Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League

Rating:
Summary: A must read for all parents of high school athletes
Review: A great learning tool for anyone connected with a high school athlete looking to play sports in college. Unfortunately, I read this too late to help. Just witnessed first hand a scenario whereby a "solid commitment" did not materialize at an Ivy - putting a student athlete in a very precarious spot. To the reviewer claiming that Lincoln was "creating a controversy and scandal that does not exist", I can personally tell you that Lincoln is right on the mark. I have already re-read the book and advocate that all who are ever thinking about entering the recruiting process should take detailed notes.

Rating:
Summary: Playing the Game
Review: I enjoyed reading this book and thought it was well written. The author received fantastic access to Ivy League coaches, told good stories, is a good writer, and provides a lot of information that will be both useful and informative to parents of aspiring Ivy athletes.

However, while this book is about Ivy League athletic recruiting, it is not really a step by step guide on how to get recruited (at the Ivy level or for any college really), nor is that it's intention. The book will not teach you how to contact coaches, what questions to ask, how to evaluate a school or program, how to rate your ability, or how to put yourself in a better position to be recruited, It is largely about the Academic Index, the scale the Ivy league uses to recruit athletes, how the scale can be manipulated, and how coaches are fiercely battling eachother and other NCAA schools for many of the same recruits.

The most troubling aspect of this book is that I feel it is trying to take a controversy that doesn't even exist and that no one is talking about and turn it into a gigantic recruiting scandal going on at the Ivy Level.

The first half of the book is used to make us feel like there is a huge problem at the Ivy League with teams recruiting dumb athletes, and other non-athletes getting passed over for Ivy admission slots. There is a lot of emphasis placed on football, basketball, and hockey recruiting and how by and large the male athletes in this sport perform at a lower academic level than their non-athletic counterparts. We are made to believe that Ivy schools exist solely for education and that athletics should play no part in that and that the dumb jocks at the Ivy League are giving the schools a bad name and reputation. The second half of the book is partly spent on explaining how successful some of the student-athletes are academically both in college and how successful they are after college and we are made to feel that participating at the college level in a competitive athletic environment while trying to take rigorous academic courses is an incredible learning experience and offers life skills. According to the book, the Harvard women's basketball team has produced more doctors than any other team in the country and 100% of the teams athletes have been offered athletic scholarships (which are not offered at the Ivy League) to other D1 institutions. The fact is that all Ivy athletes are extremely hard working, athletically gifted, and usually very strong academically and while some athletes that are recruited have lower academic records than other applicants, most student-athletes are academic achievers (a trait built into the Academic Index) and contribute to the growth and exposure of the University. The fact that Ivy athletes often finish lower than other Ivy students is purely a product of having 3,000 academic achievers in one place and only one student can be the top student and the rest will all be below them no matter what. Not to mention the 30+ hours a week athletes spend practicing and playing their sport.

In the past year, we have witnessed a college player shoot his own teammate and have the coach try to cover it up, we have seen Rape allegations, players being paid with money, cars, and fake jobs, schools that recruit players with criminal records and 25 arrests, coaches taking tests for players and forging grades. The most controversial thing Lincoln digs up in his 250 pages is an athlete who gave a verbal agreement to go to Dartmouth and at the last minute decided to attend Harvard instead, an event frowned upon by Ivy coaches or at least the one's on the losing end of the decision.

The last part of the book is spent in an exhaustive story about the Trinity College squash coach recruiting foreign players so he can win national championships. Trinity isn't an Ivy school.

The book concludes with this "Even if the Ivy League offers no athletic scholarships, the league can take a lesson from the top academic institutions that do, including Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist, and Michigan. - Michigan coincidently, is the same school that forfeited 112 games over 5 seasons because of the alleged cash payments made to Chris Webber and other Michigan players during the "Fab 5 era". If Michigan is a reflection of the academic and recruiting model that Lincoln thinks the Ivy League should live up to, I think they should stick to what they are doing now!




Rating:
Summary: Reads like The Amateurs and Ghosts of Manila
Review: I never played Ivy League ball--and now I know why. I agree with the customer who says Playing the Game reminded him of David Halberstam's book. I got the same impression. I'd also rank Playing the Game with Ghosts of Manila by Mark Kram. It gives you the same combination of sharp reporting, good writing and a genuine feel for the story. Suggestion: I think this book will be around for a long time. In the next edition, I'd like to see photographs of the people interviewed.

Rating:
Summary: Great insights into social engineering at the Ivies.
Review: I will admit to being skeptical about this book at the outset. I don't like unsympathetic characters and, in this day and age, few people have greater senses of entitlement than the young who are academically gifted or athletically endowed - or both!

But my hat is off to Mr. Lincoln, his book illuminates most of these young high achievers with a sympathetic light, showing how these high achievers are arbitrarily dragged through a maze of social engineering created by Ivy league admissions' bureaucrats, a process tacitly and often explicitly endorsed by their peacock presidents. George Orwell would be proud!

Having been raised in the shadows of Dartmouth College forty years ago, I remember when Ivy League schools had very competitive athletics and their coaches were held in high esteem across the nation. Surely something systemic must have happened to undermine this all of this success. Now thanks to Mr. Lincoln, I know the answers. An unexpectedly interesting read.


Rating:
Summary: Playing the Game
Review: If you have children in junior high school or high school that will be going to college, then do NOT skip reading this book.

"If asked, 'Want to read a book about the college application process for athletes in the Ivy League?' I am pretty sure that most of the time I would have said "Thanks but no thanks." However if you are a parent with kids that are just like mine -- not likely to play a varsity sport at college -- then check out this book. The book should almost be required reading for the parents of student athletes, and the students as well.

One of the interesting themes this book carries is the value and need for a "hook" to get the attention of admissions offices when applying to college. My kids are all great students. They do not have the athletic "hook" that is going to get them lots of attention from college coaches and athletic directors or land them big scholarships. But they will be competing for those admission slots with the kids that do.

Mr. Lincoln's book is surprisingly interesting, an easy read, and well written.

Rating:
Summary: Playing the Game
Review: If you have children in junior high school or high school that will be going to college, then do NOT skip reading this book.

"If asked, 'Want to read a book about the college application process for athletes in the Ivy League?' I am pretty sure that most of the time I would have said "Thanks but no thanks." However if you are a parent with kids that are just like mine -- not likely to play a varsity sport at college -- then check out this book. The book should almost be required reading for the parents of student athletes, and the students as well.

One of the interesting themes this book carries is the value and need for a "hook" to get the attention of admissions offices when applying to college. My kids are all great students. They do not have the athletic "hook" that is going to get them lots of attention from college coaches and athletic directors or land them big scholarships. But they will be competing for those admission slots with the kids that do.

Mr. Lincoln's book is surprisingly interesting, an easy read, and well written.

Rating:
Summary: An opposing view to Bowen's Reclaiming the Game
Review: Many Ivy and NESCAC presidents reacted like lemmings after Mellon Foundation head Bill Bowen suggested their athletic programs were out of balance, and that athletes get an unfair advantage in admissions. They cut the number of recruits and made all those involved in sports at their schools feel like second class citizens.
Too bad they did not read Chris Lincoln's book first.
A former recruited athlete at Middlebury, Lincoln looks at the issue from the other side and recounts the challenges and difficulties of taking part in a top sports program at a top school. Through thoughtful interviews one sees that it is possible for athletic departments to be consistent with institutional goals. And that there is still such a thing as a teacher coach, and a scholar athlete.
As a parent of an Ivy League athlete, I think Playing the Game provides needed counterpoint to Bowen's thesis. Well worth reading if you are interested in NCAA sports in general, or the Ivies and NESCAC in particular. Essential reading if you have a child considering playing at those schools.

Rating:
Summary: Reads like The Amateurs and Ghosts of Manila
Review: This remarkably well researched and engaging book reveals the surprising importance of athletics to gain admission to the Ivy League. Chris Lincoln is a talented writer who has chosen as his first effort to tell the story of athletic recruitment practices at places where one might think that it's 'grades first, sports second' . This morsel of commonly held wisdom is thoroughly debunked.

The story is told through the eyes of the coaches and players themselves, as well as a sprinkling of the opinions of the folks from admissions departments and administrators(including a few college presidents) that are so frank they have an 'off the record' feel. Bottom line: athletics count, and can count big time no matter what anyone tells you.

The complicated and lengthy process of how players are recruited is unveiled, and from this base the author draws an easy to follow path for any athlete wanting to scale the Ivy mountain. If I were a coach or a young athlete with aspirations in that direction, I could hope to find no better resource than this.

And I read it in one sitting. The guy can write.