True true... Ivy league schools work on an "Academic Index" which means that any given applicant has to meet the standards of the institution which can be daunting. What sports does is bring that paperwork to the top of the pile. As the previous poster mentioned there may be 5,000 applications for a college like Princeton or Yale or name your IVY. More get rejected then processed, a coach of an IVY league school puts that kids application at the top of the pile. So if the child makes the academic standards then they will get accepted before thousands of other applications are even looked at. Also teams have to keep an mean score (this is true of most D1 programs but is more rigorous in an IVY league school), so some kids are accepted onto a team to bring up the team average even thought they don't have a chance of breaking a lineup. Finally for an IVY league school since there isn't a "scholarship" everyone is accepted academically once admitted the programs have little control over the kids (unlike a scholarship situation where kids are owned by the coach lock stock and barrel). Trade offs on both sides but for kids who are not going to make a career out of the sport that they are getting accepted for, IVY leagues make most sense.