We Value Student-Athletes, and Also Student-Mathletes

While South Regional 15-seed Princeton University put the Ivy League on the radar this month with its Cinderella-esque March Madness run, two Brown University basketball players similarly drew the spotlight to the Ivy League, but in a very different fashion.

The duo filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all present and former Ivy League athletes, arguing that the Ivy League has unlawfully colluded to reduce financial aid and compensation for student-athletes. The suit claims that the League’s policy against athletic scholarships works as monopolistic price-fixing, an alleged violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

While we hold our student-athletes in the highest regard — they bring us student life and fun galore! Who can forget the annual adrenaline rush of Harvard-Yale? — this lawsuit fundamentally misunderstands the role of student-athletes on our own Ivy League campus.

Just like all other Harvard students, Harvard’s student-athletes are individuals with exceptional skills at both the academic and extracurricular levels, who contribute significantly to the College. The status of a student-athlete here should therefore be immaterially different from that of any other student — all should receive fundamentally equal treatment and consideration.

We thus oppose the idea that Harvard’s student-athletes should receive compensation beyond that which any student here would receive through financial aid. Harvard’s need-based financial aid system is incredibly generous; moreover, we find merit in the egalitarian principles that lie at its heart. The cost of attendance mirrors one’s ability to pay, prioritizing those who most need financial support and opening this institution’s doors to a more diverse set of individuals to go on to leave their marks on the world.

Athletes, too, benefit from a need-based financial aid system. Precisely because financial aid is not contingent on being an active athlete, student-athletes at Harvard have great freedom to define and redefine their college lives — perhaps even leaving athletics — without ever fearing their education becoming financially untenable. Student-athletes should never be boxed into their ‘athlete’ roles and out of their ‘student’ roles by financial aid with strings attached.

The idea of a merit-based financial aid system, both in and out of athletics, reeks of a toxic competition that ultimately rewards less aid overall. Will recruited and walk-on athletes begin to differentiate themselves as factions within the same team? Will violinists go head-to-head to determine who is a prodigy worthy of aid and who is only a hobbyist?

At Harvard, where merit abounds by virtue of admittance, for our admissions committee to separate certain students for merit-based scholarships would be like Paris choosing the fairest goddess for the golden apple: a vain endeavor that only leads to ruin.

While we are definitely not lawyers, we find the lawsuit’s characterization of Ivy League sports recruitment as a monopoly intellectually implausible. As the suit literally mentions, there are several non-Ivy institutions with an akin quality of education that compensate athletes in the form of merit-based financial aid. As such, if the benefits of an Ivy League education do not suffice, there is no shortage of comparable alternatives.

We maintain that Harvard’s student-athletes are students first and athletes if they want to be; a financial aid system that compensates them for their athleticism is at odds with this premise. They are students, just like everyone else, and should be considered for financial aid based on their ability to pay. We’ll keep cheering on our athletes to win games in their courts — but unfortunately, this time, we can’t support their case in court.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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