COLUMN: Where's outcry over Princeton athletic reign?

As Princeton football coach Steve Tosches prepares to open training camp next week, I have a request for Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans. Bring some plastic cups over to Old Nassau, and test those Tigers for juice. There is no way that Princeton could have won the Ivy crown last year without a little help from modern medicine. If Mr. Orleans had the courage to send each and every Tiger into the bathroom one by one, every Ivy League football fan would learn what has been long suspected. In the 1990s, you can't win in the Ivy League without cheating. Al has learned his lesson, though. So expect this year's freshmen crop to have a mean SAT right around 450. I've also heard that in his final year at Princeton, Pete Carril brought in the Chinese women's swimming coach to train his basketball players. Steve Goodrich has supposedly begun drinking toad's blood to improve his circulation. I'm also quite certain the Tigers' pitchers routinely scuff the ball with sandpaper. As we all know, Ivy League success does not come without a price. During the 1995-96 academic year, Penn became the first school to win conference titles in the three most visible sports -- football, men's basketball and baseball -- in the same year. Of course, Penn mortgaged its academic reputation for those ESPN appearances and that national exposure. Tosches said it best himself in the college football preview edition of Sports Illustrated last year. "I've been in the league since '85, and I've seen a great change in what some schools are willing to do to help their athletic teams," he said. "They're not breaking policies, they're just stretching them as if they're plastic. When does the plastic break?" That was one year ago, when the Quakers were trotting out a future NFL wide receiver on the football field, a future NBA point guard on the hardwood and a future minor league shortstop on the diamond. Penn was an easy target. Unlike Harvard and Princeton and Yale, the name "University of Pennsylvania" does not immediately draw "oohs" and "ahs" from the man on the street. Yet the Quakers managed to dominate in football, basketball and baseball. So, naturally, unable to tarnish Penn's record on the field, Tosches and others did so off the field. That quote was by no means an isolated one. Prior to the Quakers' 30-14 win over Princeton two years ago, then-Tigers running back Keith Elias, now with the New York Giants, said it's a shame that Penn admits so many athletes who could never gain admission to Princeton. And Carm Cozza, the long-time coach at Yale, who also has a long-time history of finishing at the bottom of the Ivy standings, had his words as well. "I wish I had the admissions decisions that Al Bagnoli faces," he said. Of course, providing solid evidence of any wrongdoing on Penn's part has proved more difficult for the detractors. That's because Penn, like every other Ivy school, is monitored by the league. The conference employs an Academic Index, which is the minimum level of academic achievement incoming athletes must prove. It is impossible, unless someone up in the league office is sleeping, to beat the system. Now, like every great dynasty, Penn's run has come to an end. Last fall, the Quakers lost the football crown to?Princeton. Last winter, the Quakers lost sole possession of the basketball crown to?Princeton. Last spring, the Quakers lost the baseball crown to?Princeton. Sensing a pattern? The Tigers also won Ivy titles in field hockey, volleyball, men's indoor track, men's and women's lacrosse, softball, men's crew and men's outdoor track. All this has me eagerly anticipating the upcoming Sports Illustrated college football preview. Will Tosches come clean? Will Cozza be outraged over Princeton's questionable tactics? Will Elias denounce his alma mater for lowering itself to Penn's standards? I doubt it. The reason -- Princeton, like Penn before it, has won by putting the best team on the field. There was nothing dirty about the Quakers' ascent to the top of the Ivy standings, and there was nothing dirty about the Tigers' recent success. It is troubling, though, that Princeton's trifecta of the football, basketball and baseball crowns (and lacrosse national title) didn't so much as raise an eyebrow. If Penn must have cheated, why not Princeton? I suspect the answer lies in the snobbery that is prevalent throughout the Ivy League, particularly among the Big Three schools -- Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Because they look down upon Penn as an academic institution, they assume that lack of discretion filters its way into the athletic program. Of course, when Princeton nearly sweeps the table, the rest of the league collectively applauds the efforts of their astonishing student-athletes. It's a shame that so many Penn athletes have had to graduate with an asterisk next to their names.

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