Brains vs the Brawn Next Week

[BelgradeBobcat]

I found this article interesting: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 489191007/

Yale has a $44 billion endowment. If they wanted to be really good at football, they could be, but the Ivy League President's agreement in the 1950's deemphasized football. Now that they are in the FCS playoffs what will happen? After a few more blowout losses to the likes of a cow college in Montana will the Ivy's step it up, or will they call the playoff experiment a bust go back to the way it was?

Yalies are not the type to spend money on sports like football. There may be a small increase in the budget from the general fund but that's probably it.

For years the Ivies have pretty much only played non-conference games against expensive private schools in the northeast like Lehigh and Holy Cross. But now in the playoffs, the blue bloods could be curb stomped by directional commuter schools, land grant cow colleges, or maybe even an HBCU. How will that sit with their highly accomplished, driven, and presumably competitive administrators and alums? I think they're going to step it up a notch or two. Either that or bail completely.

Thats an odd thing to say on a day when an unranked Yale team went on the road and upset a MVFC team on the road.

Regardless, I don't think you are going to see a big shift in attitudes. Generally speaking, the Ivies have good, not great teams in most sports. They mostly win national championships in rowing and lacrosse. And then they have some occasional outstanding individual athletes in sports like golf, skiing, tennis, etc.

But I don't see the entire Ivy League changing their position on athletic scholarships (all financial aid at the Ivies is need based) to attract more athletes...and I don't imagine that they are super interested in lowering their admission standards to recruit enough top tier athletes to fill out an entire 2 deep football roster that would be competitive with cow schools like MSU.

And theres a 0.0% chance that they are willing to play the transfer game. (Stanford doesn't give transfers preferntial admissions & its made it really difficult for Stanford to compete in the new era of NIL/transfer portal)

I think this is basically right-- they are not going to have formal scholarships or sacrifice academic standards (more than they already do)-- but there are a number of things they could do with scheduling, facilities, recruiting, maybe even NIL, that that would make them much more competitive. The sort of money that we have to work mightily to raise they could do in their sleep. I have a friendly acquaintance-- a classmate-- who told me he is coming out for the game-- he serves as a volunteer photographer for a lot of Yale sporting events, this guy is an investment banker worth hundreds of millions of $-- I know he has given millions to Yale, and he could easily give millions more without breaking a sweat. Yale literally has thousands of guys like that in their alumni network.

Memory is a bit fuzzy, but back when the grizzlies were just starting to be good after Washy-griz stadium was built in the 1980's they had a playoff game at Georgia Southern. GS pretty much ran them into the ground and started a chant: "Big White and Slow-Go Back to the Snow!" I remember Don Reed saying he realized to be nationally competitive they needed a lot more speed and started recruiting for it. That experience changed how they did business and the rest is history.

I think Yale will get exposed a bit in Bozeman. If it's a slow track due to the snow that may help them, but if it's dry I think they're in a lot of trouble. Yale overcame their speed deficit against Youngstown somehow, maybe due to Youngstown's lack of size and depth, but that won't be the case against the Bobcats. I think the Ivie's will change some things. Maybe not radically like going for scholarships, but how they approach football, recruiting and maybe scheduling as they are not so insulated anymore. And they certainly have the means to do it unlike a lot of other FCS programs. I think it's going to be fun to watch how it plays out. I'm really excited to see them competing.

[onceacat]

I found this article interesting: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 489191007/

Yale has a $44 billion endowment. If they wanted to be really good at football, they could be, but the Ivy League President's agreement in the 1950's deemphasized football. Now that they are in the FCS playoffs what will happen? After a few more blowout losses to the likes of a cow college in Montana will the Ivy's step it up, or will they call the playoff experiment a bust go back to the way it was?

Yalies are not the type to spend money on sports like football. There may be a small increase in the budget from the general fund but that's probably it.

For years the Ivies have pretty much only played non-conference games against expensive private schools in the northeast like Lehigh and Holy Cross. But now in the playoffs, the blue bloods could be curb stomped by directional commuter schools, land grant cow colleges, or maybe even an HBCU. How will that sit with their highly accomplished, driven, and presumably competitive administrators and alums? I think they're going to step it up a notch or two. Either that or bail completely.

Thats an odd thing to say on a day when an unranked Yale team went on the road and upset a MVFC team on the road.

Regardless, I don't think you are going to see a big shift in attitudes. Generally speaking, the Ivies have good, not great teams in most sports. They mostly win national championships in rowing and lacrosse. And then they have some occasional outstanding individual athletes in sports like golf, skiing, tennis, etc.

But I don't see the entire Ivy League changing their position on athletic scholarships (all financial aid at the Ivies is need based) to attract more athletes...and I don't imagine that they are super interested in lowering their admission standards to recruit enough top tier athletes to fill out an entire 2 deep football roster that would be competitive with cow schools like MSU.

And theres a 0.0% chance that they are willing to play the transfer game. (Stanford doesn't give transfers preferntial admissions & its made it really difficult for Stanford to compete in the new era of NIL/transfer portal)

I think this is basically right-- they are not going to have formal scholarships or sacrifice academic standards (more than they already do)-- but there are a number of things they could do with scheduling, facilities, recruiting, maybe even NIL, that that would make them much more competitive. The sort of money that we have to work mightily to raise they could do in their sleep. I have a friendly acquaintance-- a classmate-- who told me he is coming out for the game-- he serves as a volunteer photographer for a lot of Yale sporting events, this guy is an investment banker worth hundreds of millions of $-- I know he has given millions to Yale, and he could easily give millions more without breaking a sweat. Yale literally has thousands of guys like that in their alumni network.

Have you ever been to an Ivy stadium? My DIL graduated from Penn, and let’s be clear: Ivy facilities are light years ahead of anything anywhere else in FBS.

MSU would need to raise a billion or so to compete with Penn’s facilities. Maybe more.

[mule]

I found this article interesting: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 489191007/

Yale has a $44 billion endowment. If they wanted to be really good at football, they could be, but the Ivy League President's agreement in the 1950's deemphasized football. Now that they are in the FCS playoffs what will happen? After a few more blowout losses to the likes of a cow college in Montana will the Ivy's step it up, or will they call the playoff experiment a bust go back to the way it was?

Yalies are not the type to spend money on sports like football. There may be a small increase in the budget from the general fund but that's probably it.

For years the Ivies have pretty much only played non-conference games against expensive private schools in the northeast like Lehigh and Holy Cross. But now in the playoffs, the blue bloods could be curb stomped by directional commuter schools, land grant cow colleges, or maybe even an HBCU. How will that sit with their highly accomplished, driven, and presumably competitive administrators and alums? I think they're going to step it up a notch or two. Either that or bail completely.

Thats an odd thing to say on a day when an unranked Yale team went on the road and upset a MVFC team on the road.

Regardless, I don't think you are going to see a big shift in attitudes. Generally speaking, the Ivies have good, not great teams in most sports. They mostly win national championships in rowing and lacrosse. And then they have some occasional outstanding individual athletes in sports like golf, skiing, tennis, etc.

But I don't see the entire Ivy League changing their position on athletic scholarships (all financial aid at the Ivies is need based) to attract more athletes...and I don't imagine that they are super interested in lowering their admission standards to recruit enough top tier athletes to fill out an entire 2 deep football roster that would be competitive with cow schools like MSU.

And theres a 0.0% chance that they are willing to play the transfer game. (Stanford doesn't give transfers preferntial admissions & its made it really difficult for Stanford to compete in the new era of NIL/transfer portal)

I think this is basically right-- they are not going to have formal scholarships or sacrifice academic standards (more than they already do)-- but there are a number of things they could do with scheduling, facilities, recruiting, maybe even NIL, that that would make them much more competitive. The sort of money that we have to work mightily to raise they could do in their sleep. I have a friendly acquaintance-- a classmate-- who told me he is coming out for the game-- he serves as a volunteer photographer for a lot of Yale sporting events, this guy is an investment banker worth hundreds of millions of $-- I know he has given millions to Yale, and he could easily give millions more without breaking a sweat. Yale literally has thousands of guys like that in their alumni network.

Have you ever been to an Ivy stadium? My DIL graduated from Penn, and let’s be clear: Ivy facilities are light years ahead of anything anywhere else in FBS.

MSU would need to raise a billion or so to compete with Penn’s facilities. Maybe more.

YEP!!! They will think BS is a S*** Hole and be like playing in a horse pasture.

[Travelingcat]

I found this article interesting: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 489191007/

Yale has a $44 billion endowment. If they wanted to be really good at football, they could be, but the Ivy League President's agreement in the 1950's deemphasized football. Now that they are in the FCS playoffs what will happen? After a few more blowout losses to the likes of a cow college in Montana will the Ivy's step it up, or will they call the playoff experiment a bust go back to the way it was?

Yalies are not the type to spend money on sports like football. There may be a small increase in the budget from the general fund but that's probably it.

For years the Ivies have pretty much only played non-conference games against expensive private schools in the northeast like Lehigh and Holy Cross. But now in the playoffs, the blue bloods could be curb stomped by directional commuter schools, land grant cow colleges, or maybe even an HBCU. How will that sit with their highly accomplished, driven, and presumably competitive administrators and alums? I think they're going to step it up a notch or two. Either that or bail completely.

Thats an odd thing to say on a day when an unranked Yale team went on the road and upset a MVFC team on the road.

Regardless, I don't think you are going to see a big shift in attitudes. Generally speaking, the Ivies have good, not great teams in most sports. They mostly win national championships in rowing and lacrosse. And then they have some occasional outstanding individual athletes in sports like golf, skiing, tennis, etc.

But I don't see the entire Ivy League changing their position on athletic scholarships (all financial aid at the Ivies is need based) to attract more athletes...and I don't imagine that they are super interested in lowering their admission standards to recruit enough top tier athletes to fill out an entire 2 deep football roster that would be competitive with cow schools like MSU.

And theres a 0.0% chance that they are willing to play the transfer game. (Stanford doesn't give transfers preferntial admissions & its made it really difficult for Stanford to compete in the new era of NIL/transfer portal)

I think this is basically right-- they are not going to have formal scholarships or sacrifice academic standards (more than they already do)-- but there are a number of things they could do with scheduling, facilities, recruiting, maybe even NIL, that that would make them much more competitive. The sort of money that we have to work mightily to raise they could do in their sleep. I have a friendly acquaintance-- a classmate-- who told me he is coming out for the game-- he serves as a volunteer photographer for a lot of Yale sporting events, this guy is an investment banker worth hundreds of millions of $-- I know he has given millions to Yale, and he could easily give millions more without breaking a sweat. Yale literally has thousands of guys like that in their alumni network.

Have you ever been to an Ivy stadium? My DIL graduated from Penn, and let’s be clear: Ivy facilities are light years ahead of anything anywhere else in FBS.

MSU would need to raise a billion or so to compete with Penn’s facilities. Maybe more.

I probably haven't since my undergrad days three decades ago-- at that time facilities were really crumbling, but my sense is they've invested quite a bit in them subsequently. Harvard stadiums ongoing renovation is approaching $200 million in cost I think-- I know the biggest donor for it very well. LIke I said, there is plenty of money there if they want to direct it to athletics.