G'day Mates

Dunedin-ites - and I know you are out there - if you send me a photo or two it would be fun to post it/them here.

I got several emails from readers wondering about the cryptic posting (above) yesterday. Dunedin, if you didn't know, is in New Zealand where a dozen or so very lucky Dartmouth football players are spending their winter term. Thanks to sophomore lineman Rich Cummings for the pictures below.

If I'm designing the Dartmouth football media/recruiting guide for next year, I'm using this picture with the Sydney Opera House in the background.
Queenstown, on New Zealand's South Island, is well-known for its adventure tourism.

Rich Cummings and Alex Rapp at Nevis bungie jump. (There's someone jumping in the background.)
The gang at Stewart Island, 30 kilometers south of New Zealand's South Island.
At famed Bondi Beach in New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

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A link to the inflation of the Harvard bubble was posted here last week. Now check out how the bubble looks inside by clicking here. Three letters will suffice: WOW

The Philadelphia Daily News has a story about talks to start an Ivy League postseason basketball tournament. The story would have benefited greatly if the writer had gotten at least a little perspective from coaches or players from other schools in the league. Again, if you are an Ivy football follower, you might want to watch what happens with this issue because it is, in some ways, a telltale as to which way the athletic winds are blowing. From the story:

Starting tomorrow, the athletic directors from the eight member institutions will get together for another round of regularly scheduled meetings. Part of their agenda will be a discussion as to whether the league should break with tradition and start doing things like everyone else.

The recent article in the Daily Dartmouth about the swim teams making a same-day trip to Philadelphia to compete with Penn has brought a program that is largely out of sight into the light. The Dartmouth last week ran an opinion piece that said:

The fact that the team arrived at the Philadelphia airport two hours before competition so that the athletes did not miss Friday classes is indicative of a problem with the program's leadership and philosophy. Division I athletics are not when-you-feel-like-it commitments. The athletic department's reputation is diluted by a program that has performed so poorly for so long.

That brought this response from a parent:

The College has made it impossible for the program to succeed.

And also this response from a 2002 alum:

There's only so much the coaches can do when they get absolutely zero help from the rest of the administration.