Killing theThe NCAA may ban all-star football games – like the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl between graduated seniors from Vermont and New Hampshire – from being played on college campuses. The reason? The Southeastern Conference's unhappiness with seven-on-seven football events hosted on Division I campuses.
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The local paper quotes the SEC:
"Rather than to continue to support the further proliferation of these non-scholastic events, it is now appropriate to enact a ban on institutional involvement in any way with nonscholastic football events. This proposal enacts such a ban, while still permitting regular- and postseason scholastic events to be played on campus as permitted under NCAA rules."The bottom line is that the Shrine Game, which raises money to care for burned and crippled children, will not be allowed to return to Dartmouth's Memorial Field this August without an exemption. That despite the fact that it has been played at Dartmouth for most of the past 50 years. Likewise, a new all-star game benefitting the Childrens Hospital at Dartmouth slated to debut at the University of New Hampshire in June is in jeopardy.
To credit of the Ivy League and Patriot League, schools in the two conferences have joined together to push for an override vote that would allow events like the Shrine game to be played in FCS facilities. It is the third different appeal to get the NCAA to see the difference between a longstanding, charity event at this level and seven-on-seven recruiting ploys at the college game's highest level.
Hopefully the NCAA will recognize the difference before it is too late.
