College Football in the Ivy League
September 8th, 2008 - byMost people think of the Ivy League as a breeding ground for future CEOs, presidents and professors, but this eight team conference also breeds NFL players.
This season, ten former Ivy League football players attended NFL camps and every year a few Ivy League grads take their game to the next level.
The Ivy League provides student-athletes with the winning combination of a world class education with an athletic atmosphere that is second to none. Once a student-athlete makes the decision to attend an Ivy League institution they are blessed with limitless possibility and many choices. In the Ivy League, future NFL draft picks dedicate themselves to becoming the best football players, and students, they can possibly be. Meanwhile, their roommate may pass on summer training to accept an internship in the white house.
Dan Kopolovich, a McKeesport native and junior quarterback at Princeton, came back to Pittsburgh this summer and took two physics courses at Duquesne University. When he wasn’t going to class or studying, Kopolovich, a pre-med major, was shadowing Dr. David Neuschwander, McKeesport High School’s team orthopedist. Kopolovich aspires to be an orthopedist.
Weight lifting and conditioning were a priority for Rihn and Kopolovich, but they did it on their own schedule and without coaches watching their every move.
“We don’t get many that stay around during the summer,” Cornell coach Jim Knowles said. “It’s totally different from a place like Pitt where everyone stays. One of the reasons they come to an Ivy League school is because they want that opportunity to expand other aspects of their life also. Graham is in a fraternity, but it’s not a regular fraternity. It’s a business fraternity.”
The Ivy League was founded under some simple premises:
• The admissions process should assure that Ivy athletes are “representative” of their non-athlete classmates;
• Ivy athletes should have full access to need-based financial aid up to their full cost of actual attendance, but Ivy schools will not use athletic grants-in-aid;
• Ivy athletes should have and meet the same high academic expectations as their non-athlete classmates, and should have the opportunity to participate in the full range of campus activities;
• The Ivy athletic experience should be structured so that Ivy student-athletes can meet these expectations and take advantage of these opportunities.
