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Three-point threat Brendan Barry, who sat out last season with an injury, listened to the pitch from major conference schools and has opted instead to return to the Dartmouth basketball team as a fifth-year senior. That's a huge "get" for a program that with standouts Chris Knight and Aaryn Rai returning should be in the running for the Ivy League tournament next winter. (LINK)
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You have no doubt read or heard already that the NCAA yesterday made it official. College athletes who missed their spring seasons this year will be allowed to return next fall. (LINK)
As for what that means for the Ivy League, that's yet to be determined. The Athletic's Dana O'Neil, the former ESPN reporter and fellow Penn State journalism grad ;-) offered up these Tweets:
Ivy League, which does not typically allow for fifth-year athletes released a statement: The Ivy League supported the NCAA proposal to provide relief for all student-athletes whose spring seasons were canceled due to COVID-19.
But also this . . .
Worth noting: the Ivy League does not, by rule, allow for grad student-athletes. If you graduate from an Ivy League institution, you cannot compete. So either a bunch of athletes will be withdrawing from school, transferring, or the league has to change its rule.And this . . .
The (Ivy) League is considering the implications of this decision in order to appropriately counsel student-athletes currently evaluating their options.Green Alert Take: A few things to think about. Will this year's Ivy League seniors, who had to be relatively close to graduation to be eligible, be able to take part in fall practices if the Ivies grant another year? What about tennis players, who have both fall and winter seasons? Will they have to sit out their fifth fall? With the spring seasons (and practice) starting during the Dartmouth winter quarter, would Big Green seniors have to be on campus for both winter and spring terms? Again, if they were on track to graduate this spring returning for two terms could be problematic. Lots and lots to think about.
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With Dartmouth's (online) spring classes beginning, college president Phil Hanlon wrote an email yesterday to the school's seniors. (LINK) It included this:"This is your leadership moment. This is the moment you've spent the last three and a half years preparing for. It's one that will require every ounce of creative problem-solving, resilience, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness that we have been working to instill in you."Green Alert Take: President Hanlon actually highlights one of the unintended consequences of the NCAA granting a fifth year to spring seniors. For this year's juniors, next spring is supposed to be their "leadership moment. ... (T)he moment (they would have) spent the (previous) three and a half years preparing for." Of course, a year from now, when this year's juniors are ready to take center stage, the class they've looked up to for the previous three years will still be there. As it has said in this space before, everyone can be a leader but it's hard not to think something will be lost bythis year's juniors.
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EXTRA POINTA peaceful look this morning through the window here at the BGA World Headquarters:
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| Click photo for a better look. |
