[Mick]

I think that athletes add a great deal to the collegiate experience. You could consider it from a number of different perspectives. 

There are eight forms of intelligence, including logical-mathematical, spacial, naturalistic, linguistic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal and bodily-kinesthetic. The latter two are often inherent in athletes to a greater degree than others.

A dozen years ago, I had a conversation with Harvard's Assistant Athletic Director, who doubled as sort of a Director of Athletic Admissions. She told me that Harvard, for a period of time, sought exclusively a "well-lopsided" student body, but that the result was a not-very-pleasant campus experience. They had moved to a rough 50/50 blend of "well-lopsided" and "well-rounded" students. She said that there has to be a place for both the best cellist in the world, and the student body president/captain of the basketball team/4.5 GPA/33 ACT and that both contributed to the campus experience.

Now whether the athletic experience needs to be at the very highest, Olympian levels as they are at Stanford -- that's up for debate, certainly. Harvard and Princeton have approximately the same number of sports, but compete at a more modest level (lower end of D1). They seem to do well with it, and MIT does very well another level down (D3). BTW, the SF Giants recently drafted two Princeton baseball players. First time since 2014 that Princeton had more than one player drafted. At least they're accustomed to wearing orange and black... ;)

[Mick]

I think that athletes add a great deal to the collegiate experience. You could consider it from a number of different perspectives. 

There are eight forms of intelligence, including logical-mathematical, spacial, naturalistic, linguistic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal and bodily-kinesthetic. The latter two are often inherent in athletes to a greater degree than others.

A dozen years ago, I had a conversation with Harvard's Assistant Athletic Director, who doubled as sort of a Director of Athletic Admissions. She told me that Harvard, for a period of time, sought exclusively a "well-lopsided" student body, but that the result was a not-very-pleasant campus experience. They had moved to a rough 50/50 blend of "well-lopsided" and "well-rounded" students. She said that there has to be a place for both the best cellist in the world, and the student body president/captain of the basketball team/4.5 GPA/33 ACT and that both contributed to the campus experience.

Now whether the athletic experience needs to be at the very highest, Olympian levels as they are at Stanford -- that's up for debate, certainly. Harvard and Princeton have approximately the same number of sports, but compete at a more modest level (lower end of D1). They seem to do well with it, and MIT does very well another level down (D3). BTW, the SF Giants recently drafted two Princeton baseball players. First time since 2014 that Princeton had more than one player drafted. At least they're accustomed to wearing orange and black... ;)