Ivy ADs Suggest Fewer Recruits

In a decision that may foreshadow broad recruiting cuts in Ivy League athletics, the league’s athletic directors have agreed on a preliminary recommendation that each of their football teams reduce the maximum number of football recruits per year from 35 to 30 players.

After a directive from Ivy League presidents to consider cutting the number of recruits from 35 to 25, the league’s eight athletic directors met last month and agreed on a compromise recommendation of 30, according to Yale head football coach John L. Siedlecki.

The proposal was then forwarded to a larger committee of Ivy League policy-makers, which met last week and discussed reducing recruits.

The Ivy League Policy Committee recommendation will be forwarded to the universities’ presidents, who will make a final decision on the matter at their June 17 meeting.

Members of the policy committee and athletic directors declined to comment on what they recommended, though Siedlecki said he believed some cuts would be recommended to and approved by the Ivy presidents.

“I hate to say it’s inevitable, but I think it is,” Siedlecki said.

The recommendation, if accepted by University President Lawrence H. Summers and the other Ivy presidents, would represent a major disappointment for Harvard and its defending Ivy champion football team.

Director of Athletics Robert L. Scalise, who declined to comment on the proposals, has argued in the past that cutting recruits would devastate Harvard’s junior varsity football program.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68, who represents Harvard on the policy committee, also declined to comment. Expressing concern that varsity athletics have become too intense, Lewis has said he opposes cutting the number of recruits to 25, fearing that a smaller football team would only put increased pressure on the remaining players to be the “gladiators for Harvard.”

Members of the Harvard football team said a reduction in the number of recruits from 35 would cripple their Division I-AA competitiveness.

“The fact of the matter is that if the Ivies decide to reduce the number of recruits, they will become a non-factor on the Division I-AA level,” said defensive end Michael L. Armstrong ’03. “We finished 19th in the nation this year, and diminishing the number of recruits will have a negative impact on our competitiveness.”

Harvard head football coach Timothy L. Murphy has declined to comment on the matter.

While the only specific proposals on the table, according to Siedlecki, have dealt with football, cuts in other sports may be soon in coming.

“I suspect football will be the beginning, not the end,” said former director of athletics John P. Reardon ’60.

The push toward scaling back college athletic programs is not unique to the Ivy League.

Schools such as Williams and Amherst recently joined a group of fellow colleges from the New England Small Colleges Athletic Conference in agreeing to cut the number of athletic recruits by about 10 percent.

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.