Big Green In Motion

Like cross-country bicycling Coach Buddy Teevens, the Dartmouth football team is going to keep pushing until reaching its goal according to this story on the school web site. ...

The graduation issue of The Dartmouth has a recap of the 2006-07 athletic season at Dartmouth. While saying the football team continued to struggle, it did note that the Big Green was generally competitive in the Ivy League this year. ...

The I-A/I-AA or FBS/FCS nomenclature problem comes up in a column in the Boston Globe discussing the chance that the University of Massachusetts would move up to the next level -- whatever it is. From the story:

UMass is thinking of doing the opposite, upgrading its successful, money-losing, I-AA football program to the big time, I-A

Two responses. First, there is no I-A or I-AA anymore. It's FBS or FCS. Like it or not, get used to it.

And second, I'm continually annoyed when programs are referred to as "money-losing." UMass football is not money-losing.

Money is being spent and value is being returned for that money in the form of a football program. Agree or disagree about the value, the money is not "lost." Is money colleges spend on art museums, fitness centers, landscaping and glossy publications considered "lost" if it doesn't pay for itself? No, because the money brings something of value.

By that definition, UMass football is not "money-losing."

It would be more accurate to say it is "not money-making."

There is a difference.

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Football takes a back seat to golf this week as the Big Green Alert home office relocates to Fairlee, Vt., for the Vermont Open pro golf tournament. The 54-hole event is the lidlifter for the New England State Open season and yours truly is helping with media relations. For a little more on the tournament, take a look at the Vermont Open Blog.

There are 186 golfers from 20 states and three Canadian provinces in this year's field. There are usually a few former PGA Tour players who show up (Jumbo Elliott is one this year) and a bunch of Nike Tour players. Among the former champions is Sean O'Hair, who won in 2004 and was making noise on the PGA Tour a year later, and Dana Quigley, who has gone on to win millions in senior golf.