05-14-2019, 09:29 AM
Some very interesting news:
Quote:Ivy League Commissions Expansion Candidate Report: Will the Ancient Eight add 1, 2… or More?
By Ryan Simmons, Globe Staff, May 14, 2019, 7:12 am
PRINCETON, N.J. – Over the past decade, the Big Ten expanded out of its Midwestern roots into the East Coast with its additions of Maryland and Rutgers. Now, the Ivy League may be returning the favor by heading to the Midwest. The Boston Globe has obtained a report commissioned by the Council of Ivy League Presidents from the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC that analyzes potential expansion candidates for the athletic conference whose name has become synonymous with the academic elite in America.
As the demographic growth of the United States has largely been taking place far from the Northeastern core of the Ivy League, some of the conference’s presidents have expressed an increasing concern that their current position at the top of the academic food chain could be threatened in a generation without more directly reaching a larger segment of the country. One official from an Ivy League institution that had read the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “We built up a mythical status over many generations and that has served us very well, but we are looking years down the road to ensure that we have strength top-to-bottom. There’s no doubt that the Harvards and Yales of the world are virtually assured to always have a prime position in the academic world with their endowments, but we need to make sure that the other members like Dartmouth and Brown continue to receive a maximum benefit from our elite association.”
The Goldman Sachs report indicates the difficulty in finding viable expansion candidates that meet the stringent criteria of the Ivy League. Any target for the Ivy League would need to be on a short list of academically elite powerhouses with either Division I athletics or a concrete plan to move up from lower divisions. Forty years ago, top tier academic private institutions schools with Division I sports programs such as Northwestern, Duke and Vanderbilt might have jumped at the chance at obtaining the Ivy label. However, the Goldman Sachs report concludes that the financial reality today is that not even the Ivy League could realistically lure a full member from one of the Power Five conferences (the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12) with their lucrative television contract earnings and other sources of athletic revenue.
At the same time, the Goldman Sachs report notes that the Ivy League demands “an unwavering commitment to academic freedom” from any candidate. This is interpreted within the Council of Ivy League Presidents to effectively eliminate any institution with a religious affiliation, such as Georgetown, from consideration, although one athletic director from the conference half-jokingly quipped, “If Notre Dame wants to join us for football, our door is wide open!”
As a result, the Goldman Sachs report recommends that the Ivy League examine “development cases” of Division III athletic schools that are in the top tier of academia while also having the financial wherewithal to move up to Division I. The Goldman Sachs report said, “While moving from Division III to Division I is challenging, it pales in comparison to the difficulty in moving up the academic rankings. Therefore, there is a greater likelihood of the Ivy League adding a well-resourced institution that already meets the requisite academic criteria to build a proper athletic program than the other way around.”
The University of Chicago, which was once a member of the Big Ten and home to the first Heisman Trophy winner (Jay Berwanger in 1939), was identified as a prime potential development case. The famously academically intense school that churns out Nobel Prize winners on a regular basis on the South Side of Chicago has vaulted to #3 in the U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings over recent years and would instantly bring the Ivy League into its largest market outside of New York City. As of June 30, 2018, the University of Chicago had an endowment of $8.2 billion, which would place it in the middle of the Ivy League ahead of Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which has led all U.S. universities in research spending for 39 consecutive years, is another potential development case that simultaneously has the advantage of a perennially-ranked Division I lacrosse program despite currently having its other athletic teams at the Division III level. A source within the Johns Hopkins athletic department stated if the school ever received an invitation to the Ivy League, it would support such efforts and move its lacrosse program from its current home as an associate member of the Big Ten. The Goldman Sachs report also noted that the location of John Hopkins would allow for the Ivy League to effectively span the entire Washington-New York-Boston corridor, which could strengthen the ties between the conference and the nation’s capital even further.
Other Division III schools mentioned as possible development cases include Washington University in St. Louis and Carnegie Mellon University.
Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris could not be reached for comment. Sources within the Council of Ivy League Presidents have stated that the group has not set a timetable for a decision regarding any potential expansion.