Thursday, March 29, 2018

A Little Of This, A Little Of That


During an appearance on the Franklin & House show on our local ESPN Radio station Dartmouth athletic director Harry Sheehy was asked whether there was a chance that Ivy League football teams might be allowed to do what EVERY Ivy sport in the NCAAs except football can do, and that is participate in playoffs. What follows is an edited versions of three questions he was asked and a verbatim transcript of his answers.

Is the ball slowly moving forward toward Ivy participation in the playoffs?
Sheehy: I actually don’t see it moving rapidly, that’s for sure. . . . I don’t think there’s the drive in the presidents' room at this point to move this forward. We move very slowly as a league and obviously the presidents run our league. I just don’t see the appetite for this right now, to be honest. We’ve talked with some of our players here and they put proposals forward but there just doesn’t seem to be the appetite for this, at this time.

Would you agree tnot sending your representative to the NCAAs hurts the Ivy League product?
Sheehy: Sure. If we end up going to the playoffs and our teams make a good showing, that’s a positive for our league.

Are the presidents making a statement by refusing to allow football to go on?
Sheehy: What you are basically saying is that this is a philosophical decision and I think you are right. I think that that’s where the presidents lie in terms of the philosophy of our athletic programs and the athletic programs' tale not wagging the dog. I think to get it through you're going to have to fight the philosophy of not going. You mentioned before some presidents actually enjoy the fact that we don’t go and I think that’s true. I think … some of our presidents enjoy the differentiation between our league and the rest of the country.
Dartmouth defensive end Nick Tomkins in an NFL Draft Diamonds interview posted HERE:
Q: What was your biggest adversity and how did you overcome it
A: My biggest adversity football-wise was going to 15 different camps before my senior year of high school and not receiving one offer to any of the schools. It ended up being a positive because I didn’t end up going to Dartmouth’s camp, and they were the only school that did offer me.


Is it true a former Dartmouth football player is running a Clown For Congress campaign? Yup.

Steve Lough '87 played only freshman football but made his mark as a professional clown for Ringling Brothers. Now he's running for the Democratic nomination in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District.

CNN is one of many outlets carrying the story (LINK). Lough's website is clownforcongress.
Now it's off to Floren Varsity House for the Dartmouth Pro Day. Check back tomorrow for photos.