President Wright To Toss Out First Ball

Outgoing Dartmouth President Jim Wright will throw out the first ball tonight when the Boston Red Sox play host to the Texas Rangers at 7:10. From the Manchester Union Leader:

Saturday is New Hampshire Day at Fenway Park. Jim Wright, the president of Dartmouth College, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch; the Dartmouth Aires a capella group will perform the National Anthem.

A Big Back In The Back Yard

The state of New Hampshire isn't really known for producing top high school football players and Dartmouth hasn't exactly been known in recent years for recruiting those few that come along. That could change according to the Nashua Telegraph.

This story reports that Dartmouth is on the radar of 6-foot-3 Souhegan (NH) High School running back Steven Jellison. From the story:

His list includes his father’s alma mater, Harvard, as well as Ivy League rival Dartmouth. But it also includes a pair of New England Small College Athletic Conference powers, Amherst and Williams.

The University of New Hampshire, where his brother Sean is a red-shirt junior, is also in the mix. The Wildcats, reportedly, extended a verbal scholarship offer to Steven Jellison last fall.

Variously reported as 230 and 245 pounds, Jellison ran for 1,355 yards last fall according to this page. Another story in the Nashua paper notes that Jellison was at his best when it mattered most, the Division III state championship game. From the story:

On Saturday, in the most important game of his career, Steven Jellison put up Sean Jellison-like numbers, scoring four touchdowns – one on the interception – and rushing 25 times for 238 yards.

Jellison's older brother, Sean, is a junior running back at New Hampshire. As the big brother's bio notes, father Ronald played and then was a graduate assistant at Harvard. Sean Jellison, by the way, holds the New Hampshire career rushing mark of 5,890 yards. He ran for 220 yards and a 5.2-yard average in limited action at UNH last fall. He had eight carries for 64 yards against Dartmouth.

Dave Coulson over at The Sports Network does a nice job of analyzing Fordham's decision to go to scholarships and the Patriot League's accommodation of the move. Under the headline, "A Shotgun Wedding in the PL," Coulson writes:

This agreement, which was voted on this week by the Patriot League football presidents, seems to buy time for all parties. It gives Fordham three years to determine the best conference solution to match its long-term plans, and it provides the notoriously slow-moving PL with a more comfortable timeframe to grapple with and discuss the issue of scholarships.

But make no mistake, this is anything but a perfect solution, and when the next three years are up, we could see Fordham move to a conference more in line with its future goals, unless the PL follows the Rams' lead.

Coulson adds:

It wouldn't be surprising to see schools like Colgate, Lehigh and Lafayette make an argument for a move from need-based aid to a scholarship model, with Holy Cross and even Bucknell likely on the fence.

Dartmouth Recruiting Bios Posted

From the Dartmouth football website:

The Dartmouth football program and Robert L. Blackman Head Coach Buddy Teevens have announced its incoming class of recruits, totaling 35 student-athletes, who have accepted offers of admission for the 2009-10 school year.

Those 35 players represent 19 states, with California leading the way with five recruits while Texas and Illinois are sending three to Hanover. Eight states boast two Big Green recruits: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Minnesota, Ohio and Washington, and eight others have one. Find the complete list with linked biographical sketches (here).

Fordham: First Patriot FB Team To Offer Schollies

It had been rumored on various message boards for the past few weeks and the rumors have come true: Fordham will be the first Patriot League football program to offer scholarships. A press release was posted on the Fordham site today.

From the release:

Fordham will remain as an associate member of the Patriot League for football, which currently does not offer athletic scholarships in the sport, and will be eligible for the 2009 League title and automatic playoff bid. Fordham will continue to be included in the League schedule until at least the 2012 season but will not be eligible for the Patriot League championship beginning with the 2010 season. Fordham will also continue to abide by the League's academic and eligibility requirements.

Coach Tom Masella is quoted in the release:

"This is a great day for Fordham football. Being able to award scholarships based on athletic ability will greatly increase the pool of student-athletes that we are able to recruit. We are pleased to be able to maintain our Patriot League schedule and at the same time, look to enhance our schedule with the addition of some FBS schools along with top FCS schools. In the end this will aid us in achieving our ultimate goal, a chance to compete for an NCAA FCS championship."

The Rams will now play Connecticut in 2011, Navy in 2012 and Army in 2014 and 2015, games that could not have been scheduled by the FBS teams if Fordham were non-scholarship.

Green Alert Take: Columbia President Joseph M. McShane, S.J., says in the release, "This is a sea change for Fordham athletics." He's right. And it very well could be a sea change for the Patriot League. Although Fordham and the Patriot League have reached a settlement of sorts for the next several years, it's hard to believe the relationship will last beyond that. Unless, of course, other Patriot League schools follow suit and institute scholarships. If they don't, expect increased speculation about the possibility of other schools (Bryant? Hofstra? Marist?) sliding into some kind of Patriot League football affiliation in the near future.

Green Alert Take II: If Fordham's move helps tilt the scale toward scholarships in the PL, the Ivy League very well may start losing a few more talented and bright football recruits to those schools. Scholarships might also mean the cozy scheduling relationship between the Ivy League and Patriot League would be headed for the rocks.

Do check out the Lehigh Football Nation spin on Fordham and scholarships. ... The Patriot League announcement is here.

One Stop Shopping

For your convenience, valued reader, the eight Ivy League football recruiting classes in one easy visit. As my English teachers used to say, "Compare and contrast:"

• Brown
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Harvard
• Penn
• Princeton
• Yale

Speaking of recruiting, coaches are hard at work trying to shape the next recruiting class. Dartmouth has had a regular presence in Oklahoma the past few years and a note in the Tulsa World reminds us that's not changing. Wrote the paper: Jenks High safety Stephen Brown, "is being recruited in football by Harvard, Air Force, Navy, Brown, Princeton and Dartmouth. He also is being recruited by several major colleges in soccer."

There's quite a discussion going on over at the Any Given Saturday board regarding the Ivy League's non-conference schedule, and specifically the league's performance against teams from "automatic qualifier" conferences not named the Patriot League. Copied and pasted below is the research the original poster – a Central Connecticut State supporter – used to start the discussion. (Find the discussion here.)

-Cornell has played only 3 non-PL opponents. The Big Red lost to Towson (CAA) and beat 2 NEC teams (Albany and Wagner).

-Harvard has played only 4 non-PL opponents. The Crimson are 3-1 vs Notheastern, playing all 4 games in Cambridge.

-Princeton has played just 4 non-PL opponents. The Tigers lost both games vs AQ-conference teams (Hampton and The Citidel) and are 2-0 vs. San Diego of the non-scholly Pioneer League.

-Columbia has played just 4 non-PL opponents. The Lions lost to Towson (CAA) and beat 3 former MAAC teams (Iona, Marist, and Duquesne).

-Yale has played 7 non-PL opponents. The Bulldogs are 5-2 vs. non-scholly Pioneer schools (2-0 vs. Dayton; 2-2 vs. San Diego; 1-0 vs. Valpo).

-Dartmouth has played 9 non-PL opponents. The Big Green are 0-9 vs. in-state rival New Hampshire.

-Penn has played 10 games vs non-PL teams. The Quakers are 0-7 vs. cross-town rival 'Nova. They are 3-0 vs. non-scholly teams (Duquesne-MAAC and San Diego-PFL).

-Brown has played a whopping 15 games vs non-PL teams. The Bears are 4-6 vs. in-state rival URI and combined 5-0 vs. Albany, Duquesne, San Diego, and Stony Brook.

The kicker at the end of the post:

Consider this - In the past 10 YEARS, the 8 teams of the Ivy League have a TOTAL of 7 wins vs. AQ-conference teams not from the PL.

Harvard's 3 wins vs NU and Brown's 4 wins vs URI - that's it. Outside of some questionable PL wins, what can the Ivy League show for the past decade?

Green Alert Take: It's a little misleading to write, "Dartmouth has played 9 non-PL opponents." The Big Green has played one non-PL opponent nine times – and no one in the Ivy League, Patriot League or Central Connecticut's Northeast Conference would have much success against the Wildcats, certainly over the past five years.

Harvard Recruiting Class

Harvard's recruiting class has been posted here.

Thursday Thoughts

The old friend in town as part of his 48-state sprint around the country is Paul Souders, the best photographer you never heard of and one of the best writers I've ever known. If you have any wanderlust at all (or just want to read some quick and humorous state-by-state "takes" on things he's seen around the country so far), check out his blog. To see some of his astonishingly beautiful wildlife photography, click here. (In fact, you are under orders to check out his wildlife stuff. It is jaw-dropping.)

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Former Dartmouth defensive back/outfielder Jason Blydell gets a mention in the latest column by former Harvard wide receiver Corey Mazza, who wrote a series of humorous stories for ESPN.com last year about playing professional football in Italy. Mazza is now in the Marine Corps and reports that one of his "sparring partners" for "learning various knife techniques," is Blydell, a lieutenant in the Corps. Mazza writes:

"... Blydell, was a cornerback for Dartmouth, which meant I had lined up against him for four years in college, talking smack and going one-on-one all game. (For the record, Harvard never lost to Dartmouth when I was there.)"

Tuss McLaughry was the Dartmouth football coach from 1941-55 and a prominent member of the American Football Coaches Association. McLaughry gets the following mention in a blog posting about annual football awards :

The Tuss McLaughry Award, established in 1964, is given to a distinguished American (or Americans) for the highest distinction in service to others. It is named in honor of DeOrmond “Tuss” McLaughry, the first full-time secretary-treasurer of the AFCA and one of the most dedicated and influential members in the history of the Association.

A regular reader sends along a link to a Columbus Dispatch story headlined, "College athletic departments use vague law to keep public records from being seen," that is an eye-opening look at the big time. The Dispatch made public-records requests for athletic-related documents to all 119 FBS schools and how the schools responded was almost as interesting as what they sent back. Or didn't. From the story – and this is shocking:

In some cases, documents were unobtainable because of substantial fees charged by schools. For example, Maryland wanted $35,330 to produce the same documents that more than half the schools provided free.

If you follow the links on the main page you can find interesting sidebars as well as an interactive piece where you can type in the name of your favorite (or least-favorite) FBS school and see what they shared with the paper. Or didn't share.

Delay of Game

An old photographer friend from the Pacific Northwest is in town during a 48-state tour and I'm showing him around the Upper Valley a little this a.m. I'll have the blog updated this afternoon, so check back.

Former Assistant Lands New Position

Matthew Smiley, special teams coach at Dartmouth for the first two years of Buddy Teevens II, has been hired as special teams coach at Eastern Illinois. Smiley has been at Eureka for the past couple of years, including at stint as interim head coach last fall. He's a former walk-on receiver at Illinois. Find a story on the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier web site.

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer makes quite a few offseason appearances for the Tennessee Titans. He's making another one at a Christian school football camp where the coach thinks he's a fitting guest. From the Tennesseean:

"Cramer is active with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Nashville and will be a great role model for young men," said NCS Coach Charlie Lansdell.

And finally, there are still openings for the June 20th Friends of Football Golf Classic at the Hanover Country Club. From an email sent out by the Friends:

Harpoon has committed to be the beer sponsor again and Big Fatty's barbeque will once again provide excellent food! Call a few teammates and come join us for a great day of fun!

Three green sponsorships remain and they are still looking for raffle prizes and auction gifts such as sports tickets, memorabilia, golf at exclusive clubs and weekends at second homes. For more information, a brochure or information on how to sign up, click here.

Quick Hits

Off to an early morning meeting regarding another assignment that helps pay the bills. More later, but first, a couple of quick notes. ...

No word yet on how it went, but former Dartmouth punter Brian Scullin was supposed to be in Pittsburgh yesterday for a tryout with the Steelers. The 6-foot-4 senior with the big leg averaged a career-best 40.8 yards on 55 punts last fall. He dropped 19 of his kicks inside the 20 and had nine over 50 yards or longer. With good hang time time, he helped Dartmouth lead the nation in net punting.

And in case you were wondering, players are due to report back to Hanover on Tuesday, Aug. 25. Preseason practice is slated to begin on Aug. 26. That leaves 86 days until camp begins.

Feinstein On Ivy 'Arrogance'

John Feinstein comments about the recent Wall Street Journal article headlined "Can the Ivy League Get Its Game Back?" in today's Washington Post:

The most remarkable part of the story was the arrogant and pretentious quotes from various Ivy League administrators. The prevailing sentiment was this: The Ivies aren't doing better because athletics are beneath them. Perhaps the most telling line of all came from Columbia Athletic Director M. Dianne Murphy. Asked why she opposed the Ivies having a conference basketball tournament the way every other Division I conference does, Murphy said: "It's another week of being out of class. In our league, that matters."

First of all, it isn't a week of being out of class. It might be two days if the tournament was held on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Or one day for two teams if it was held on a Saturday-Sunday-Monday. Clearly facts are not required when Ivy League administrators speak.

Then comes the second half of the quote: "In our league, that matters."

Oh, please.

For more, read the story here.

And football doesn't get a free pass as Feinstein writes:

It's even worse in football where the players have no chance to take part in postseason even if they go undefeated. There's no reason for this except for administrators saying, "It's beneath us." You better believe the players wouldn't think it was beneath them.

Green Alert Take: The Wall Street Journal article says that new Ivy League executive director Robin Harris is "planning to go on a listening tour among the schools after she comes aboard in July." She might want to do a little homework and listen to Feinstein before then. The fear, though, is that she'll listen to the Ivy presidents and not the athletes.

Big Surprise – Not

Dartmouth has been picked last in yet another preseason football poll. The Sporting News ranking goes like this:

1. Harvard
2. Penn
3. Yale
4. Brown
5. Princeton
6. Columbia
7. Cornell
8. Dartmouth

Green Alert Take: Given the graduation of record-setting tailback Mike McLeod and standout linebacker Bobby Abare, the coaching change and questions about how the quarterback situation will be resolved with the addition of a high-profile transfer, Yale gets more love in this poll than I would have expected. ... As for Dartmouth, when you are coming off an 0-10 season, you graduate your top rusher, three of your top four receivers and your three top tacklers, you are going to be picked last unless Tim Tebow transfers in with a couple of his buddies. Don't take it personally.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has four "Looking back," columns introduced this way: "Former and current editors, columnists and reporters of The Dartmouth Sports section from the Class of 2009 were asked to reflect on their experience with Dartmouth sports during the last four years." It's sad, but understandable I suppose, that football gets nary a mention. Then again, neither do basketball and baseball.

Speaking of basketball, freshman hoopsters David Rufful and Josh Riddle have a YouTube rap video that as of 8:45 this morning had been viewed more than 107,500 times. From today's Daily Dartmouth:

“The Young Con Anthem” ... was intended to spread the views of the Young Conservatives, a group started by Rufful and Riddle with “a devout mission to spread the love and logic surrounding true conservatism,” according the organization’s web site.

I can't say that the "art form," does much for me (perhaps I'm showing my age) but the production values are suprisingly good and clearly Rufful and Riddle are getting their message out.

And finally, it dropped to 31 degrees overnight and there was frost on the deck when I went out this morning. I'm hopeful the vegetable plants I put out yesterday will be OK. I'm reminded of the year we planted a vegetable garden and had frost both in the first week of June and the last week of August. July was the only month without a frost.

Not surprisingly, at that certain Hanover High junior's final softball game yesterday people were bundled up like you wouldn't believe. It was a reminder of just how silly the visiting team's shorts and sleeveless uniform "tops" are in Northern New England. Ridiculous unis or not, it was another tough day for the home team with that certain junior getting her team's only hit, scoring its only run and reaching base all three times.

On the ride home we spotted a pretty good-sized black bear in the woods alongside a house not far from here. Poor thing must have been wondering if it jumped the gun coming out of hibernation ;-)

Diamond Dust

The Dartmouth baseball team's trip to the NCAA Tournament ended with a thud Saturday as the Big Green dropped a 16-0 decision to Kansas. The Daily Dartmouth has a story and there's another on the Dartmouth sports information website. It's probably precious little consolation to the Big Green that North Carolina, which had to play well to take a hard-fought, 5-2 win over Dartmouth in the opening game, pounded Coastal Carolina yesterday, 15-5.

Green Alert Take: Baseball is a funny game. Things happen that simply don't happen in other sports. A very good Penn State football team is never going to lose a 49-0 game to an average Temple team, but a 100-win New York Yankees Juggernaut can drop a 16-0 game to a last-place team. It happens. Sure, Dartmouth's lopsided loss to the Jayhawks is going to sting for some time, but don't read too much into one game. Dartmouth was a very good team this spring. That's baseball.

Green Alert Take II: If there's something I've come to believe after being around sports for a long time it is that the first time you make it to a championship tournament you really don't know what to expect, which can take a toll. And that if you can make it back again the next year, there's a very good chance things will be different. The Dartmouth baseball team graduates some talented players, but it returns the bulk of its squad next year along with its entire pitching staff. With some solid recruits headed to Hanover, the Big Green will have a good opportunity to make it back to the NCAA's in 2010 and to experience a different result. Nothing's guaranteed because, well, because it's baseball. But it will be fun to watch.

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Hard as it might be to believe, I don't spend much time surfing the net for enjoyment. Nah, most of the time I spend cultivating my severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome is to deliver you the goods on this blog.

So please excuse me for being late to discover the hilarious Club Trillion blog written by Ohio State basketball end-of-bencher, Mark Titus. The counter on his site lists 1,421,464 visitors, which is, oh, slightly more than the number who stop by this electronic neighborhood in an average ... decade. Then again, nothing you'll find here is as funny as Titus' Jan. 14 posting on his unrequited relationship with the ESPN personality he refers to as, "My main squeeze, Erin Andrews-Titus."

For the record, the Club Trillion title is spun out of a basketball line score. In his very first entry, Titus wrote, "...(W)e devised the plan of trying to get the 'trillion' which occurs when we play 1 minute and do absolutely nothing that would appear in the box score, thus making our stat line say 1 minute played followed by a bunch of zeroes."

Root around through Mark's archives. The guy is good.

And finally, that certain Hanover High freshman catcher's final jayvee baseball game was cancelled because of rain this week and the junior catcher's final softball game is today at 5. That pretty much means you'll be stuck reading about my Green Machine Little League team until our season ends in another couple of weeks or so. Did I mention we are 5-2? ;-)