Took a break from girl's game which we won easily and wrestling where we are doing OK but not as good as I had hoped, to surf.

Seems IL may be reducing football squads again to 25 per year rolling avg over 4 yrs. Certainly cant hurt PL . Q arises, if rumor true, now even less immediate apparent need for schollies. .Means little as to other OOC competition but it might help a bit . Given some leaders worship of Ivy name could be even harder to geta merit aid program started. We shall see

I can (and do) expect the Ivy to drop a number of breadcrumbs at the PL's door to show their disapproval of the scholarship proposal. I suspect there will also be hints placed between coaches that certain IL-PL series may be curtailed if the vote doesn't go to its liking.

Harvard basically has done so already. I'll look for the article again (it probably is in my blog somewhere) but they've basically put the smack down. It could just be saber-rattling, though. As someone said, where are they gonna go? FBS won't play them since they're not bowl counters, they're fraidy-scared of scholarship schools kicking their behinds, and D-III is unthinkable since folks will take that as the final step before demoting the whole kit and caboodle to D-III. That leaves the ten or so non-scholarship teams of the PFL, and possibly the NEC. Is that really a viable alternative to the PL?

I do recall Harvard coach remarking on PL schollies but I doubt IL move to 25 really has much to do with possibility of PL merit aid. Altho ,it does potentially open up more kids for PL that we now lose and give IL squads less depth. Lets remember tho that these are the last 5 kids for an Il recruit class. Dont see that as that much benfit for most PL teams.

I really don't think the IL is dropping hints to the PL. Why would they? All they have to do it pick up the phone and call Center Valley if something's on their mind. There's no need for such gamesmanship. I see it more as an appeasement to Dartmouth/Columbia/Cornell to try to regain some internal balance.

As for the "Scholarship Question," I can see something along these lines happening if the PL does not go merit:

- PL schools agree to up to 57 equivalencies that remain need-based but are more transparent in operation; recruits can be told they're eligible the PL version of a full or partial "scholarship" but they still have to apply for aid as always;

- Transparency of the process and reporting of hard numbers leads to definitive NCAA announcement that a PL school with 57 equivalencies will count for FBS bowl purposes; we can now schedule accordingly if desired;

- Ivy lets it be known that, while they really don't like the PL system and would never do it that way themselves, they still consider the PL sufficiently "merit based" such that we don't get tossed out of the Princeton Club on 43rd Street;

- Ivies schedule a minimum of five games over each two year period with each PL school, including Georgetown (Lafayette and Lehigh can still schedule 4 or 5 Ivies if they want);

- PL agrees to recruit no more than 25 per year to match Ivies;

- Academic Index remains in full force;

- Fordham either agrees to this or is replaced by Marist/Bryant/Davidson/VMI or an unknown school which the league "sponsors" under the new move-up-from-DIII rules;

- and, possibly, Ivies leave it to the discretion of each member whether to participate in the FCS playoffs.

LFN - you're probably referring to this article. Tim Murphy is a former Lafayette assistant, keep in mind.