>I think it's no better here - look at your universities. What's the biggest scientific achievement they are proud of? What do they boast with? Their football teams. And how do they pick their best candidate students for the next generation? By intelligence, of course, and the academic success so far - but being a prospective player overrides it all.

I think that varies. The schools at the top end of the intellectual scale boast about their Nobel Prize winners much more than their football teams.

Also, fwiw, we visited our son's college last weekend for Family Weekend. One of the events was a Q&A session with the president of the college. He was asked about the role of sports-specifically, a parent was upset because he perceived that his athletic child was having to hide the fact that he was an athlete. The president was pretty frank about the fact that they've been struggling as a school to find the right place for athletics. He said that ultimately they've come to the conclusion that sports should be like all the other extracurricular activities--students are encouraged to do something other than just study and sports is one of the options. Similarly, when considering applications, they'll take sports into consideration, but with no more weight than playing in the band, or doing theater, or being active in student government. Sounded good to me.

Tamar