Re: Union College: Some History
Here is the second part of the story I started in post #45.
Let me step back in time for a moment. When time began there was no NCAA and there were no rules for or against athletic scholarships in college athletics…I’m going back to the 19th century here. The forerunner of the NCAA was formed in the very early 20th century to deal with safety and eligibility rules in football, where too many players were jumping around between schools, taking money to play while not enrolled, and most unfortunately, dying on the field. Fast forward about one hundred years and the NCAA was still trying to establish rules over the same issues (well, maybe not so much about dying, although with the current concussion controversy, we’ll see).
In 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership. As every reader of this board knows, in general, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. (Division I football was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)). We also know that hockey is an unusual sport from an NCAA perspective because many D1 hockey teams are D2 or 3 in the rest of their programs, creating a dilemma for NCAA rules makers who want everything nice and tidy among the classifications.
Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Under a rules “exemption” granted in around 1983, Division III schools can “play up” in a sport in Division I without joining Division I and can offer athletic scholarships in that sport without violating the D3 “no athletic scholarships” rule. The fact that some D3 schools play up and grant athletic scholarships and some play up and don’t, and that the large majority of D3 schools don’t play up, yet compete against a handful of schools who do play up in one or two marquee sports has always rankled some in the NCAA (who, I guess, like me, have too much time on their hands and can worry about such things…)
In any event, the divisional classifications and the rules pertaining to them were regularly debated in NCAA conventions following the implementation of classification and the play up exemption (in 1987, 1991 and 1994).
In 2000, the former president of Princeton, William Bowen, co-wrote a book called “The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values”. The authors took the position that elite athletic programs were in many ways antithetical to the purposes of elite academic institutions, such as Princeton. They produced extensive data from highly selective colleges showing that (i) recruited athletes are as much as four times more likely to gain admission than are other applicants with similar academic credentials, (ii) once in college, they consistently underperform academically, (iii) the typical recruit is substantially more likely to end up in the bottom third of the college class than is either the typical walk-on or the student who does not play college sports, and (iii) even then, recruited athletes "underperform," doing even less well academically than predicted by their test scores and high school grades. Moreover, they said, the academic standing of athletes relative to their classmates has deteriorated markedly from the good ol’ days.
The book had a huge impact on a number of elite D3 college presidents who were running highly selective admissions programs (and, often, powerhouse athletic programs). A D3 committee was formed, called the President’s Council, to study the issue. (Interestingly, the committee was chaired by President John McCardell of Middlebury, who, at the time in 2003, was running a college with one of the most selective admissions policies in the country and which in the period 1995-2003 had won 18 NCAA team titles. The school had also recently built a $17.5 million, 2,100-seat hockey rink, a new track and field complex, a swimming facility and a new football field.)
The Council found itself troubled by what they saw as a departure from the core philosophy of Division III by eight schools playing up and offering scholarships in a handful of sports, including men’s ice hockey.
The eight schools were:
• Clarkson University - men's and women's ice hockey
• Colorado College - men's ice hockey, women's soccer
• Hartwick College - men's soccer, women's water polo
• Johns Hopkins University - men's and women's lacrosse
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - men's ice hockey (women's ice hockey moved up to Division I in 2005)
• Rutgers University-Newark - men's volleyball
• St. Lawrence University - men's and women's ice hockey
• SUNY Oneonta - men's soccer (since dropped down to Division III in 2006)
As you can see, four of the programs were the historically grandfathered D1 hockey programs at D3 Clarkson, Colorado College, RPI and St. Lawrence.
The Council surveyed the entire D3 membership (almost none of whom played up in any sport) and, in addition to other reform proposals, concluded that going forward no D3 school playing up should be permitted to offer athletic scholarships. It was a kind of an integrity uber alles position that only affected the eight D3 schools playing up. The result was the so-called Proposal 65 which the Council approved and brought before an NCAA Convention in January 2004.
A firestorm of controversy ensued and this is where Roger Hull and Union had their moment of glory and ignominy.
See the next post (#47) for the end of the story...
Originally posted by Eph72
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Let me step back in time for a moment. When time began there was no NCAA and there were no rules for or against athletic scholarships in college athletics…I’m going back to the 19th century here. The forerunner of the NCAA was formed in the very early 20th century to deal with safety and eligibility rules in football, where too many players were jumping around between schools, taking money to play while not enrolled, and most unfortunately, dying on the field. Fast forward about one hundred years and the NCAA was still trying to establish rules over the same issues (well, maybe not so much about dying, although with the current concussion controversy, we’ll see).
In 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership. As every reader of this board knows, in general, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. (Division I football was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)). We also know that hockey is an unusual sport from an NCAA perspective because many D1 hockey teams are D2 or 3 in the rest of their programs, creating a dilemma for NCAA rules makers who want everything nice and tidy among the classifications.
Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Under a rules “exemption” granted in around 1983, Division III schools can “play up” in a sport in Division I without joining Division I and can offer athletic scholarships in that sport without violating the D3 “no athletic scholarships” rule. The fact that some D3 schools play up and grant athletic scholarships and some play up and don’t, and that the large majority of D3 schools don’t play up, yet compete against a handful of schools who do play up in one or two marquee sports has always rankled some in the NCAA (who, I guess, like me, have too much time on their hands and can worry about such things…)
In any event, the divisional classifications and the rules pertaining to them were regularly debated in NCAA conventions following the implementation of classification and the play up exemption (in 1987, 1991 and 1994).
In 2000, the former president of Princeton, William Bowen, co-wrote a book called “The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values”. The authors took the position that elite athletic programs were in many ways antithetical to the purposes of elite academic institutions, such as Princeton. They produced extensive data from highly selective colleges showing that (i) recruited athletes are as much as four times more likely to gain admission than are other applicants with similar academic credentials, (ii) once in college, they consistently underperform academically, (iii) the typical recruit is substantially more likely to end up in the bottom third of the college class than is either the typical walk-on or the student who does not play college sports, and (iii) even then, recruited athletes "underperform," doing even less well academically than predicted by their test scores and high school grades. Moreover, they said, the academic standing of athletes relative to their classmates has deteriorated markedly from the good ol’ days.
The book had a huge impact on a number of elite D3 college presidents who were running highly selective admissions programs (and, often, powerhouse athletic programs). A D3 committee was formed, called the President’s Council, to study the issue. (Interestingly, the committee was chaired by President John McCardell of Middlebury, who, at the time in 2003, was running a college with one of the most selective admissions policies in the country and which in the period 1995-2003 had won 18 NCAA team titles. The school had also recently built a $17.5 million, 2,100-seat hockey rink, a new track and field complex, a swimming facility and a new football field.)
The Council found itself troubled by what they saw as a departure from the core philosophy of Division III by eight schools playing up and offering scholarships in a handful of sports, including men’s ice hockey.
The eight schools were:
• Clarkson University - men's and women's ice hockey
• Colorado College - men's ice hockey, women's soccer
• Hartwick College - men's soccer, women's water polo
• Johns Hopkins University - men's and women's lacrosse
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - men's ice hockey (women's ice hockey moved up to Division I in 2005)
• Rutgers University-Newark - men's volleyball
• St. Lawrence University - men's and women's ice hockey
• SUNY Oneonta - men's soccer (since dropped down to Division III in 2006)
As you can see, four of the programs were the historically grandfathered D1 hockey programs at D3 Clarkson, Colorado College, RPI and St. Lawrence.
The Council surveyed the entire D3 membership (almost none of whom played up in any sport) and, in addition to other reform proposals, concluded that going forward no D3 school playing up should be permitted to offer athletic scholarships. It was a kind of an integrity uber alles position that only affected the eight D3 schools playing up. The result was the so-called Proposal 65 which the Council approved and brought before an NCAA Convention in January 2004.
A firestorm of controversy ensued and this is where Roger Hull and Union had their moment of glory and ignominy.
See the next post (#47) for the end of the story...
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