5 Comments
Bill Pennington, author of an article in today’s Times, meditates on what many-an-Ivy Leaguer has meditated: just what is the purpose of pursuing a successful football program at a school known for its academic caliber? Are the two ends of academic excellence and athletic triumph mutually exclusive?
(Perhaps: he notes that Duke, Northwestern, and Stanford, top schools with strong football programs, all have pretty shitty records)
The Columbia squad might be proud.
Loading …
5 Comments
@the Man The problem with Ivy League football is that we all suck. OK, Duke and Stanford are winless in the ACC and PAC-10, their respective conferences. Northwestern sucks in the Big Ten. But they are losing to teams like USC, Michigan, Ohio State, and Florida. We lose to Daartmouth…
I don’t think its a fair comparison. If those teams were in a weaker conference, they’d be rather good.
@also you could have used some cool old columbia football posters:
http://mssa.library.yale.edu/derivatives/pubs/138/zoom/010331.jpg
http://mssa.library.yale.edu/derivatives/pubs/138/zoom/008363.jpg
okay I’ll stop now
@moreover man some other interesting items relating to ivy football:
1. cornell has its very own parade down fifth avenue after facing columbia-
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov06/big.red.band.NYC.aj.html
2. some guy is actually making a documentary on ivy football:
http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2006/11/do_we_smell_an_oscar.html
@wait I forgot this gem image:
http://www.ivygateblog.com/images/cornellparade.jpg
@cml Interesting; I liked nearly all of it, but the point about Duke/Northwestern/Stanford didn’t seem to be valid — the latter two have been much better in recent years (owing to more unscrupulous recruitment of athletes and the ability to give out scholarships, I think), while Duke is much more focused on basketball. What about Boston College and Notre Dame? They’re selective and prestigious (though probably not as much), compete for students at a national level, and are historically football powerhouses. It’s not the prestige that kicks the Ivies in the balls.