The Ivy League has been hit with a lawsuit over not giving out scholarships and money.
It is that magical time of the sports year where some unpaid college students-athletes are playing for the glory of their schools in trying to win a Men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball championship. The media has its feel-good story about Princeton winning a game and some nonsense about how an Ivy League school is a Cinderella team. It seems to happen every year, there is a Cinderella school at the big dance. But what the sporting media and the TV rights holders tend to not want to talk about is the business of college sports. Princeton is an Ivy League school and the Ivy League schools do not give out scholarships to athletes because of some archaic notion that the sports teams should be representative of the student body. That is accepted by the sports media, the networks, and a good many of college basketball supporters and the fair-weather fans who watch for betting or social purposes.
But the Ivy League schools have a problem. The Ivy League schools are being sued for not giving out scholarships to athletes. Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia and Penn don’t offer merit scholarships of any kind. The Ivy League is the only Division I athletic conference that prohibits member schools from offering any athletic scholarships. But Grace Kirk, who currently plays on Brown’s women’s basketball team and Tamenang Choh who played on Brown’s men’s basketball team want that to change. Their lawsuit claims Ivy League schools illegally conspired to limit financial aid and not compensate athletes for their services. Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris does not agree. Harris is of the opinion that the student-athletes should embrace the opportunity they have and be thankful they can play and go to school and entertain and forget about finances. It is an amateur venture after all.
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