Most Unfair Rule In Sports? Color it Ivy

A columnist on the Delaware News Journal web site writes about the "dumbest, most unfair rule in sports."

And that rule is? The Ivy League rule forbidding football teams from competing in the NCAA playoffs. He writes:

... (T)he Ivy League field hockey, men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball championship teams will go to the NCAA tournaments this fall, as they do every fall. So will any cross country runners swift enough to qualify.

Winter and spring sports champions will do the same.

Football cannot.

Since when is discrimination acceptable? Apparently, Ivy smarter-than-us arrogance makes it OK.

That makes this the greatest injustice in sports. It's unfathomable and unacceptable and should be fought until it's changed.

I'm not sure it is the "greatest" injustice in sports, but I am sure it's wrong. The columnist's rant includes the following thought, which I've wondered about often:

... (W)hy some feisty, brilliant graduate of one of those prestigious Ivy law schools, some of them likely former football players, hasn't raised a legal ruckus, is completely beyond me.

The Sports Network, which yesterday named Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger the national offensive player of the week, today has a column telling of that most unlikely occurrence Saturday when Dartmouth and Indiana State snapped the nation's two longest losing streaks just hour(s) apart. One correction: The column says the last win was a 17-14 overtime decision against Princeton in the 2007 finale. Actually, Princeton won that game. Dartmouth's last win was a 59-31 victory over Cornell two weeks before that.

Schwieger's hometown paper expands a little on an AP story about Saturday's big day.

In his post-game remarks Saturday, Columbia coach Norries Wilson said he warned his team not to look past Dartmouth:

“I told them that they played UNH and Colgate, and the College of the Holy Cross, the University of Pennsylvania (and Yale). They played five (sic) teams with winning records. Three teams ranked in the nation. And they had moved the football against those football teams. So why wouldn’t you think that they were a good football team? ... There was no reason not to feel like they were a good football team. They were 0-5 that’s true. But they had put a lot of good things on tape. And they had progressed and got better each week. ... From our standpoint as a coaching staff we did nothing but tell our kids that this Dartmouth football team was a good outfit and we were going to have our hands full beating them.”

Apparently the message didn't get through to a columnist for the Columbia Spectator who wrote:

The football team lost an embarrassing game to Dartmouth on Saturday. There is no other way to put it.

Dartmouth opponents in The Sports Network's Top 25 Poll:

8. New Hampshire
17. Holy Cross
24. Colgate
32. Harvard
35. Penn
38. Brown

And in the FCS Coaches Poll:

7. New Hampshire
17. Holy Cross
T-25. Colgate
32. Brown
34. Harvard

The Gridiron Power Index ranking (125 teams):

7. New Hampshire
27. Holy Cross
35. Penn
38. Colgate
41. Harvard
44. Brown
68. Yale
72. Columbia
83. Dartmouth
89. Cornell
107. Princeton

Future Opponents
T-98 Butler
117. Sacred Heart
121. Georgetown

Joe Moglia, former Dartmouth assistant coach-turned-chairman of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp – and still a friend of the program – is the focus of a piece in the Daily Nebraskan, which writes:

Since July, Moglia has been donating his time at the UNL Athletic Department to provide life skills advice and leadership consultation to the Husker football team.
“One thing I want to do right now is to be part of football. I’m with the (Nebraska) football team this season,” he said.

What happens when you don't have an official, recognizable mascot? Consider the following incorrect but embarrassing reference to Dartmouth in a Virginia Gazette story about the search for a mascot at William & Mary:

While the Tribe nickname will remain intact, the committee may come up with a mascot unrelated to its nickname. That’s odd, but not really.

For example, Iowa State University’s mascot is “Cy the Cardinal,” which has nothing to do with the nickname, Cyclones. Dartmouth University’s nickname is the Big Green, while the mascot is “Keggy the Keg.” And yes, Keggy is a beer keg.

Away from the arena, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim has donated $25,000 out of his own pocket to the Dartmouth College fund. He told the Daily Dartmouth:

Among all the values I hold dear, I can’t think of very many that are more important to me than ensuring that everyone has access to a Dartmouth education ...

Green Alert Take: Having spent 90 minutes or so at Hanover High School last night being tutored about FASFA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and CSS (College Scholarship Service) I have a renewed appreciation for the importance of the generosity shown by people like President Kim. That certain Hanover senior hasn't ruled out Dartmouth but the hope is wherever she ends up next year those associated with the school are as generous as those at Dartmouth.

And finally, a feel-good story shared by a regular reader. The New York Times writes again about Myron Rolle, the former Florida State safety who put off the NFL for a year to study at Oxford and plans to become a neurosurgeon. For anyone who thinks you can't go to one of the big-time football schools and be success in the classroom, consider this from the Times:

The nicest thing about Oxford, Rolle said, is that it makes him feel as if he is in no hurry. He graduated from high school early and finished his education at Florida State in two and a half years, cutting short his football career by a season.