"If we didn't fly them in, they would notconsider us interested in them," Scalise said.

Football also likely has a big recruitingbudget, but the office of Dean of the FacultyJeremy R. Knowles and athletic departmentofficials have repeatedly refused to releasebudget figures.

Senior athletic department officials, however,acknowledged yesterday that there arediscrepancies in recruiting budgets. But they saidthat these discrepancies were a result ofdifferences among the sports. While, say, a trackcoach may be able to judge the skill of a recruitfrom running times, a football or lacrosse coachhas to see a player in person to make anevaluation.

Coaches defend the recruiting trips asnecessary, saying that they help make up for thelack of athletic scholarships.

"We have to compete with schools that areoffering people a full ride," says Gordon Graham,coach of the women's tennis team. "Sometimes thereis no comparison."

Still, selling students on Harvard isnot the only hurdle coaches must jump inassembling top-notch teams. There's also theadmissions process, where athletes are expected toshine in the classroom, not just on the field.

The Admissions Office has long maintained thatathletic skill is an advantage to applicants, butonly as much as any other extracurricularinterest.

"Athletics can help, but so can social serviceor minority activities," says Dean of Admissionsand Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67. "Noone thing is viewed more important than anythingelse."

Fitzsimmons says that admissions has a liaisonsystem in which admissions officers are pairedwith coaches, but he says the exchanges betweenthe coaches and the liaisons are strictlyinformal.

"The coaches do verbally say which studentsthey want," he says. "But there is not an orderedlist."

And Fitzsimmons insists that although theinitial decision to contact a student is made bythe officers and the coaches together, finaldecisions are made strictly by the AdmissionsOffice.

"We use the broken leg test," Fitzsimmons says."If the student doesn't make the team or if hedecides not to play, there must be other thingsthe student will do extracurricularly here."

But some coaches estimate that their influenceis more than just advisory.

"They'll usually give us one person we need,although he still has to be a pretty outstandingstudent," says Ray L. Looze Jr., assistant coachof the men's swimming team.

"Nine times out of 10 he wouldn't have gottenadmitted otherwise," he added. "They will do morefor that one person than they will for theothers."