Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League (Paperback)
 

Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League (Paperback) You don't need an Ivy League education to appreciate Lincoln's in-depth look at recruiting in this elite conference, but it helps. A good part of Lincoln's analysis centers on the Academic Index (A.I.), a system devised by Ivy schools that uses stratified bands to limit the number of student athletes schools can admit in certain academic ranges. The A.I. formula is complex and serves to make a difficult recruiting situation for Ivy coaches even harder, Lincoln argues. Because the Ivy entrance requirements are higher than for most other colleges in the nation, before the A.I. was introduced in the early 1980s Ivy coaches had a limited pool of athletes to choose from. Despite being refined several times, the A.I. is still flawed, and Lincoln proposes that it be replaced by a firm minimum standard that would simplify the recruiting process for both the schools and students. Another important factor Lincoln examines in the recruiting wars is financial aid. Since Harvard, Yale and Princeton have the largest endowments, they are better positioned to secure the students they have targeted. In this sound book, Lincoln finds that while the recruiting process is cleaner than most other Division I conferences, the Ivy League is not without its own problems. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tom Wolfe, best-selling author of The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff
". . .A serious, straight-faced–and hilarious–account of [what] coaches have to do. . .to get even half-decent athletes into the Ivy League."

Paul Witteman, former assistant managing editor, Sports Illustrated
"The Ivy League’s dirty, little, athletic secrets are exposed. . .and Ivy presidents will be blinking and scrambling for safety."

Fred Hargadon, former dean of admission for Princeton University, Stanford University, and Swarthmore College
"There’s informative reading here for everyone involved in intercollegiate athletics, from prospective student-athletes through college presidents."

Alexander Wolff, senior author, Sports Illustrated and author of Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure
"Part explainer, part expose and part polemic, [this book] fills a. . .gap in our knowledge of how college sports work."

Bill Littlefield, host of National Public Radio’s “Only a Game”
". . .An exceptional job of explaining a recruiting process. . .will surprise [those] who think they know all about. . .Ivy League."

Book Description
This inside look at the athletic recruiting process reveals exactly how the athletic recruiting game is played by coaches, prospects, parents, administrators, admissions officers, and even college presidents in the Ivy League and NESCAC. This book tells how Trinity College became better than Harvard, Princeton, and Yale in squash by recruiting around the world to capture the national title; why a Brown lacrosse coach left the Ivy League recruiting rat race to seek a more sane lifestyle at Bates; and how the admission deans at Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth view the whole athletic recruiting process. A compelling combination of profiles, stories, and excerpts of interviews reveals why Ivy League coaches have to work so much harder than their Division I peers to identify qualified student athletes.


About the Author
Chris Lincoln is a former recruited college athlete who passed up a full soccer scholarship to the University of New Hampshire to play soccer and hockey at Middlebury College. He lives in Thetford, Vermont. Jay Fiedler is a starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Product Details

* Paperback: 288 pages
* Publisher: Nomad Press (May 1, 2004)
* Language: English
* ISBN: 0972202668