<p>I predict this will go the way basketball did a few years ago… once one school breaks ranks more will give in, and eventually all will give in and start offering scholarships - including Lafayette, because they’ll have to in order to remain competitive. </p>
<p>The Patriot league, being D1 but very academic, ends up competing with the Ivies for athletes. Both leagues are supposed to be need-based only for aid. But picture a kid who is being recruited and gets accepted to both Lafayette and Princeton. Where do you think he’s going to go? The coaches refer to this as “reputational advantage.” The only way the Patriot league can compete for these athletes is to offer scholarships.</p>
<p>It should be noted that these scholarships are NOT (and won’t be) full rides. They are very limited in number, and students have to be within an academic range that they probably would have been admitted even without the sport. The Patriots League collects the academic stats of all recruited scholarship athletes and the Presidents get to look at each other’s data. If something looks way out of line, they can call each other on it.</p>