Teevens: Bring On The Playoffs

Yesterday's blog had a link to a Sports Network column that included the following with regard to the Ivy League's refusal to take part in the football posteason:

Conversations that some Ivy League officials would just as soon not reach the public have suggested that these old, tradition-bound institutions might be more concerned with competition, status and image than with participation.

In other words, if the Ivies feel like they won't be embarrassed in postseason play, they might be more willing to lift the ban. There have been hints that some in the Ivy League are worried about potential first-round matchups with power conferences like the Southern Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association and if that obstacle could be overcome, the Ancient Eight might be willing to play ball with the rest of FCS in the playoffs.

After practice yesterday I asked Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens about that idea. Suffice it to say, he didn't think much of it. Teevens:

That's ridiculous. People just have no real understanding of the quality of Ivy League football. It's a shame. You don't like to hear that stuff, but people don't know, so it's easy to attack.

It has nothing to do with that. I would love to have us go to the playoffs just for that reason.

The Dartmouth sports information preview of this weekend's game at Yale has been posted here. ... For a story I freelanced for the first Dartmouth game program on linebacker Justin Cottrell, click here.

The Ivy League home page has a nice story about Yale linebacker Lee Driftmier here. Driftmier is back as a fifth-year senior after having surgery on both shoulders. Those who question student-athletes getting a fifth year in a situation like this might want to consider the caliber of the student part of that student-athlete equation. From the story on the Yale linebacker: "Driftmier spent this past summer working in Assistant Professor Antonia Monteiro’s lab, researching the role of sexually dimorphic black spots on the Pieris rapae butterfly."

I think it was Rick Reilly in Sports Illustrated who once had a few words of caution for athletes considering tatoos. If I remember correctly he wrote about how the tatoo of a hula girl can end up looking like Don Knotts when you get older. (At least that's what I think he wrote.) Anyway, that quote came to mind after reading this story about members of the Brown football team getting tatoos to celebrate their school and their 2005 Ivy League title. Said one of the Brown players, "I wanted to get something that I wouldn't regret when I turn 40." Time will tell.

An "independent scout," offers the Columbia Spectator a few thoughts about pro potential among Columbia and Ivy League players.

Princeton may play both quarterbacks this weekend against Hampton according to this story. If anything, the last non-league game is a good time to take a look at a few things and make a few decisions.

South Florida quarterback Connor Kempe's commitment to Dartmouth is listed at the end of this Sun-Sentinel story.

The Rutgers professor (and Dartmouth alum) who has angered many at the state university of New Jersey for his stance on that school enrolling unqualified students to play major college football, was the genesis of this Home News Tribune column by Rick Malwitz. The column included this:

Among the five siblings in my family, four of us commuted to state schools. The fifth went virtually free to Dartmouth, Dowling's alma mater. How come? Dartmouth needed a tight end and my brother fit the role.

Dan Malwitz '77 was a tight end at Dartmouth although he's not listed as a letterwinner in the media guide.