Playing the Game:
Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League
Chris Lincoln

In our sports-crazed culture, few are surprised by the all-out athletic recruiting that takes place at such collegiate sports powerhouses as Notre Dame, Michigan, UCLA, Stanford, Duke, and other Division I schools offering athletic scholarships. But what about athletic recruiting at the elite academic Division I schools of the Ivy League, which have no athletic scholarships? Playing The Game offers readers the first detailed, inside look at exactly how the athletic recruiting game is played by coaches, athletes, parents, administrators, admissions officers, and even college presidents in the Ivy League. Playing The Game dramatically illustrates:

• how recruited athletes follow a separate admissions timetable and often learn months in advance of the official April deadline whether or not they are likely to be accepted to an Ivy school
• why Ivy admissions officers spend four times as many hours dealing with athletic recruits than their counterparts at Stanford
• how Ivy institutions have used the academic credentials of top applicants who will never play for the team to boost the academic average of the recruited stars who will play
• why the Ivy recruiting system, with its reliance on a verbal rather a written a commitment, leads to some ugly, lying behavior from recruits, parents, and coaches
• how big money plays an increasingly crucial role in the success of Ivy athletic programs
• how individual athletes and coaches navigate the unique challenges of the Ivy recruiting system

Here, for the first time, is the inside story on one of the most controversial subjects in elite college education—Ivy League athletic recruiting.