Regardless, it's got to be fun to see your name listed on someone's projected NFL draft board and two Ivy Leaguers show up on one posted last week.
Matt Miller of Bleacher Report has Dartmouth corner Isiah Swann going to the Miami Dolphins late in the seventh and final round, and Princeton quarterback Kevin Davidson going four picks later to the Denver Broncos.
Per Miller Swann would be the 251st pick (a compensatory selection) and Davidson at 255, another compensatory choice. Rhode Island receiver Aaron Parker would earn the distinction of being the final pick, going to the New York Giants at 256.
Find the full mock draft HERE.
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In the dog days between the end of the football season and the start of spring ball Yale has found a different way to "release" its schedule. (Are schedules penned up before they are released?)
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ESPN has an interesting story under the headline, Is the Ivy League transfer policy helping players or hurting them? While it is centered around basketball it relates to football as well. Find the story HERE.A little background. . . .
Ivy League athletes, even those who missed a season because of injury, are not permitted to finish their careers at their undergrad schools as graduate students. Their options are either to drop out of school for a semester (or term) and petition to return for a fifth-year, or do a grad transfer elsewhere. From the story:
More than a dozen Ivy League basketball players have graduated and transferred to another school since 2015, including several who have played at the high-major level. This spring, however, the trend will hit a new peak. At least seven players -- including four who are actively playing this season -- will be compelled by Ivy rules to head elsewhere for their final seasons.Also from the story:
Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said she is unmoved by a call to examine the ethics of the rule, and disputes how it might impact quality of play.
"What's the problem with it?" she said. "We're still continuing to thrive as a league. ... I think we have to have an issue to fix."Green Alert Take: Ouch.
More from the story (italics are mine):
"It's a philosophical approach that we do what's right for college athletics and what's right for student-athletes, as well," Harris added. "We have other rules that maybe put us at a disadvantage competitively, and yet we continue to have about 100 ranked teams a year, continue to do well in NCAA tournaments, win national championships. ... We haven't really talked about it, because it's one of the philosophical underpinnings of the league."Interestingly, Brown basketball coach Mike Martin and Penn coach Steve Donahue are quoted in the story talking about players who hoped to finish their careers where they started but who were left to look elsewhere because of the Ivy League's outdated rule.
The Ivy League basketball message board has a thread about the grad transfer situation and the story HERE.
Green Alert Take: This has been mentioned in this space before but nothing illustrates the flawed logic of the Ivy League rule better than the story of the Cornell football player who was so efficient in his studies that he graduated early and then was banned by the Ivy League from playing his final year as a grad student at Cornell. In effect, the Ivy League was requiring him to pull the reins in on his education if he wanted to play another year of football at Cornell.
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Email has brought a bunch of notes regarding the recent Dartmouth Alumni Magazine story about That Certain Dartmouth '14-turned-educational ranger in the National Park System. For those of you who are curious and haven't seen the story or aren't alumni, you can find it HERE.
