NU in Bey's final 6

[rwhitney014]

It IS hard to imagine that a student-ATHLETE would turn down an offer to attend a top-notch school that happens to compete in a "power" conference in order to attend another top-notch school which happens to play in a minor conference (Ivy). Obviously, Llewellyn must have his reasons to do so but it is hard to imagine which are those reasons (academics is NOT one of them, since Stanford is at least every bit as good as Princeton academically). Presumably he not only values education (which either school would fulfill) but also the sport he plays....and there isn't any doubt that athletically the PAC-12 is VERY far above the Ivy league.

Since others have already addressed the facile side note, let's discuss the primary assertion. Over the last two completed recruiting seasons (2016/17), for instance:

Chris Lewis, 4-star PF, 68th in nation per ESPN, picked Harvard over offers from Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Cal, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Memphis, Miami (FL), Mississippi State, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

Robert Baker, Jr., 4-star PF, 97th in nation, picked Harvard over offers from Auburn, Butler, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), Texas A&M, USC and Vanderbilt.

Seth Towns, 4-star SF, 98th in nation and a Columbus native, picked Harvard over offers from Ohio State and Michigan.

Bryce Aiken, 4-star PG, 99th in nation, picked Harvard over offers from Auburn, Creighton, Illinois, Miami (FL), Oklahoma, Rutgers and Seton Hall.

Sebastian Much, 3-star PF, picked Princeton over offers from Arizona State, Utah and Washington State.

Jordan Bruner, 3-star SG, picked Yale over offers from Clemson, Georgia, Tennessee and Temple.

Jarrod Simmons, 3-star SF, picked Penn over offers from BC, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Providence, Temple, Texas and VCU.

A.J. Brodeur, 3-star SF, picked Penn over offers from BC and Notre Dame. 247 reports we had interest but didn't offer. He was one of Aaron Falzon's prep teammates.

Jaron Faulds, 3-star PF, picked Columbia over an offer from DePaul.

Plenty of power conference offers around the Ivy's most recent slews of recruits, including some offers from stronger academic schools as well. Harvard leads the way, but even some of the second-tier basketball programs have culled some good talent over high-major offers.

 

[FeliSilvestris]

Plenty of power conference offers around the Ivy's most recent slews of recruits, including some offers from stronger academic schools as well. Harvard leads the way, but even some of the second-tier basketball programs have culled some good talent over high-major offers.

Some of those choices could be explained as academic trumping athletics type of choice....taking your data at face value, it seems that only one of the cited students had an offer from one of the top 4 academic schools with major conference affiliation (Duke, NU, Stanford, Vandy), and it was Vandy which may possibly be a bit below the other 3. What made the Jaelin Llewellyn choice so curious is that he turned down Stanford to attend Princeton a choice that could not be easily justified on academic grounds (I suppose most would call it an academic tie). NU may be fairly ranked below either of those academically, but the difference isn't big...certainly nowhere near as big as the difference between the B1G and the Ivy, in major sports.

 

[docrugby1]

Jontay Porter did the same thing to join his brother at Mizzou. And yes, it takes some planning -- you've got to position yourself with extra credits in advance. But it's not all that hard -- I graduated from high school in three years -- I just took a full course load every semester instead of taking study hall, like most of my friends. Then I took one summer school class and that gave me the credits I needed to graduate after my junior year. I applied for "early admission" to NU in the fall of my junior year and got in. So it can be done fairly easily IF you plan ahead.

I think you short changed yourself on a good HS experience. Study Hall was my favorite class