From a New York Times story about the Ivy League heading to the FCS playoffs next year (LINK):
“I think it’s long overdue,” said Sian Beilock, the president of Dartmouth College. “I was struck by how football is the only sport that didn’t have access to a postseason playoff.”
And . . .
Ivy League schools also have been forced to reconsider the place of athletics at their institutions because college athletics overall have been transforming into more of a professional enterprise.
The league’s best men’s basketball players are doing what was once unthinkable: transferring to other schools, giving up an Ivy League education in exchange for six-figure paydays from the booster-run collectives that the Ivies have eschewed. In March, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize, a move that was granted by the National Labor Relations Board that the school is contesting.
“The reason change is happening is there’s so much change around,” said Jackson Proctor, a quarterback at Dartmouth who is a member of the conference’s student-athlete advisory committee. “People in the higher positions realize it’s probably time to change with what’s going on in the world today.”
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Dartmouth defensive lineman Josiah Green is headed to Duke as a grad transfer. Find a press release announcing his signing HERE.
A Duke Wire posting notes that Green is following a well-worn path (LINK):
Green won’t be the first Ivy Leaguer to join Duke through the transfer portal. Just this past season, former Princeton linebacker Ozzie Nicholas led the Blue Devils with 89 total tackles. The program also brought in Harvard grads Scott Elliott and Anthony Nelson ahead of the 2023 season, and both of them started six games that year.
Former Dartmouth linebacker Joe Heffernan was also on the 2023 Duke roster, as were Penn grad Ben Hoitink and Brown grad Hayes Sutton.
Thank you for everything @DartmouthFTBL !
— JOSIAH GREEN (@thejgreenery) December 18, 2024
Time for the Next Chapter! 🔵 @DukeFOOTBALL @GinfanteMT @reevesg55 @farrellportal pic.twitter.com/4Oaxv5FC7h
And more from the transfer world . . .
In addition to Green and Jackson Proctor, who will play next year at Northern Illinois, offensive lineman Hayden Bozich of Brown is headed to UConn, OL Mike Entwistle of Harvard is going to UMass and defensive tackle Alvin Gulley of Yale is on his way to join Proctor at NIU. Expect more FBS signings and a slew of former Ivy Leaguers finding new homes at the FCS level.
Green Alert Take: Is it time for the Ivy League to consider allowing its grads to finish their careers as graduate students at their own schools?
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Former Dartmouth defensive lineman Ejeke Adele, fresh from winning the Bushnell Cup and earning an offer to grad transfer to Rice, has been named a third-team All-American by Stats Perform, the bible of the FCS. Find a Dartmouth story HERE.
Adele is joined on the third team by Penn running back Malachi Hosley, Harvard wide receiver Cooper Barkate and Columbia defensive back Hayden McDonald. Find all three All-America teams in the Stats Perform story HERE.
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When New Hampshire announced its 2025 schedule yesterday we learned the Wildcats will play their annual FBS game at Ball State one week before their opener at Dartmouth on Sept. 20.
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EXTRA POINT
A few years ago my sister gave us Christmas window candles that work on AA batteries, and turn on and off automagically. I'm not going to say those things are among the greatest inventions known to mankind, but anyone who every had to wrangle up enough extension cords and then wander the house turning the old-style candles on and off has to know they are in the ballpark. ;-)
