Ivy League signs first-ever TV deal for Lax with NBC

NBC and the Ivy League have reached an agreement whereby NBC will televise a good number of the Conference's Football, Basketball, and Lacrosse games. I believe the Ivy League becomes be the first DI conference to reach agreement with a national broadcasting entity for Men's lacrosse. You can read about the contract at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pretzel/Ivy-League-strikes-major-national-television-deal-with-NBC-Sports-Network.html

NBC previously held Ivy League broadcast rights for Football and Basketball. The new contract adds a Spring sport to the agreement. It should be of interest to all Lacrosse fans that NBC elected Lacrosse to be the Spring season, not Baseball or another Spring sport. I have argued earlier that Lacrosse would be the most likely Spring sport to become a "revenue" sport. I believe the NBC contract is evidence of that view. You can read my earlier analysis at:
http://norcallacrosse.blogspot.com/2012/04/provocative-question-will-lacrosse-ever.html

Congratulations to the Ivy League for reaching this deal with NBC – and congratulations to NBC for having the perspicacity to enter into a conference wide lacrosse broadcasting deal. I think we'll see more of these deals within the next few months.

NorCal lacrosse & the Ivy League Tournament

Alex Capretta

In an earlier post, I've written about the NorCal pipeline to the Ivy League. Without spending much time on that, the summary is that every Ivy League school has at least one NorCal guy playing or committed to it.  And they're contributors, sometimes HUGE contributors. This weeks final regular season games, setting the field and the seedings for the Ivy League Tournament, proved that point.

• The Princeton v Cornell regular season ender would determine the #1 and #2 seeds in the Ivy tournament, Recall that the winner of the Ivy tournament – not the regular season champ – gets the automatic bid to the big dance. In that game, Princeton prevailed 14-8, with Alex Capretta, former SI HS AA, had five goals for the Tigers. But, Roy Lang, former SI HS AA and 1st team NCAA AA, scored  one for the Big Red and was named to the Tewaaraton candidates list. Connor Hunt, former DLS HS AA, also plays for the Big Red.

• The Harvard v Yale regular season ender would determine whether Yale would be the #3 seed or the #4 seed in the tourney – and whether Harvard would be in the tourney – or not. Yale prevailed, 10-8, and secured the third seed. Harvard was out! Yale recruit JW McGovern, SI HS AA '12, was rooting for the Bulldogs, while Spencer Evans, SI '13, was rooting for the Crimson.

• Both Dartmouth and Brown had a chance to be the #4 seed if Harvard lost. Brown prevailed, defeating Dartmouth 10-8, securing the fourth seed in the Ivy tourney. In this game, Parker Brown, former UHS HS AA, had 2 goal and 1 assist, while Thomas Mattimore, former SI HS AA, had 1 goal and 1 assist. Two Dartmouth recruits, Jack McCormick, DLS '13, and Wiley Osborne, Menlo '13, were rooting for the Big Green! Brown Attackman, Tim Jacob, former Bellarmine HS AA, saw action in this game.

UPenn was not in the hunt for the tourney this year, but Nick Richards, former DLS AA, saw plenty of action this year.

Quite a testament to the athletic – and academic – prowess of all these guys!

Lacrosse Magazine – top teams & players in the Western United States for 2012

Lacrosse Magazine's (LM) March 2012 issue forecasts the top 10 Western High School teams and lists five "Players to Watch." Five California teams made the cut, as did three Colorado teams. One team each, from Washington and Oregon complete the list. Two teams from NorCal are on the list – Saint Ignatius at #3 and Monte Vista at #8. Here's the list of Lacrosse Magazine's top 10 Western teams for 2012:

• Kent Denver CO

• Torrey Pines CA

• St. Ignatius CA

• Coronado CA

• Mercer Island WA

• Regis Jesuit CO

• Foothill - Orange County CA

• Monte Vista - Danville CA

• Lincoln - OR

Cherry Creek - CO

From the NorCal teams listed above,  Lacrosse Magazine cites important contributors to their teams as:

St. Ignatius

Chad Bell

Chad Cohan

Peter Doyle

Matt Emery

Spencer Evans

Charlie Ford

JW McGovern

Jack McGovern

Will McKee

LM lists seven of these players as already committed to NCAA DI programs and expects all nine to play DI lacrosse.

Monte Vista

Gus Gradinger

Sam Langon

Cameron Parsons

Jack Pederson

Austin Richardson

Andrew Simor

Lacrosse Magazine also lists 5 Players to Watch from the West. Four of the 5 are from California and one is from NorCal. The five, in the order LM lists them, are:

JW McGovern A St. Ignatius Yale commit

Zach Fixen, M Palos Verdes Maryland commit

Brendan Gaughan, A La Costa Canyon Michigan commit

Jack Bobzien, A Arapahoe, CO Hartford commit

Sean Doyle, A Torrey Pines Cornell commit

All four California boys played on the Under Armour Underclassmen All-American West team that did so well at the Under Armour tournament this past summer.

Parenthetically, I found it interesting that the three California Attackmen who are mentioned in the LM article first met at Jake Reed's Nike Blue Chip camp in the summer of 2009, just after finishing their Freshmen year. They were the only California Attackmen at that camp. Perhaps Jake Reed's "early-detection" sniffer is better than I thought.

Commenting on the NorCal player, LM quotes McGovern's coach, Chris Packard, as saying, "He is custom-built to play at X." LM goes on to say that McGovern "... has drawn comparisons to Virginia's Steele Stanwick for his ability to dissect defenses." 

The "likely letter" season in the Ivies

The Ivy League plays by different rules. Sure, they're all NCAA DI schools – meeting the minimum standards the NCAA requires – but the league's a) season of sport, b) recruiting practices, c) academic standards, d) lack of athletic scholarships, and e) admissions practices are at a far remove from the rest of NCAA DI schools. Laxers who aspire to play in the Ivy League need to learn a whole new language to understand Ivy recruiting. In particular, two phrases – academic index and likely letter – are unique to the Ivies. In a separate blog entry, I'll write later about the intricacies of the Academic Index and why it delays the completion of recruiting a class. The Likely Letter is particularly timely now, since they have recently arrived at the homes of anxious Ivy hopefuls over the last month or so.

So, what is the Likely Letter and what is the origin of the name? It all starts with the standard comment of all Ivy coaches that, "Admissions makes admission decisions, I don't. In return for your commitment to me, I commit to do my best to represent you to the admissions committee." Since coaches want to build, and hold, their classes, they need to send a signal to recruited athletes who have scholarship offers from non-Ivies that those athletes are "likely" to be admitted. Admissions committees for each Ivy meet in the Fall and are presented with a list of High School Senior candidates by the Coach of each and every sport the school sponsors. The committee reviews each candidate (and the coaches candidate pool as a whole) and makes tentative decisions on each candidate. Those candidates who pass muster with the admissions committee – some pass with flying colors and others by the skin of their teeth –  are sent the infamous "likely letter." Sadly, some few don't make it past the admissions committee and the Coach has to convey the bad news to the declined player.

So, what does the likely letter say and why is it sent? The letter from the Admissions committee says to a recruited athlete that he/she is "likely" to be admitted if the candidate's grades and behaviors remain at their current level. It is not a guarantee, but it is the next closest thing. Recruited athletes are encouraged to apply "Early Decision or Early Action" to the Ivy that has recruited them. Coaches, Admissions, and Administration at the Ivies know that they are competing against schools who offer scholarship monies, while the Ivies offer no athletic scholarships and only offer need-based aid. Historically, the likely letter has served as a way to signal recruited athletes that if things stay on track, they'll be offered an admissions slot in the early action/decision flurry.

But increasingly, the likely letter is an anachronism. Why? Sophomore recruiting is the why. When non-Ivies start recruiting rising Sophomores, the Ivies haves no ability to respond. They require transcripts, standardized test scores, recommendations from teachers and administrators. So, it's quaint and it's steeped in tradition, but if you want to go Ivy, you'll have to decline scholarship offers made during your Sophomore year and take the risk of not getting a likely letter. It is becoming harder for scholar athletes to wait for a likely letter.

Still, you'd be amazed how many players wait. The thought of an Ivy education resonates with a sizable portion of the lacrosse world. Nonetheless, I will predict that that advent of Sophomore recruiting will force the Ivies to re-examine their recruiting practices. They may conclude to keep the status quo ante, but not without lots of tooth gnashing and hand wringing. The yawning chasm between big-time athletics and big-time academics is widening. In non-Ivies, most of the battles between athletics and admissions are won by the Athletic Departments. That's not true for the Ivies. Just a very few years ago, DI Men's laxers committed late in the Summer of their Junior year or early in their Senior year. We'll see how the Ivies respond to top players being recruited in the summer after their Freshman year or in the Fall of their Sophomore year! At this point in their academic lives, incoming Sophomores have skimpy transcripts, no AP classes, no SAT scores, no PSAT scores,  and no extended read of a candidate from his teachers, counsellors or coaches is available.

Coaches face much more uncertainty about the players they are recruiting since they know so little about a candidate's academic profile when that recruit has completed only his Freshman year. As a consequence, Ivy coaches will have to add more conditions to their offers. Such conditions include: a) subject to a score of XXX on your PSAT, b) subject to SAT scores of XXXX, c) subject to a GPA of X.XX, etc. It is worth remembering that these conditions may satisfy the coach, but may not satisfy admissions. Only admissions can make an offer to an Ivy candidate. I know of several instances where Ivy coaches have raised the academic and test score bar during the time between coaches' initial offers and the creation of their final list of recruits to present to admissions. In part, this relates to players achieving (or not achieving) target test scores and GPAs. In part it relates to the Academic Index for the entire list of recruits.  

It is a tricky time for the Ivies and their lacrosse teams. As a result, it is a tricky time to be a recruited laxer to the Ivy League.

The Ivy League: Destination resort for NorCal laxers?

If one were to look at all the conferences in NCAA DI lacrosse, searching for THE conference with the most NorCal players, it wouldn't take much time to figure out that the Ivy League is the destination resort of choice for NorCal's top players. Right now, looking at current Ivy players and Ivy commits, every lacrosse playing Ivy has at least one NorCal standout. Think of that! Of all the Ancient Eight, seven play Men's lacrosse. And every one of them has at least one player or commit from NorCal. Perennial power Cornell has three: Roy Lang, the SI 1st team NCAA All-American, Ross Rudow, the powerfully-built SRV middie, and Connor Hunt, the terrifying Close D from DLS. That's pretty impressive. A perennial Semi-finalist in the NCAA has 3 NorCal guys (with another one coming). And it's not going to be much different at other Ivies.  Go NorCal!!!