". . . shared an idea that might preserve college football and basketball but could drastically impact other sports. Under his proposal — a loose proposition that he acknowledged was hardly a crystalized model — schools might have 100 or so scholarships to offer both men and women who compete in “spectator sports,” those that generally bring in the most revenue."Of particular interest from the story:
Athletes who compete in what Beebe called “participatory sports” would instead operate under a system that more closely resembles Ivy League athletics. Financial aid would be need-based, coaches would not necessarily be full-time or solely focused on sport, recruiting would be limited and travel much more local or regional.Two thoughts.
First, if Beebe's views are being conveyed accurately, could it possibly be that he thinks coaches of "participatory sports" in the Ivy League aren't necessarily full-time or "solely focused on sport?"
Second, if the rest of the NCAA ever moved to this model the Ivy League's competitive profile would rise dramatically in many of these sports
Oh, and a third thought. It's not going to happen.
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John McPhee, one of the best one of the best nonfiction writers of our time, has a story called Phi Beta Football in the Sept. 8 issue of The New Yorker (LINK). A Princetonian through and through and still a professor at his Alma Mater, McPhee is also the author of A Sense of Where You Are about Bill Bradley, the Princeton basketball great.
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Say what you will about the US News & World Report College Rankings, no other rankings generate quite as much buzz. There was concern about how Dartmouth would fare after what has been a tumultuous year. As it turns out, the college dropped just one place, a statistically insignificant change except for one thing that allowed Bloomberg to write this true but misleading headline: Princeton Leads U.S. News List as Dartmouth Drops From Top 10 (LINK)Green Alert Take: If Dartmouth had gone from No. 9 to No. 10, or from No. 10 to No. 11 it wouldn't have been news. In fact, if it had gone from No. 11 to No. 19 it wouldn't have made a headline.
In case you are wondering, here's the US News Top 10 with Ivies added:
1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. Columbia
5. Stanford
6. Chicago
7. MIT
8. Duke
No. Penn
10. Cal Tech
11. Dartmouth
15. Cornell
16. Brown
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In a similar vein, a certain loyal reader from away sent along a link to College Factual's ranking done by a "partner of USA Today College."Those rankings (LINK):
1. Penn
2. Yale
3. Duke
4. Harvard
5. MIT
6. Brown
7. Stanford
8. Princeton
9. Dartmouth
10. Notre Dame
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Originally scheduled for this afternoon, Dartmouth football practice has been moved to the morning. Check BGA Premium tonight for full coverage.Yesterday's story began with a look at wide receiver Kirby Schoenthaler, fully healed from offseason surgery and eager to make the most of his senior year. As the story notes, Schoenthaler flashed his impressive speed this summer . . . running with the bulls in Pamplona.
One more thing. If you've taken out a subscription to BGA, make sure to fill out the form on the sign-up page to pick a Username and Password. (LINK) If you don't do that soon you may never catch up on your reading ;-)
