Author’s Note:  The Best and the Brightest are no more.  William F. Buckley was right.  I don’t know exactly what year he wrote it, but yesterday’s announcement from the Ivy League confirms it for me:

“I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.” –LINK

He might have been even more correct if he used the Yellow Pages.  No Harvard faculty listed there, in the White Pages there’s a possibility of overlap. Look, we all get it.  The Pandemic made a lot of people take the ‘better safe than sorry’ attitude.  Many of us know a victim, or many, of it and many still take the approach of avoiding risk by limiting contact, social activities, etc..  But at some point you have to stop some of the hypocrisy.  We’ve been lectured for nearly a year now by many about “following the science”, UNLESS it conflicts with your personal beliefs.  The Ivy League, and their D3 wannabees, the NESCAC, decided to play scared, decided to play elitist and decided they didn’t have what it takes, to LEAD.  They decided to not trust their students to do the things necessary to participate in a sport. The science is pretty clear at this point that healthy young adults are far less likely to have the type of co-morbidity issues that have proven fatal to so many who have lost their lives.  The NFL noted that NO PLAYER CONTRACTED COVID WHILE PLAYING. Didn’t matter. The administrators know best.  Not the kids.  These are IVY LEAGUE STUDENTS, and they weren’t trusted by their overseers. Let that sink in. For many years it’s been assumed that an Ivy League education was the gold ring, the mountain peak, the imprimatur of greatness.  In reality, it was always about the after-graduation network.  There’s no magical greatness about reading the Oresteia at Yale versus UF, no incredible insight gleaned from studying diplomatic history at Brown instead of Stanford.  Calculus does not magically solve problems better at Cornell than Colgate. The dirty little secret of the Ivy schools over the years is that you are paying for the LABEL and the NETWORKING access.  The BRAND.  Don’t believe me?  Prove me wrong.  

This decision has NOTHING to do with money.  Besides the enormous endowments, we know that alums were willing to foot the ENTIRE BILL for a bubble atmosphere: This was Monday in the Wall Street Journal: LINK

The Ivy League Is Still on the Sidelines. Wealthy Alumni Are Not Happy.

Billionaire Joe Tsai’s rebuffed offer to fund a lacrosse ‘bubble’ is one sign of how pressure is mounting on the conference that never returned to the field.

  What it clearly states, and which every parent needs to inculcate in their thinking is that know it all thinking, combined with fearful decision-making, leads to these poor decisions.  And do you really want to trust your child’s futures to them?  As far as lacrosse is concerned, it’s not because of the Ivy coaches.  On the Men’s side I pretty much know all of them and interviewed many.  I’m sure they are sick to their stomachs.  Even before this announcement came out, Yale cancelled their season as many team members withdrew from school so they could come back next spring to complete their eligibility.  Cornell looked like it was the same.  Penn was poised for a championship run this year but now we have to see if this decision, COMING THIS LATE, has unintnded consequences for eligibility. So far, the ‘lesser brands’, the ACC, the Patriot, the NEC, etc., have ALL found a way to handle the stuation.  Well, to steal a quote from Edward James Olmos in the movie Stand And Deliver, as Jaime Escalante, “you are the true dreamers”.  You met the challenge in front of you and fought back. As far as the Ivy’s are concerned, you look as courageous as the Cowardly Lion. Your brand is now Chicken Little. Live with that the rest of your lives.     from the Ivy League website  

IVY LEAGUE UPDATES INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS PLAN FOR SPRING COMPETITION AND TRAINING