Top 100

Drew Estrada photo courtesy of Dartmouth

Drew Estrada, Dartmouth's standout wide receiver/running back/return specialist is listed at No. 66 in the Draft Scout's FCS Top 100 prospects posted earlier this month. He led Dartmouth with 51 catches  for 827 yards and eight touchdowns last fall, ran for 222 yards and one touchdown on 29 carries, averaged 17.0 yards on punt returns with a long of 87 and was the Big Green's lead kickoff returner with three returns for a 22.3-yard average.

Brown quarterback E.J. Perry is the Ivy League's top prospect per Draft Scout at No. 59. The third Ivy player to make the list is Harvard offensive guard Eric Wilson, who came in at No. 78.

The only other player Dartmouth is scheduled to see this fall who made the list is Towson running back Shane Simpson, listed at No. 40.

While the Ivy League had three players in the Top 100, Villanova had five on its own, matching Montana's total.

Find the full Draft Scout Top 100 HERE.

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The SI AllBengals site proposes linebacker Reggie Williams '76 be one of seven members of the second class inducted into the team’s still-mythical Ring of Honor. (LINK)

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The Patriot League game sending Fordham to Hawaii on Sept. 12 would seem to be a non-starter given the PL's decree about not flying to games and all athletes arriving on campus at the same time as other students. (That would be Aug. 18 at Fordham.)

A story out of Hawaii carried by the Mountain WestWire conference site includes this from Patriot League spokesman Ryan Sakamoto:

"Based upon the language, that game certainly looks like it will be in jeopardy.”

But it also includes this:

“Conversations are still on-going, so I don’t know that there is a definite answer yet. There are discussions (about) whether there is a potential for exceptions. None of those games have been canceled yet. As we move forward, there will probably be some more clarity.” 

Green Alert Take: You can't have it both ways. Or can you?

A story in the Lehigh Valley's Morning Call touches on the Patriot League situation HERE.

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The Ivy League (but not Ivy football) figures prominently in a Bloomberg story headlined, Colleges Weigh Scrapping Football Season in Threat to a Cash Cow. (LINK)

Regarding the decision to call off spring sports, the story says:

The Ivies could afford to act first. For the wealthiest universities, canceling spring sports did not feel like a make-or-break budget decision as it seemed to be for many Division I schools.

Green Alert Take: This feels like a case of non-sports people writing stories for the sports section. Seriously, how many colleges do you think had to be concerned about losing revenue if they shut down last spring? Football or basketball, sure. But spring sports?

Another takeout from the story about the Ivy decision to cancel spring sports:

“The revenue, when it comes, is nice, but it’s not the rationale, the driving force behind the decision," said Robin Harris, the Ivy League executive director since 2009. “It was about the the right thing to do.”

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NCAA president Mark Emmert in The Athletic: “We are likely to have football this fall.”

As for winter sports, which haven't been the subject of much discussion to this point, Emmert had this to say:

“We could begin earlier in November, play some games, maybe even conference games before the Christmas holidays. Basketball’s a much more intimate game (than football) in the sense that you only have 13 scholarship players. If one or two student-athletes come down with it, then you’re probably quarantining a whole team. You may have to say, ‘Look, we’re going to stop playing for two weeks.’ Well, if you started the season earlier and you’ve shortened the number of contests, you could afford to have some disruptions and still get a full season in.”

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Middlebury College has announced it will have a combination of  "in-person, remote and hybrid" classes this fall (LINK) and look for Colgate to give students a choice of returning or studying virtually. Dartmouth is slated to formally announce its plans on Monday, but Provost Joseph Helble tipped the college's hand in his latest weekly online “Community Conversation."

From a summary in The Dartmouth of Helble's remarks (LINK):

• While Dartmouth anticipates that all undergraduates will have the opportunity to spend some part of the upcoming academic year living on campus, Helble said that not all students will be able to do so at the same time. 

• Helble said that the College plans to offer students two residential terms. The Class of 2024 will be treated as a “cohort,” according to Helble, meaning that it will spend the same two terms together on campus. 

• Students will likely be brought back to Dartmouth over a period of several days in order to administer testing for COVID-19, Helble said. 

• For the fall term, which will start on Sept. 14 as originally planned, Helble said that even students on campus will likely participate in some form of remote learning. 

• (All) students will have their own bedrooms, either through a single or a two-room double.  

• Helble said that the College anticipates that “large gatherings, social gatherings and classroom gatherings will simply not be permissible,” and that students will be required to wear masks in common spaces for at least the fall term.   

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EXTRA POINT
For Father's Day, Mrs. BGA surprised me with a free-standing hammock. While I (gently) scolded her for being a little too extravagant, my uneasiness with the gift was tempered by the thought that while the hammock was nominally for me it really was a gift for the home, one that I hope the very-deserving Mrs. BGA will find appealing for Saturday afternoon naps.

Here's a useful tip about hammocks that came with a lightweight backpacking version we have that has to be strung between trees: If you want to sleep in a hammock and not wake up with a sore back, position yourself catty-corner. It's still comfortable and relaxing but you won't be sleeping in a "U" shape.

The view from "our" new hammock isn't hard to take. (Click photo to enlarge.)