Cornell's basketball transfers

As I’m writing the morning after our second close loss in men’s basketball to the Big Red (Sports, March 17), this may sound like sour grapes. A classmate mentioned that Cornell has “transfers” on its teams, and he is right. Searching Cornell’s team roster, I was surprised to find that they have four transfers, one each from University of Kentucky (a big basketball school), St. Bonaventure, Centenary (La.), and the University of Massachusetts. A similar scan of the Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Penn rosters found no such “transfers.”

As a longtime ASC volunteer, I found it hard to understand how Cornell could attract players from schools where athletic scholarships are allowed to an Ivy school. Even Bill Bradley ’65 had to pay full freight! Could it be that Cornell, while private in most regards, does have a land-grant agricultural section that offers financial assistance? Could agriculture be a way for the Big Red to grow Ivy championship teams?