(10-12-2021 12:56 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote: (10-12-2021 12:54 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote: The Patriot League allows 60.
Thanks, I knew at one point there were discussions over limits for scholarships. Do all of the football squads in the Patriot utilize 60 schollys?
All but one: Georgetown, which is the only non-scholarship program in the entirety of Division I playing in a scholarship conference.
Lots of reasons why, none particularly simple, but here are three:
1 As an author described Georgetown basketball in the 1960's, it applies to football: "They always wanted to have a good team, but didn't know how to go about doing it." While the second largest budget item in the athletic department, football is just 5% of the total budget because of how many sports it sponsors and much money Georgetown puts into men's basketball, sometimes with diminishing returns.
2. When Georgetown was shut out of consideration in the formation of Big East football in the 1990's, it aligned the program along the lines of what I called "The Ninth Ivy", figuring that it could be seen as a peer to Ivy League schools and play at that level. The problem was (and is) that the Ivy League really don't want anything to do with them, and other conferences are nonplussed by adding a program that is underfunded and a school committed to another conference's brand (i.e., Big East).
3. Of Georgetown's 30 teams, only eight of these are fully funded via scholarships. Those sports that have jumped up the ladder take far fewer grants to become nationally relevant. The marginal gain to add scholarships across multiple smaller teams is deemed more impactful than putting them in football given football's position in the low-tier Patriot League and the distinct lack of interest in adding Georgetown by any other conferences. Example: 11 scholarships led Georgetown to the 2019 NCAA title in men's soccer and the current #1 team in the nation. 11 scholarships would do little to elevate football against full-scholarship opponents.