[Mick]

I sent this article to a friend whose son is currently a nationally-ranked fencer in high school.  Their thoughts:

• Location: love it but it's so far away. Right now the top foil fencers are all from the West Coast (2 of the Olympic team are from SF, the other 2 are from LA)
  
• They chose Boston because it's close to elite universities. When you take a closer look, out of the 4 (Harvard, MIT, BC, and Brandeis)...Harvard will only take 1 male foil fencer/year. So basically, #1. If you're anything else, you'd have to get in on your own. BC doesn't have a men's program. MIT is D3... so you'd have to get in on your own. And Brandeis is not really an elite school. So slim pickings if kids are trying to use fencing to get into elite colleges.
  
• The academy is intended to be revenue generating. It's true that parents spend crazy $$$ on fencing but I wonder if parents will still spend all that money in fencing if it disappears from NCAA
  
• I don't know if colleges will really move away from money-making sports like basketball/football to Olympic sports. How would they generate revenue? No one really comes to watch NCAA fencing.
  
  

I thought it interesting that the article calls USA Fencing "an events company in sheep's clothing" presumably because half of their $17.3 million annual revenue comes from registration fees.

Also the article that says the governing bodies of fencing, squash, cycling, sailing, and rowing have formed a marketing collective:
https://www.sportico.com/business/sponso...234841509/

Interesting comments. A few thoughts:

- Harvard has six foil fencers on its roster (and seven each for Saber and Epee fencers) -- though they spell it "Saber" and "Sabre" on the Harvard site. Perhaps the Stanford of the East is not noted for its spelling acumen...
2024-25 Men's Fencing Roster - Harvard University

- When your friend states that Harvard takes one fencer a year, I suspect that what your friend is referring to is a "likely letter," the Ivy's version of the Letter of Intent. It virtually guarantees entry, as long as you graduate from high school, don't commit any felonies and don't get any D's (essentially). My son received one.

- The year my eldest applied to both Princeton and Harvard, the Ass't. AD at Harvard explained that they needed five volleyball players a year, but only gave out two "likely" letters. Five other recruited applicants would apply, and Admissions would accept three of them to get to the required five recruits. So the Admissions odds increased to 60%. Much better than 5%, but still not 100%. That year, Harvard needed two middles, my son played outside, so...Princeton.

- And speaking of Princeton...my geography's a little iffy, but I'm fairly certain they're somewhere near the East Coast. They have an excellent men's fencing team that won the last Ivy championships. Perhaps your friend could consider the Tigers.
Men's Fencing Sweeps to Ivy Title, Women's Team Takes Third - Princeton University Athletics

Here's the Ivy championships. Columbia, Penn & Yale also have fencing teams and I hear tell they're in the vicinity of the East Coast.
2025 Ivy League Fencing Championships Results - Team

[Mick]

I sent this article to a friend whose son is currently a nationally-ranked fencer in high school.  Their thoughts:

• Location: love it but it's so far away. Right now the top foil fencers are all from the West Coast (2 of the Olympic team are from SF, the other 2 are from LA)
  
• They chose Boston because it's close to elite universities. When you take a closer look, out of the 4 (Harvard, MIT, BC, and Brandeis)...Harvard will only take 1 male foil fencer/year. So basically, #1. If you're anything else, you'd have to get in on your own. BC doesn't have a men's program. MIT is D3... so you'd have to get in on your own. And Brandeis is not really an elite school. So slim pickings if kids are trying to use fencing to get into elite colleges.
  
• The academy is intended to be revenue generating. It's true that parents spend crazy $$$ on fencing but I wonder if parents will still spend all that money in fencing if it disappears from NCAA
  
• I don't know if colleges will really move away from money-making sports like basketball/football to Olympic sports. How would they generate revenue? No one really comes to watch NCAA fencing.
  
  

I thought it interesting that the article calls USA Fencing "an events company in sheep's clothing" presumably because half of their $17.3 million annual revenue comes from registration fees.

Also the article that says the governing bodies of fencing, squash, cycling, sailing, and rowing have formed a marketing collective:
https://www.sportico.com/business/sponso...234841509/

Interesting comments. A few thoughts:

- Harvard has six foil fencers on its roster (and seven each for Saber and Epee fencers) -- though they spell it "Saber" and "Sabre" on the Harvard site. Perhaps the Stanford of the East is not noted for its spelling acumen...
2024-25 Men's Fencing Roster - Harvard University

- When your friend states that Harvard takes one fencer a year, I suspect that what your friend is referring to is a "likely letter," the Ivy's version of the Letter of Intent. It virtually guarantees entry, as long as you graduate from high school, don't commit any felonies and don't get any D's (essentially). My son received one.

- The year my eldest applied to both Princeton and Harvard, the Ass't. AD at Harvard explained that they needed five volleyball players a year, but only gave out two "likely" letters. Five other recruited applicants would apply, and Admissions would accept three of them to get to the required five recruits. So the Admissions odds increased to 60%. Much better than 5%, but still not 100%. That year, Harvard needed two middles, my son played outside, so...Princeton.

- And speaking of Princeton...my geography's a little iffy, but I'm fairly certain they're somewhere near the East Coast. They have an excellent men's fencing team that won the last Ivy championships. Perhaps your friend could consider the Tigers.
Men's Fencing Sweeps to Ivy Title, Women's Team Takes Third - Princeton University Athletics

Here's the Ivy championships. Columbia, Penn & Yale also have fencing teams and I hear tell they're in the vicinity of the East Coast.
2025 Ivy League Fencing Championships Results - Team