Yale senior quarterback Patrick Witt received the call he had been hoping for on Monday when he got word that he made it through the second level of consideration and was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist. However, his exhilaration did not last long. Witt knew when he applied for the Rhodes that the final interview is scheduled for the weekend of the Yale/Harvard game. Now there is a chance that he will have to pick between going to the interview in Atlanta (since that is the district he applied in) or playing in his final game at Yale.

"I had thought about it even before applying. I was aware when the interview weekend was," Witt said. "I am not exactly sure how this works. I met with all the people at Yale who can reach out and potential work out a solution to this."

Back in 2008 Yale cornerback Casey Gerald was faced with the same dilemma. Fortunately, with some assistance from the academic community at Yale, cooled heads prevailed and Rhodes committee allowed Gerald to conduct his interview on Friday. Gerald flew in for the Yale/Harvard game the following day.

The folks at Yale who have aided Witt in his pursuit of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship have already started the process of trying to allow Witt to interview for the Rhodes and still be able to play in The Game.
"I believe all the Rhodes committees from each region have a bit of autonomy with decisions such as this so it is really up to them," Witt said. "I am hopeful that something will get worked out but there is really no way to know."

I asked him point blank if he had to choose, which one would be choose.

"The commitment I made to this team I believe would come first and I would want to honor that," Witt said. "It wouldn't feel right letting them down for not being there for the Harvard/Yale game."

Here's the story I wrote on the subject for today's Register