<p>If the Ivies pull a Duke/Stanford in terms of recruiting athletes they will surely start winning a lot more but at the same time they risk slightly tarnishing their reputation. Plus, where would the truly scholarly athletes go? And don’t say that they can play at LACs because that would assume that they would all want to go to small colleges.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and the point remains: Does it really matter? What’s most entertaining is intraleague competition, not interleague. Of course a team with athletes who put sports before academics are going to beat a team that puts academics before sports, and similarly if those 2 teams competed in a math competition the opposite result would occur. I don’t know too much about the core sports, but regarding baseball, there have been some talented players in the Ivies who are currently in the MLB.</p>