Student efforts to convince the presidents of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) schools to reverse their decision to eliminate at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament will not likely succeed in the near future, University President John DiBiaggio said on Saturday.
DiBiaggio addressed a contingent of students from four of the 11 NESCAC schools, which met at Tufts this weekend to form a plan of action to fight the 1998 ruling. The new policy will not go into effect until next fall, at which point NESCAC sports teams will no longer be able to accept at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The policy will also restrict the participation of NESCAC teams in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament. The winner of the postseason NESCAC Tournament _ incepted for all team sports this year _ will be the conference's lone representative at NCAAs, regardless of regular-season record.
"I wish I could tell you that [student mobilization] would have an enormous impact, but I don't think it will," DiBiaggio told student leaders from Tufts, Connecticut College, Trinity, and Bowdoin.
A reversal of the 1998 decision would require approval from three-fourths, or nine of the 11 NESCAC university presidents, who will convene in Boston on April 19 for their annual spring meeting.
Many NESCAC presidents are concerned that championship competition encourages division three schools to lower their admission standards and diverts attention from academics, said DiBiaggio, speaking for his NESCAC colleagues. At the conference, DiBiaggio did not express his personal opinion on the issue.
The administrators' concerns come in light of the publication of The Game of Life, a novel which draws an unfavorable connection between athletics, academics, and college admissions.
"By de-emphasizing championships and returning to the fundamentals of conference competition, that would diminish the influence on academic programs," DiBiaggio said, explaining the rationale behind the NESCAC vote. "Despite the fact that some [presidents] are more amenable to athletics, some are firm and more so since 'Life.'"
The Game of Life uses statistical analysis from 30 colleges _ ranging from Division 1-A to Division III _ to show that even at small, elite colleges, admissions standards for athletes are often lowered for athletes. Once enrolled, the book's authors say many student athletes perform poorly in their course work. According to DiBiaggio, himself a colleague and friend of Life co-author and former Princeton University President William Bowen, NESCAC presidents are aware of and have been influenced by the novel's recent findings. As such, students' lobbying efforts are not likely to engender a substantial change.
"Right now, I don't see that there's any opportunity, at least in the near future, for a change to be made in that policy. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it became even more stringent," he said.
But DiBiaggio encouraged organizers to continue voicing their dissatisfaction, as did University Athletic Director Bill Gehling, who said that all NESCAC athletic directors are in favor of at-large bids, though some might not choose to publicly oppose their bosses.
"I'm a little more optimistic than the president, maybe because I don't sit in the same room," he said. "I think that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I think you guys need to speak out, and not just athletes."
Student organizers were disheartened by DiBiaggio's candid message, but encouraged by Gehling's advice.
"The truth hurts sometimes, and it's not what we wanted to hear, but it's realistic," said Amy O'Donnell, a senior on the Conn. College volleyball team.
"What we can do is go to the presidents individually, but we really have to wait until someone has a phenomenal season and doesn't get a bid. Time's going to be a major issue," said Whitney Brown, a senior tri-captain of Trinity's field hockey team.
Time may be a factor in other ways, as several NESCAC presidents have said they plan to leave their posts in the near future. Last semester, DiBiaggio announced plans to leave Tufts by 2002. Bowdoin will have a new president in the fall, and Conn. College President Claire Gaudiani, who is currently on sabbatical, will leave in June. According to O'Donnell and other representatives from Conn. College, Gaudiani is highly against postseason play, and will attend the April 19 meeting instead of the school's current acting president, David Lewis.
The organizers of Saturday's event _ led by Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Vice President Eric Greenberg and Trinity College Student Government Association President Russell Fugett _ hope to coordinate a protest by students from all NESCAC schools outside the presidents' meeting. Representatives from the four schools in attendance discussed plans to reconvene on March 31 and to form a NESCAC student advisory committee.
"We want to establish a working coalition that goes beyond this semester," Greenberg said.
Greenberg and fellow organizers said that the NESCAC's new tournament system will exacerbate, rather than solve, the very problem presidents have attempted to remedy, by rendering competition for the lone NCAA spot even more cutthroat.
"With the new tournament, it will be even more competitive and practices will be even worse," said Brown, a Trinity representative.
Furthermore, students are challenging the credibility of certain statistics in The Game of Life, concerns which Gehling echoed in his discussion.
"Some of the most significant statements that came out of that book are very, very misleading," he said.
According to Gehling, among the major flaws of the book's statistical analysis is a failure to consider the effects of athletics departments' greater access to admissions officers. Twenty years ago, he said, coaches would submit a list of recruits and await the admissions decision. Now, he said, the athletic director often discusses the list with the admissions office, eliminating blatantly unqualified candidates before they apply. The result, a higher percentage of recruits accepted, can give the false impression of greater influence.
Gehling cited the 2000 Tufts women's soccer team _ which qualified for the NCAA Tournament thanks to an at-large bid and made it all the way to the Final Four _ as an example of athletes succeeding in the classroom. That team, he said, boasted an overall 3.45 GPA.
Prior to 1993, the NESCAC did not allow any teams to participate in the NCAA Tournament, but a three-year trial period _ extended another three years in 1995 _ allowed for the acceptance of at-large bids. At the 1998 meeting, however, a minority of presidents advocated abandoning NCAA Tournament participation altogether, and a compromise was reached to enact the impending changes.
"There was a great deal of discussion and consideration to drop out of the NCAA altogether," DiBiaggio said. NESCAC presidents didn't want their colleges to repeat the abuses of division I schools that crossed ethical and legal boundaries in catering to athletics.
"Some felt that we were so unlike what was happening in Division I that it might be a powerful message. I argued against that because I felt the best way to change things was from the inside.
"A couple of other presidents were frustrated by what they had seen; concerns were such that several presidents felt it was time to reassess how we would participate."
But organizers think that with enough lobbying _ and some help from presidential changeovers _ the policy of eliminating at-large bids might be a short-lived phenomenon.
"President DiBiaggio gave us the real perspective of what we're going up against," Fugett said. "It's clear that it's imperative we identify college presidents that will be in favor, the presidents who will be in those rooms, and lobby them."
