@wearingred, a lot of people use the search function here to get accurate info, especially as it pertains to Ivy recruiting so I feel compelled to dispute a couple of things .
A true Likely Letter, issued by admissions, is tantamount to a formal acceptance. A pre-read from admissions is not the same thing. Not even close. Any Ivy coach that is telling a sophomore that he/she has a “soft likely” is playing games. There is no girls lacrosse team (or hockey, or basketball) that is so important to an Ivy League school that they’re going to blatantly violate the Ivy agreement. There may be a rogue coach out there playing games, but there is no way in hell administration is going to be complicit with it.
Also, the idea that a coach can rank how much support he wants to give each recruit is nothing I’ve seen in person, in interviews with coaches or current/former Ivy athletes. Support is a binary thing - you either is or you ain’t. The idea that an Ivy recruit with top academics may be given less support 'because they can get in on their own" is contrary to the examples I know. I can attest to athletes with 35 ACT scores and 2350 SAT getting LLs. If the coach wants the athlete, there is no way he’s going to roll the dice and let them take their chances in a sub-10% general admission pool.
Other than that, nice post.