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No - the timing is off. That quote you mention, came when the Ivy league was still classified as 1A football. It wasn't until an "emergency" session of the NCAA meetings of 1-A football was called in the early 80s, that the Ivy league amendment to the 1A/1-AA rules created in 1978, was shot down, and the Ivy's and ONLY the Ivy's were excommunicated from 1A football (and Joe Paterno effectively wiped out the league that he most feared and competed against in recruiting for football.
In 1981, Yale finished the season ranked I believe in the top 15 in the country - in 1A football. Yale v. Harvard games were still drawing numbers of people to the Yale Bowl, that make Rentschler field attendance - well - not look so good.
had the Ivy's remained 1A, there was no reason to think they couldn't still compete and draw - why?
Because of what I"ve been harping about this off-season.
RECRUITING.
I posted a long article from Vanderbilt law journal (and honestly, I wonder if there are people there, that read this website, because there is a direct quote in there, from Joe Restic, that I put on this website about ayear ago, maybe more, in a little RIP thing I put up) that talks about how the major difference came in recruiting after the 1-AA reclassification.
You can go read the full 64 page article on the conference affiliation part of this webisite. It basically reads like a compilation of stuff I've written over the past 2 years, and it's pretty good. I wish they cited me.
THey (the Ivy's) simply couldnt' recruit the same type of athletes anymore, and that's why it fell off. You can read stuff from the athletic departments at Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth etc. that all tell the same story.
The ability to recruit in competition with the rest of the new 1A programs effectively ended with the 1-AA classification in 1981. Recruits that could play 1A, didn't want to play 1-AA, and EVERYBODY knew what they were doing when they voted the Ivy's out in 1981.
Reducing the competition.
And that is why - how we recruit football players to UCONN, and what type of player, and from where, and why - is so damn important for us moving forward.
We (and the rest of the NCAA that we are now classified with) cannot let another division to occur in the NCAA with football.
We will not be able to recruit the way we need to, if it happens, and we are on the outside.
All the BS about money and this and that, and television, and it all, is all true - but the fundamental common denominator, is that success, whether it be wins and losses, or in revenue streams from TV and bowl games, all depends on your ability to recruit.