PLAYING THE GAME: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League

You don't need an Ivy League education to appreciate Lincoln's in-depth look at recruiting in this elite conference, but it helps. A good part of Lincoln's analysis centers on the Academic Index (A.I.), a system devised by Ivy schools that uses stratified bands to limit the number of student athletes schools can admit in certain academic ranges. The A.I. formula is complex and serves to make a difficult recruiting situation for Ivy coaches even harder, Lincoln argues. Because the Ivy entrance requirements are higher than for most other colleges in the nation, before the A.I. was introduced in the early 1980s Ivy coaches had a limited pool of athletes to choose from. Despite being refined several times, the A.I. is still flawed, and Lincoln proposes that it be replaced by a firm minimum standard that would simplify the recruiting process for both the schools and students. Another important factor Lincoln examines in the recruiting wars is financial aid. Since Harvard, Yale and Princeton have the largest endowments, they are better positioned to secure the students they have targeted. In this sound book, Lincoln finds that while the recruiting process is cleaner than most other Division I conferences, the Ivy League is not without its own problems. (July)