By Michael Kelley ’14 & Brett Billings ’12

Photo by Jack Fedak IV/ The Lafayette

At noon this past Monday, Head Football Coach Frank Tavani met with Athletic Director Bruce McCutcheon and first heard the news.

At 3:45 p.m., the coaching staff was informed.

At 4 p.m., the news was made public: the Patriot League Council of Presidents had endorsed football scholarships.

“This was spelled out like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Tavani said. But he wouldn’t call the news shocking. “I knew something was going to happen within the year whether it was by December or not.”

The decision is an about-face for Lafayette President Daniel H. Weiss, a long-time vocal opponent of athletic scholarships. But this was a collective decision.

“The league has made a decision to do this, and we are members of the league. So we are complying with the league. I’m not talking about my personal opinion,” Weiss said following the announcement. He is also the Chair of the Patriot League Council of Presidents.

In December 2010, the decision regarding football scholarships was tabled for two years. At that time, Weiss said he did not believe scholarships were “in the best interest in the long-term interest of the league.”

League stability also played a “considerable” role in the endorsement decision, which was announced ten months before the council’s deadline.

A decision had to be made by this December. But with the process of recruitment, a decision like this is time sensitive, officials said. Recruitment for next year’s football class started a week after National Signing Day, held two weeks ago today.

“We’re looking at an entirely different group now that we have scholarships,” Tavani said. “The scrutiny will be much different … You’re giving someone an opportunity for a great education in exchange for their ability to play the game.”

Also playing a role in the decision was the possibility of league expansion.

“Now, if and when discussions are had, that issue is no longer an obstacle to increasing membership,” McCutcheon said. “What this decision does is that it enables us to have conversations with a group of schools that heretofore we were not able to because of the scholarship position.”

Scheduling will also change. Once Lafayette gets to the 57 equivalent full scholarships, they will have a guaranteed money game with a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school, like when Colgate faced off against Big East member Syracuse.

This could grant Lafayette the opportunity to renew old rivalries. “One of the original football games ever played was the Rutgers vs. Lafayette game,” Tavani said. “We’ve turned down a lot of schools in the past because we didn’t have the necessary equivalence.”

Critics maintain the academic quality of the student athlete would not decline, but athletic officials disagreed. “There’s going to be a potentiality for a lot stronger student,” Tavani said. “We can recruit athletes that typically target the Ivy League. In the past, if the Ivy League wanted them, they’ll get them. But now, we’ll be able to make a little dent in that.”

With the addition of 15 football scholarships, the school will comply with Title IX, which means that some women’s sports will begin receiving scholarships as well. While the details of which women’s sports will receive scholarships and how many they will receive have not been finalized, the decision is “pretty darn close,” McCutcheon said

No additional funds will be used for scholarships. “Athletics has always had a pool of financial aid funds for recruitment of student-athletes,” McCutcheon said. “That pool will continue but if we want to increase the number of scholarships we give, we will have to raise that money from outside sources.”