The Consulting Firm for Student Athletes and their Families

The Mystique of Ivy League Tennis

Michael Baccus-Williams - Friday, December 04, 2009

An Ivy League education is amongst the most well respected in the world.  Such schooling also represents the most expensive and exclusive of American higher education.  Ivy League schools are exceptionally costly and do not offer athletic scholarships.  Even so, top ranked American athletes are still eager to participate in Ivy League education and collegiate athletic programs.  Although many athletes look at the Ivy League team rankings and assume they do not have to be amongst the top players to get recruited, the assumption is far from reality.  The Ivy League schools recruit the best American junior tennis players. 

From 2007 through 2009, the top men’s and women’s Ivy League tennis programs have appeared in the Division 1 top 25 best recruiting classes a total of 18 times according to tennisrecruiting.net.  In that 3 year timeframe, the Ivy schools have recruited 11 Blue Chip Players and 43 Five Star Players.  The Princeton women’s class of 2008 had 3 Blue Chip recruits and was ranked number 1 overall in the country.  The Ivy League schools tend to attract Blue Chip and Five Star recruits that could have played for more established college programs, but choose to attend Ivy schools for the prestigious education.  A current Ivy League coach was interviewed for this article and said “ If you are a 3 Star Recruit it is very hard to get recruited by the Ivy’s.”  Players looking to play for the prestigious Ivy’s, should not underestimate the top athletic level and highly competitive academic nature of such programs. 

In most sports and at most schools, having a top 25 recruiting class would translate into a top 25 of the national ranking.  However, this tends not to be true amongst the Ivy League Universities.  What is puzzling about Ivy League tennis teams is that they continue to recruit talented junior tennis players but fail to come close to being a top 25 tennis team.  The chart below shows the recruiting class rankings vs. the team national rankings of 2007, 2008 and 2009. 

 

Recruiting Ranking

 

Women's Ranking

Men's Ranking

 

2007

2008

2009

2007

2008

2009

Brown

-

10

25

-

-

-

Columbia

-

-

7

-

-

-

Cornell

20

-

-

-

-

-

Dartmouth

22

-

-

-

-

-

Harvard

-

8

3

10

-

11

Penn

-

-

22

-

-

21

Princeton

13

1

17

-

13

22

Yale

-

-

14

-

-

4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Ranking

 

Women's Ranking

Men's Ranking

 

2007

2008

2009

2007

2008

2009

Brown

-

-

62

-

-

-

Columbia

-

-

-

69

-

52

Cornell

-

-

-

-

-

-

Dartmouth

-

-

-

-

-

-

Harvard

-

-

65

74

51

63

Penn

54

65

-

-

-

-

Princeton

71

67

45

-

-

-

Yale

73

74

50

-

-

69

It can be easy for future college tennis players to assume that they have the ability to play for an Ivy League tennis team based on the team’s national ranking, but that is not necessarily true.  To be recruited by the Ivy Universities, student athletes have to be ranked amongst the best in the country.  The recruiting classes of the Ivy League rank far better than many of the SEC, ACC, Big 10, and Pac 10 schools. 

Such statistics pose the following question: Why are the Ivy-league tennis teams vastly underachieving based on the junior rankings of their student athletes?  SFA asked a current Ivy league coach that question and his response was “ academics first, the Ivy league tennis player is not as motivated to see how good they can become in college.  That is pretty obvious if you see the talent in the Ivy’s.”  SFA does not know the answer to this question, however,  we do know that in order to participate in an Ivy League team, athletes have to be exceptional students as well as top ranked junior tennis players.

Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink
Comments
Paul Wardlaw commented on 04-Dec-2009 07:34 AM
Thanks for the press. As the women's coach at Brown I don't feel the Ivy's under-perform. Most teams won't peak until there is a core group of juniors and seniors. Based on our most recent "top" recruiting classes that won't be for a couple of years. Also, Ivy recruiting classes are often inflated in the rankings because of the number of recruits as opposed to the quality of recruits. Are my four five-star recruits a better class than another's Blue Chip/Five Star two player class. While I enjoy seeing us in the recruiting rankings I also know the Ivy's have an advantage given the number of players we can recruit each year (on average three per Ivy) which alter/pad the recruiting rankings. You'll begin to see the Ivy League receiving three or four bids to the NCAA tournament each year within the next few years as the recruiting classes mature. A very competitive league will only become more competitive while still maintaining its healthy balance of academics and athletics.
Ross Greenstein commented on 04-Dec-2009 11:11 AM
Hi Coach, Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it. "You'll begin to see the Ivy League receiving three or four bids to the NCAA tournament each year within the next few years as the recruiting classes mature." Coach Wardlaw Dec 4th 2009
Ivy Recruit commented on 04-Dec-2009 01:31 PM
I found the article very interesting. I would also add that the Ivy's give some of the best need-based aid anywhere, which, although not often needed by tennis recruits, can be very helpful for some. Additionally, the actually amount of scholarships offered/received by all but the best players at top programs is usually not a huge amount, at least for the men. As most of the kids will not go on to the pros after college, many kids and parents look to the school that is the best fit and will position the student best for the future. The Ivy's all do this very effectively. I'd say that if some teams do not do as well as their talent would suggest they could, it may be due to the rigor of the academics and plethora of outside opportunities to take advantage of. Finally, the Ivy League provides an environment where students can excel academically and compete in a Division 1 athletics, but without some of the pressure of a scholarship and extreme travel and practice demands. Not to say that other places with scholarships can't, but the Ivy's strike a balance that is very attractive to many. Coach Wardlaw, I agree with your assessments as well. They often recruit more players and can seem stronger when the team really only needs one or two from each class to contribute in the line-up. Also, the classes have been exceptionally strong as of late, and will continue to blossom into stronger programs.
Post a Comment




Captcha Image