Two weeks ago, one of the top 100 high school basketball players in the national class of 2005, Jose Garcia, came to visit Penn's campus.
Penn was among a short list of schools the 6-foot-5 196-pound wing man was considering, which included basketball powerhouses such as Michigan State and Louisville.
Over the last month, Garcia officially visited only two schools, Penn and Richmond. According to recruiting Web site theinsiders.com, the 15th ranked shooting guard in the nation was excited about seeing the Wharton school of business. Indeed, it seemed the Quakers had a legitimate shot at securing arguably one of the top recruits in Ivy League history.
But Garcia -- who hails from Charlottesville, Va., St. Anne's-Belfield -- ultimately chose local school Richmond.
Garcia, who arrived in Virginia by way of Belgium and Angola, opted to stay in Virginia so that the people who were instrumental in bringing him to the U.S. could watch him play at the college level. The other reason he signed early, according to Lynchburg News and Advance, is that he was selected to play for the Angolan national team, and in mid-June will leave for Europe for exhibition matches, thereby missing a prime recruiting period.
Garcia,who averaged 20.9.points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.6 assists for St. Anne's this past season, apparently chose Richmond to stay close to home. But in choosing between Penn and Richmond, it seems the latter school offered Garcia not only an opportunity to play in front of friends and family, but also an athletic scholarship.
Indeed, while Garcia publicly chose Richmond for the above-mentioned reasons, it seems reasonable to conclude that an athletic scholarship -- or lack thereof at Penn and in the Ivy League -- may have swayed his decision.
This is not a column about why the Ivy League should institute athletic scholarships. I realize this will -- in all likelihood -- never happen.
But it's more than apparent that Ivy recruiting policies need to be changed. How often does a Jose Garcia express strong interest in the Ancient Eight? And how will Ivy schools lure future Jose Garcia's away from scholarship schools?
Garcia is not the first premier athlete this year to express strong interest in Penn but then sign elsewhere. Former University of Florida quarterback Ingle Martin decided to transfer last December and was choosing between Penn and Furman University, located in Greenville, S.C. Needless to say, Martin chose Furman.
In the ongoing debate over paying college athletes, one of the central issues is that college athletes in major sports such as basketball and football generate huge amounts of revenue for their schools and yet receive none of the profits. If players are on athletic scholarships, however, it seems reasonable to argue that their scholarship represents their "cut" of the profits.
But in the athletic scholarship-less Ivy League, it is more difficult for schools to justify the revenue they generate from events such as the NCAA basketball tournament.
Perhaps the Ivy League should become the first conference to pay its athletes. This would help to compensate for the lack of scholarships and entice future Jose Garcia's to join the Ancient Eight.
After all, balancing academics and athletics in the Ivy League is particularly strenuous. Student-athletes compete in the classroom with the nation's elite minds, and on the fields and courts with the nation's elite athletes.
Consider other extracurricular activities at Penn: Orchestra members get course credit for being in the orchestra (one credit at Penn costs approximately $2,000). Several acapella groups are sponsored by the University and use their profits to help fund their Spring Break trips. In neither case do students receive hard cash for their efforts, but in both cases they are receiving a form of payment. Athletes should reap the same benefits.
On the Ivy League sports Web site, it states: "This successful competition in Division I national athletics is achieved by approaching athletics as a key part of the student's regular undergraduate experience: with rigorous academic standards, the nation's highest four-year graduation rates (the same as those for non-athletes), and without athletics scholarships."
It later states: "Ivy teams have enjoyed significant success in the opening rounds of the NCAA Division I basketball championships." Since Penn reached the Final Four in 1979, however, Ivy League teams have advanced past the first round in the men's NCAA basketball tournament only seven times, and have never advanced beyond the second round. In the past 25 years, the Ivy League's record in the NCAA tournament is 7-24. Sounds more like failure than success to me.
Penn's Final Four team consisted of several highly recruited players for which Penn won the recruiting war. But now it has become evident that Ivy League schools can no longer secure big time players. Two-time Ivy League Player of the Year Ugonna Onyekwe signed with Penn because of a fluke mistake, in which he broke a commitment to play with Long Beach State and therefore had to sign with a non-scholarship school or sit out for a year. The Ivy League's 7-24 NCAA tournament record will probably not improve anytime soon under the current recruitment policies.
Surely the main focus of the Ivy League should be academics, but shouldn't the Ancient Eight strive to be great and successful in all aspects of the University?
Paying college athletes may, as some argue, tarnish the character of college sports. But if athletic scholarships are out of the question, there are not many other options to lure future Jose Garcia's and Ingle Martin's to join the Ivy League. Indeed, it may not be the best solution, but it appears to be the most viable.
It will certainly not be easy to convince all eight Ivy League presidents to embrace a policy of paying its athletes, and furthermore it may not be possible for the Ivy League to adopt such a policy independent of the NCAA.
But if such a policy were adopted, there is no question that the Ivy League web site will no longer need to characterize a 7-24 NCAA tournament record as success.
