Schedule Musings

In talking with coach Buddy Teevens a few weeks ago, I asked about the possibility of changing the difficult and monotonous non-league schedule. It was clear after talking with Teevens that the battle to rework the schedule before the current contracts run out is one he's been unable to win and has grown tired of fighting.

That's not to say he's giving up, but it seems pretty certain now that Colgate, New Hampshire and Holy Cross will make up the non-league schedule for a few years to come. In fact, a look at the Future Football Schedules page on the Dartmouth website shows Dartmouth playing the same three schools through the 2011 season. That means the schedule will carry right through the careers of the incoming freshmen, making 12 consecutive years with the same three non-league opponents. There can't be many Division I programs that (dubious?) distinction.

By the way, if you want to make your reservations for the Harvard game sometime in the future, the schedules are posted up until 2012 – with TBA listed as the non-league opponents starting in 2011.

The Palm Beach Post gets a few thoughts from Jay Fiedler about the New England Patriots' Spygate scandal. The Post calls Fiedler, "a Dartmouth grad known as a cerebral quarterback." ... There's a little more on the Post blog site.

Harvard football coach Tim Murphy received an honor from his local chapter of the National Football Foundation. Whether or not you read the story, do check out the photograph here. Amazingly, Murphy seems to be unfazed by what's happening to him in the picture.

What was it former major league slugger Dick Allen said about AstroTurf? "If a horse won't eat it, I don't want to play on it." He'd have a different point of view if field hockey were his game of choice.

The Daily Dartmouth reports on the college getting the OK to install an AstroTurf field hockey field in time for the season next fall. That artificial turf will join the already installed FieldTurf on Memorial Field and lacrosse's Scully-Fahey Field while baseball's Red Rolfe Field will have FieldTurf installed this summer. Correct me if I'm wrong (and you did down in the comments section ;-), but by next year the only Dartmouth varsity sports playing on the real thing will be soccer and softball.

In late April The Dartmouth Review ran a lengthy interview with Priya Venkatesan '90, the former Dartmouth writing professor threatening to sue the college. Start reading the verbatim interview and it's almost impossible to stop.