From a player parent:
My question is really what does it matter? Scholarships are great but in reality are the Ivies somewhat like that way with financial aid, etc.?. I think developing “local” rivalries makes sense. Dartmouth versus UNH, etc. Look at high school. Big schools play little schools and the results vary. I liken that to scholarship vs. non-scholarship. We are not talking about scheduling Penn State for goodness sake.
What really bothers me is no 11th game and no FCS playoffs. That is absolutely ridiculous and terrible. Maybe, just maybe, I get the no playoffs because of exams, but there is no reason not to start the season one week earlier. What Dartmouth softball did was awesome. Why shouldn’t football get a chance to play the Arizona equivalent, say Eastern Washington in a first round game? Yale hockey must have played 6 playoff games few years back, Harvard beat Cincinnati in basketball. Ivy League football with its great coaches and teams would shine brightly on the playoff stage.
From a player from the '60s:
It seems to me that expansion is the only route that makes sense. The Ivy League started as a football league and in my opinion, it is time to increase the size of the Ivy Football League. There are currently 8 teams, ergo 7 league games. If you invite 2 schools to join you would have 9 league games and leave room for one non-league game (or add 3 teams and go to an 11-game schedule).
Back to expansion, the obvious candidates are Colgate, Bucknell, and Lafayette (if the schedule is expanded to 11 games to make possible Lehigh-Lafayette). Holy Cross and Georgetown also deserve consideration, but the religious affiliation and the latter’s basketball situation are problematic.
My recommendation is to invite Colgate and Bucknell. Even if their athletic people are not on board, I doubt if their administrations could resist an invitation to join “the Ivy League.” n fact, I think that the same would be true in Easton, Pa., if the schedule was expanded to 11 games to preserve Lehigh-Lafayette.
I am ambivalent about the playoffs even though it makes no sense for Ivy teams not to participate. The only caveat is that this is based on the assumption that not participating is becoming a serious recruiting drawback.From a Dartmouth fan:
It is unfair to have a team playing their first game versus an opponent that is on game four. The discrimination that the Ivy Presidents have administered on football for 6 decades is well documented. My suggestion is to start the season earlier and have a mid-season off week for the entire league as the (Division III) Centennial Conference does. This allows the players to have a long weekend off to heal the bumps and bruises off the season and time to catch up on academics.
Do you hear me Presidents? Academics.
I would also consider opening with an Ivy League game so the teams are on equal preparation. Games with the Patriot League must continue. Dartmouth games with Sacred Heart and Central Connecticut are meaningless to me and many others. Lastly New Hampshire should be on the schedule at least once every four years, and Holy Cross every year.
Lastly since they are great academic institutions why not Army, Navy and Air Force on occasion, like this years Army-Yale game?Green Alert Take: Some interesting ideas, to be sure. Regarding inviting other schools into the Ivy League, the eight Ivies have a unique brand and I seriously doubt they would be willing to invite anyone else into their ultra-exclusive club, thereby watering down the "brand." Would they bring them in as "associate" members? Perhaps, but I'm not sure the chosen two (or three) would agree to anything less than full membership. Interesting idea, though.
Regarding opening against a conference opponent, on the surface that makes sense. It's why the Ivy League did just that for many years. But here's something to consider. Since official conference play began in 1956 only two times has a team with two Ivy League losses won a share of the title. Should you open against a league foe and lose your first game of the year (and half the teams would if they are conference games) your back would be against the wall one week into the season. You've lifted weights all winter, gone through rigorous conditioning and spring ball and trained all summer and after one solitary Saturday you are staring at elimination. Frankly, I think after nine months of hard work the players deserve to enjoy the excitement of finally playing a couple of games before half of them see their title hopes put on life support.
Green Alert Take II: Would opening against a league opponent actually help the out-of-league results? Joe Yukica was Dartmouth's coach from 1978-86, winning three Ivy League titles. The Big Green opened against either Penn or Princeton every year of his tenure before playing the next two or three games out-of-league. Yukica's Ivy League record, even after finishing with three down years, was a healthy 36-24-3. His non-league record was a sickly 0-23-1. Granted, Dartmouth played New Hampshire, a scholarship Holy Cross team on an historic run, Army and Navy during those years, but 0-23-1 is 0-23-1. (The tie, by the way, was against UNH.)
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Princeton has announced that the finale against Dartmouth will be broadcast on ESPN3. That's great if your cable or satellite provider entitles you to pick up the online station. Ours doesn't. ESPN tells those of us whose provider is too cheap to provide ESPN3 access to change providers. No can do, ESPN. We only have one option here. When you tell ESPN that they suggest pressuring your provider to offer access. Well hello. Our provider knows we don't have any other option so who do you think is holding the hammer?
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Local high school coaching legend Mike Stone, who stepped down after 28 years as head coach at Hartford (Vt.) High School, has been added to the staff at Norwich University. Stoney guided the Hurricanes to 10 state titles and 13 trips to the championship game and once ran up a 27-game winning streak. One of the good guys, he coached Joey McIntyre, Dartmouth's director of football operations, as a high schooler.
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The great Thomas Magnum used to say it all the time. "I know what you are thinking." Well, I know what you are going to be thinking when you read what's coming next. "The guy is nuts." Well, I'm not.
It snowed here between 9 and 10 last night. That's right. I said it.Teeny, tiny fast-moving flakes, but snow. For about 20 minutes or so. When it was 55-degrees out.
Yeah, I know what you are thinking.
I first saw it when I brought Griff the Wonder Pup out for his night-time constitutional. I literally rubbed my eyes, looked again, decided I was crazy and went back inside. Five minutes later I went out again and saw the same thing. I went out one more time with a dark piece of cardboard for the flakes to land on. Unfortunately, they melted on contact. I tried taking a picture, but that idea was as stupid as it sounds.
Pretty sure I was nuts, I went inside and woke up That Certain Nittany Lion and dragged him outside. Yup, he said, it's snowing, and then he went back to sleep.
This morning I asked him whether I made it all up. No, he said, it was snow.
I Googled around and found out that, in fact, it can snow when the temperature is in the 50s. Usually at altitude. And no, it wasn't hail.
I know what you are thinking . . . and I don't blame you.
