Myth of the athletic-scholarship advantage

[billhoward]

Elsewhere in the section there's discussion about the advantage allegedly accruing to schools that have athletic scholarships. A few thoughtful voices have noted that just because it's an athletic scholarship school, it doesn't mean everyone gets a free ride. The very best players, yes, but not the bulk of the team. So Cornell's financial disadvantage may not be that severe, assuming the athlete gets in. What Cornell offers in financial aid might match what a non-star gets elsewhere as athletic aid. Or reduce the gap.  


The New York Times touched on this back in March in a multi-part series.

More common [than the major-sport coach offering full rides] is the soccer, lacrosse or softball coach who sits in a closet-sized office beside a $100 air conditioner and a 12-inch TV, trying to figure out ways to buy the best athlete possible for the least amount of scholarship money, which can be as little as $400. Joe Godri, the baseball coach at Villanova University, [said], "You pump up a kid so much to come to your place, and when he agrees, you say, 'O.K., and what I've got for you is 25 percent of your cost to attend here. And no one believes you, but that's a good Division I baseball scholarship. ... the average N.C.A.A. Division I baseball scholarship, compiled from 2003-4 statistics obtained from the N.C.A.A., is worth $7,069.    
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Working against these college coaches is a perception in the hyper and driven youth sports culture that scholarship money is plentiful. ... coaches said they routinely encountered parents with an almost irrational desire to have their children earn some kind of athletic scholarship. Sometimes the amount is irrelevant, as long as the child can attend his or her high school's national letter of intent signing day and be feted in the local newspapers as a scholarship athlete.
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"The first thing people have to understand is that they are probably not going to recoup the money they've already spent on their kid's athletic career," Godri said.

[Josh '99]

For what it's worth, Bill, the point I'm making in the other thread has virtually nothing to do with athletic scholarships.