By Laine Higgins
Before Joe Tsai co-founded Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., made
billions and bought the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, he played lacrosse at
Yale in the 1980s. His devotion to the sport grew along with his
net worth, and recently he brought the two together in the form of
an unusual offer.
Tsai offered to pay several million dollars for the Ivy League
to build a sequestered "bubble" that would allow its men's and
women's lacrosse teams to compete again during the pandemic. Ivy
League conference presidents rebuffed the proposal almost
immediately, conference executive director Robin Harris said.
It's a sign of the fierce pressure the eight Ivy League
universities are under as the conference heads into a possible
second year without sports as the coronavirus pandemic drags
on.
The Ivy League was the first conference to call off athletic
competition back in March 2020. Nearly one year later, America's
oldest athletic conference is still on the sidelines with no clear
plans to restart.
The extended pause that was once seen as prudent is now a point
of contention.
Athletes are in limbo. Sports are important enough to some of
them that they are unenrolling from their Ivy League schools to
prolong their athletic eligibility. Most of the Yale lacrosse team
Tsai tried to save did just that against his advice, according to a
person familiar with the team.
Influential alumni, miffed by what they see as rigidity at the
expense of students, are turning up the heat on conference
leadership to end the sports freeze. But university presidents have
not caved.
"This is not about us not being able to compete in terms of not
being able to figure out safety protocols or testing strategies,"
said Harris in an interview. "We can figure out the protocols. But
the protocols [for athletics] would not fit with existing campus
policies" that prohibit large gatherings and travel.
The Ivy League has been reluctant to restart competition despite
evidence that indicates the biggest risks for viral transmission do
not occur on the field. It canceled fall sports in early July and
winter sports before Thanksgiving.
Each Ivy institution implemented slightly different guidelines
for returning students to campus, but health protocols pertaining
to athletic training facilities were strict across the board. Most
courts, gyms, pools and rinks remained closed for the fall
term.
"I do wonder sometimes if sports are being singled out," said
George Pyne, chief executive of Bruin Sports Capital and a Brown
football alum.
Of the 357 Division I men's basketball teams, 347 are playing;
the Ivy League represents eight of the 10 universities to opt out.
The conference voluntarily abandoned its automatic qualifying bids
to men's and women's March Madness -- a placement that nets the
conference at least $280,000 from the NCAA basketball fund for
every tournament game played.
Passing on a six-figure payout during a pandemic that's rocked
the financial foundation of college athletics would be foolhardy in
any other conference. But the calculus is different in the Ivy
League.
Money is not as big of a factor. Without lucrative television
contracts, stadiums that seat tens of thousands or bowl-game
berths, Ivy League football is a money-losing operation -- as is
every other sport. There are no athletic scholarships in the Ivy
League.
Athletics are seen as an investment in student development, said
Harris. This mind-set, backed by multibillion-dollar endowments, is
why the Ivies field so many teams. Harvard, for example, sponsors
40 sports -- nearly three times the NCAA Division I minimum of
14.
The schools also didn't want to create a bifurcated college
experience in which most undergraduates take classes from their
dorm rooms while athletes get their noses swabbed multiple times
per week to let them compete across the country.
"They [athletes] are students and they are treated like other
students as much as we can," Harris said. "That applies now as we
are making decisions in the pandemic: our campus policies apply to
our athletic activities and to our student athletes."
Pyne and other alumni have questioned whether the conference's
commitment to its student athletes has changed, however. Former
Brown football player Bob Warden and his wife Margaret, who played
ice hockey at Yale, wrote to the Ivy League Council of Presidents
in January urging them to green light spring sports.
"If anything, the Ivy League should be on the forefront of
developing ways for student activities, including athletics, to
reopen as opposed to having their actions suggest that there is a
problem and they don't have a solution," said Bob Warden, who
oversees private equity at Cerberus Capital Management. "They
certainly have the experts and money to make it happen."
Kansas City Chiefs president Mark Donovan, another former Brown
football player, wrote a plea to Brown president Christina Paxson.
"I do this as part of a League and team that has successfully and
safely found a way to navigate this pandemic and provide the
opportunity to compete at the highest level to our players and
coaches," wrote Donovan. "Brown athletes deserve the opportunity to
pursue their passion, learn from their success and failures, and
grow from the experience."
A spokesperson for Paxson did not respond to a request for
comment.
Tsai went a step further. With the help of Mike Rabil, a
Dartmouth football alum and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse
League, in which he is a major investor, Tsai drew up plans for a
three-week, single-site bubbled tournament for the Ivy League's
men's and women's lacrosse teams, according to people familiar with
his plans. He pitched the concept to Yale athletic director Vicky
Chun and Harris in late January and offered to foot the bill,
estimated to exceed five million dollars by a person familiar with
the effort.
Harris said she was bullish on the idea, but she defers to Ivy
presidents on operational matters. She would not comment on why the
offer was rebuffed in less than a week, but said that Tsai's bubble
is no longer being considered.
Also driving frustration is the Ivy League's unique eligibility
requirements that operate on a "use it or lose it" basis upon
enrollment. While the NCAA gives athletes a five-year window of
active enrollment to complete four seasons of competition, the Ivy
League discourages redshirting and bars graduate students from
rosters.
The NCAA granted a blanket eligibility waiver to all spring,
fall and winter athletes unable to compete in 2020 due to the
pandemic. Last week, the conference also announced that current
seniors could apply for a one-time exception to compete as graduate
students at their current university.
Athletic facilities reopened at the beginning of February for
small groups with strict health protocols, but the status of spring
games is still unknown. That left athletes with three paths:
transfer and play immediately but forgo an Ivy diploma; enroll and
hope not to lose half of their collegiate athletics eligibility; or
temporarily unenroll.
Dozens made the latter gamble: rosters for more than 23 teams
contracted by at least half, according to a review of public
information on athletic department websites. Harvard women's hockey
went from 24 skaters in 2019-20 to just three this year. Men's
lacrosse rosters at Cornell and Princeton also took significant
hits.
Yale men's lacrosse took this to an extreme, as 40 of the team's
48 players are either taking a gap year or transferring, according
to a Yale athletics spokesperson. The Bulldogs went from having the
No. 8 team in preseason rankings to not having enough players to
field a team. Coach Andy Shay declined to comment.
"Pending senior" goalie Jack Starr said he and his teammates
learned from Yale's Chun in January that if there was a season it
would be "late, limited and local." That felt like a raw deal.
"Online learning is frustrating and tough. Zoom fatigue is
real," said Starr. "I considered the athletics and I considered the
academics and I didn't want a shadow of Yale...I wanted the rich,
unabridged version of the school I experienced the first two and a
half years."
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 15, 2021 09:15 ET (14:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024