What are we doing wrong? It’s a question I ask myself after every Lions football season, after the baseball team loses 22-21, and after the basketball team, despite an outstanding season, fails yet again to make March Madness. So I’ve come to terms with the fact that the Ivy League will not be taking my suggestion of granting athletic scholarships. I’ve accepted, despairingly, that Columbia will not be bringing varsity ice hockey to campus any time soon. And I’m content with the fact that Snoop Dogg is headlining Bacchanal. OK, so I’ll try to stick to sports…
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago titled “What Makes Cornell So Good?” The piece focused on Cornell’s wrestling team, which recently finished second in the nation behind Penn State at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships. The author asks a familiar question: “…how can Cornell, an Ivy League team that offers no athletic scholarships, even compete with such powerhouses?” He posits a rather simple argument—that “key generous alumni” provide the financial resources necessary to purchase top-notch athletic facilities. The article also suggests that Cornell’s wrestling program attracts strong recruits due to its extensive alumni network, a recent influx of high school wrestlers, and the lack of wrestling teams at many colleges, which thus creates a funnel effect into schools with a team.
Fair argument, but why not Columbia? Or Yale? Or Harvard? It seems to me that all the reasons offered for Cornell’s success apply to the entire Ivy League. Does Cornell really have a leg up when it comes to recruiting and training facilities? Take a look at Columbia. It is the only Ivy located smack dab in Manhattan, just a quick ride on the subway provides students with access to nine major professional sports teams, our country’s central financial hub, and a vibrant art and music scene.
According to a public report released by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education, Columbia spends more money on recruiting than all other Ivies with the exception of Princeton. Columbia also flaunts an endowment of approximately $6.5 billion, well over $1 billion more than Cornell. In terms of financial resources, Columbia has the leg up.
Columbia has the prestige, money, and location that one would think make it at least as attractive for athletes choosing between it and another Ivy like Cornell. While Columbia has the world to offer high school athletes, another type of recruiting may be luring these students to Cornell. According to a Wall Street Journal survey published this past September, only one Ivy ranked within the 25 top colleges tapped by corporate recruiters. You guessed it—Cornell. Our neighbor to the north ranked 14th on the list behind state schools such as Penn State, University of Illinois, and Carnegie Mellon.
But is it feasible to suggest that high school seniors would chose Cornell over another Ivy for the sake of future job opportunities? Well, maybe. Most top Ivy athletes I’ve encountered say that they chose Columbia because they wanted a world-class education as well as a spot on a varsity sports team. This generally holds true for the Ivy League as a whole, as most collegiate athletes will never play professional sports after college. As Ivy athletes matriculate without the incentive of athletic scholarships, it is likely that job recruiting is a deciding factor for student-athletes weighing the pros and cons of each school.
By now we’ve all seen the Daily Beast’s list that ranks Columbia the most stressful college in the country. For what it’s worth, Cornell ranked 16th on the list, behind every other school in the Ancient Eight except Brown, which ranked 17th. To add insult to injury, college reviewing site StudentsReview.com ranks Columbia behind Cornell in 13 of 14 categories of comparison including education, social life, extracurricular activities, and even funding use. Columbia only edged out Cornell in the category of “Surrounding City,” earning a letter grade of ‘B’ to Cornell’s ‘B-’. Booyakasha.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons why prospective student-athletes would chose Columbia over Cornell. Columbia may be stressful—we can all attest to that—but our school also ranked fourth on U.S. News and World Report’s most recent list of top national universities, eleven spots ahead of Cornell (go us!). But while we shouldn’t let survey and rankings get to our heads too much, they may help explain why Cornell arguably has the most successful athletics program of any Ivy.
Perhaps we need to come to terms with the fact that Cornell may offer the attraction of Ivy academics without the stress of the other Ancient Eight schools. It seems that somewhere along the line Columbia lost its recruiting mojo, while in the meantime Cornell built a reputation of being the hottest Ivy in terms of both athletics and academics. While the lure of Cornell is unclear, the stigmas that Columbia carries must be eradicated, as they are scaring off top athletes. Who knows, it could have been Columbia in the Sweet 16 last year or the Lions placing second nationally in wrestling.
As we wind down from the excitement of Days on Campus and start making Butler our home for the remainder of the semester, we should remember why we are here in the first place—to learn, explore New York City, and, of course, to constantly make fun of Princeton. Though following the Lions remains an emotional roller coaster with astronomical highs and depression-level lows, it sure makes for one hell of a ride.
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Above, game programs from Cornell's three meetings with Notre Dame during the 1980s on January 27, 1981 (L 57-80), December 13, 1983 (L 48-55) and December 4, 1986 (L 56-60). Also pictured, an A.P. photo of Notre Dame All American, Kelly Tripucka grabbing a rebound against Cornell's Alex Reynolds on January 27, 1981. Below, some news and notes for Thursday...
