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Perhaps the headline in the Philly.com blog Soft Pretzel Logic was a little exuberant (Ivy League strikes major national television deal with NBC Sports Network) but it's true that the Ivy League has renewed the contract that puts conference football games on an NBC network. The Ivy League's formal release notes that the conference and the network have reached . . .. . . a two-year renewal of their national television rights agreement today that includes an increase in football games, and the first-ever rights for the NBC Sports Network to televise men's basketball and men's lacrosse games.According to the release, there will be a minimum of six and no more than 10 football games (including Yale-Harvard) broadcast along with the same range of men's basketball games and up to four men's lacrosse games.
Games will be carried on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), nee Versus and formerly Outdoor Life Network.
(Unfortunately NBCSN requires an upgrade of our satellite package and that's not in the cards here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain.)
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The Boston Herald High School Insider sports blog has a note about Patrick Lahey being voted a Dartmouth football tricaptain along with Bronson Green and Garrett Waggoner. From the story:Lahey missed last season as he had two hip surgeries to repair torn labrums. Through hard work, Lahey has returned to his pre-injury standards in the weight room, bench pressing 405 pounds and squatting 600.It's likely that when a lot of people in these parts hear the name Patrick Lahey they think of this fellow, although I can state with near 100 percent certainty the second guy can't bench 405.
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In a Slate.com article in advance of author Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights) arguing tonight that college football should be banned, he is quoted saying:My father went to Dartmouth, back when the Ivy League played really good football. We went to a lot of games. I remember, one weekend, we actually saw three. We went up to Cambridge to see Dartmouth-Harvard, and then came back to LaGuardia. Ate at LaGuardia. Went to the Jets game that night. Then, the next day, we went to the Sunday Giants game.Several thoughts after reading the Slate piece. First, I didn't know his father was a Dartmouth alum.
Second, Bissinger writes that football is "antithetical to the academic experience." The italics are mine because that one word will resonate in a bad way with followers of Dartmouth football.
Another thought. It would appear that Bissinger is ready to blame college football for everything including the common cold.
Slate: You’ve written that “the overemphasis on sports is a leading cause of America losing its competitive edge.” Is the problem that serious?
Bissinger: Absolutely. Football creates what William G. Bowen, the former president of Princeton, called a dangerous “athletic culture.” There have even been studies showing that, when the football team is good, the average student GPA goes down, because there’s more partying. And I think football is one of the biggest reasons for our decline because it’s become such a massive part of our education system.So, America is losing its competitive edge because of college football?
A final thought. It might behoove Bissinger, a Penn grad, not to paint everyone, every team and every conference with one brush.
