Friday, March 07, 2008

Bits and Pieces


In case you think reports of all the snow we've been getting in these parts have been exaggerated, here's a picture of Cooper the golden retriever asking to be let in through our sun room slider yesterday. The forecast is for another 6-12 inches of snow on the other side of Burlington over the next 24 hours or so. Fortunately, we're supposed to get only a few inches of snow and the wonderfully named wintry mix. Keep your fingers crossed, because if that storm takes a turn we could get slammed again.


I can easily take both sides of the argument about whether Ivy League teams should open the season against fellow Ivies (as they did from 1976 through 1999) or against non-conference opponents (as they have since 2000). Both concepts have their advantages.

That brings us around to yet another one of those late-winter, non-news posts, in this case Colgate releasing its 2008 schedule. (I caught some good-natured heat yesterday for posting about Penn releasing its schedule.)

Anyway, Colgate's schedule is now official and it shows the Raiders opening Aug. 30 at Stony Brook, then traveling to Coastal Carolina on Sept. 6 before playing host to Furman on Sept. 13.

That means when Dartmouth travels to Hamilton, N.Y., on Sept. 21, it will be Colgate's fourth game of the year. It's hard enough when the other guy has opened already and you are playing for the first time. But four games? Ridiculous!

Should have posted this earlier but in the trials for the 60 meters at the Heps over at Cornell former wide receiver Brian Evans ran 6.91. While he finished fourth in the finals, the time puts him second on the Dartmouth all-time list, and qualified him for the ECAC's.

Not surprisingly, the Amaker situation has triggered an opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson. The author writes:
The reality is that in order to stay afloat in the hypercompetitive NCAA recruiting game, Harvard increasingly will be forced to severely compromise its academic standards. Worse still, it is unlikely that Harvard will ever be able to reduce its standards to a great enough extent that athletics will improve dramatically. In other words, athletics would marginally improve while significantly decreasing academic standards. In light of this, there is little reason for Harvard to go to great lengths to cultivate flourishing sports teams.
Discuss among yourselves.

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