Perry, by the way, led Merrimack to a 6-4 record this fall. Find his bio here.
Northern Iowa has New Hampshire's number in the FCS playoffs. For the third time in four years, the Panthers of UNI knocked UNH out of the playoffs by a field goal or less. Last night it was 36-34. New Hampshire (11-3) tossed four interceptions and lost two fumbles but still trailed just 36-34 and had the ball approaching midfield with 1:13 left before a fourth-down pass went awry. The Manchester Union Leader reports.
In case you are wondering, the FCS is down to its final four. No. 1 James Madison will play No. 4 Montana in one semi and unseeded Richmond will play No. 3 Northern Iowa in the other. Richmond advanced by knocking off Appalachian State. Bracket
If you thought the "sophomore summer" at Dartmouth was unique, you are right. A couple of academics from George Washington University have an "idea" piece in the Boston Globe under the headline, How to make colleges twice as productive, that says a school like GW could increase revenue by $10 million by adopting a similar plan. From the story:
The reason this is so important is that an unused campus isn't free. While college facilities sit idle, they continue to generate maintenance, energy, and debt-service expenses that contribute to the high cost of running a college. Those costs are borne by students, taxpayers, and donors. Such inefficiency is not affordable today.Makes sense to me. The wonder is that more schools haven't seen the possibility, but apparently they haven't. From the story:
Many schools do run summer sessions, but we searched in vain for a BA-granting institution - other than Dartmouth, which still mandates one summer term - that delivered more than a fraction of its normal instruction during the summer...And finally, we made our trek to East Hartford, Conn., yesterday to see the Big East showdown between Connecticut and Pittsburgh. Pitt won, 34-10. Some almost-unbelievable numbers: UConn quarterbacks completed 6-of-31 passes for 80 yards with five interceptions!
A few random thoughts after a first trip to see a UConn game ...
Rentschler Field was completed in 2003 on the site of the old Pratt & Whitney corporate airfield in East Hartford. Parking and tailgating is all within site of the stadium on the old runways. You can see the skyline of Hartford from the parking lot. ... The stadium seats 40,000 and would remind you of a less architecturally interesting, but slightly larger Princeton Stadium. ... The press box/luxury suite area is ridiculously large and dwarfs the field. ...
I'm not sure if I've ever been in a stadium anywhere that has a more gentle rise in seating. It was so gentle the kids were concerned they wouldn't be able to see over the people in front of them. ... Because it's an off-campus facility, beer was sold both in plastic bottles and in cups. That seemed really strange and led the people sitting in front of us to get up and leave – in twos, threes, fours and more, numerous times during the flow of play. But then they didn't seem to be paying much attention anyway. I had to tap the people in front of me on the shoulder and ask them nicely to sit because they were standing and talking to each, paying no attention to the field, during the kickoff. ...
Although I've been out at Penn State for the spring game the past four years, it's been a while since I last saw a regular-season FBS game. The size and speed of the players was a reminder that this really is a different level of football. Although Sun Bowl-bound Pitt was clearly the better team, both had electrifying playmakers. For as good as Colgate's Jordan Scott was, UConn's Donald Brown (189 yards) was something else altogether, as the nation's leading rusher should be, I suppose. Pitt receiver Derek Kinder and slinky running back LeSean McCoy (the nations' leading scorer) were dynamic and fun to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment