Comment: The Boat Race needs a youth revolution

You may not have heard of Professor Boris Rankov. He teaches Roman History at Royal Holloway, and was educated at Oxford, where he was something of a brute when he got his hands on an oar. In recognition of this, he won his Blue in the Boat Race of 1978.

No doubt rather pleased with this achievement, Boris went on to keep his seat, winning the Boat Race for the next five consecutive years and working his way through a wide variety of post-graduate studies that allowed him  to do so.

Recognising that this state of affairs would end up with boats crammed to the sax board with extravagantly muscled Olympians being offered worthless degrees to keep them at the university, the 'Rankov Rule' was brought in - an informal agreement that a rower could compete only four times as an undergraduate and four times as a graduate.

Next, I present Thorsten Engelmann, who rowed for Cambridge in 2006 and 2007. He was the heaviest ever contestant in the race's long history, a world champion with the German eight and the proud owner of a mantelpiece sporting a fairly exciting mix of bronze, silver and gold. But not blue. He was stripped of his university honours when he dropped out of his course to concentrate on the upcoming Olympics, sparking controversy as Oxford demanded a re-row. The fallout ensured that rowers are now required to be intending to complete a full academic course.

These measures have improved the legitimacy of the race, and yet still controversy lingers around the politics of selection.

Chris Nilsson, the head coach of the Cambridge boat, cast aspersions upon the Oxford admissions procedure after last year's race, noting that world-class rowers "are more able to get their courses at Oxford."

The teams, revealed this week, are brimming with Olympic and international pedigree. In light of this, I'd propose a further amendment to the 'gentlemen's code' that governs Boat Race etiquette: allow only undergraduates. We already have a competition that pitches Olympic standard rowers against each other. It's called the Olympics. I appreciate that the Boat Race is a unique event with a long history, but kicking out the graduate students is hardly going to impact upon that. The standard of rowing would suffer, of course, but it wouldn't be a disproportionate price to pay for an event free of the whiff of controversy over admissions procedures.

Neither university offers non-academic courses or sports scholarships. The Boat Race website is anxious to emphasise that "academic standards are not compromised at either institution for aspiring Boat Race participants," and college admissions tutors are constantly repeating that their criteria is solely academic. For me, this doesn't quite add up.

It's difficult to reconcile the idea that so many world-class oarsmen occupy the top few percent of the academic world. Equally, how could an admissions tutor not be somewhat beguiled by the biceps of the ex-Olympian rower? However much they protest to the contrary, the idea of doing their bit to get the Light Blue boat down the Thames that bit faster is always going to creep into the decision-making process.

By contrast, most undergraduates don't have the medals or muscles to sway admissions tutors. They will be given an offer without the danger of non-academic factors playing a part, and their rowing ability will be judged at the boathouse. This, it seems to me, is the way it should be.

Thomas Wills