Georgetown does not provide partial scholarships (defined as athletic grant in aid) through the athletic department. Fordham and the other PL schools provide 63 full scholarships for football, though Bucknell might be closer to 55-57.

So where do equivalencies come in? Unlike the Ivies, Colgate, and a few other schools which offer aid with a "no loan" component, Georgetown does not. It does not offer financial aid without 1) a loan component and 2) a work-study component. The previous formula allowed Patriot schools (all of which except Georgetown have moved on from this, of course) to "buy out" the loan and the work study portion of the aid package and that's the equivalency, since it is independent from the offer from the financial aid office.

One might say "What Division I athlete has to do work study?" Well, absent a buyout, they would.

In all the years I have covered the Hoyas I have never seen a verified equivalency number. The equivalent of 35 you cite would be $3.1 million in program expenses, which is more than its entire budget of $2.7 million.