Among other things, Barber asked Teevens whether the Ivy League decision surprised him (it didn't), about his players' reaction to the news (disappointed but understanding), whether a possible move to spring is a real option (he hopes so), and how involved the coaches were in the conversation about canceling the fall (essentially not at all).
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WMUR TV out of Manchester, N.H., asks if spring football is a possibility:
Green Alert Take: Time for a little straight talk about the potential for football in the spring. Robin Harris, the Ivy League executive director told ESPN, "The campus policies make it impractical for competition to occur, at least through the end of the fall semester." Those policies mandate that no more than half the students will be on campus at Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton through the end of the school year. If having no more than half of the student body on campus at any time played a role in precluding sports in the fall it would also seem to "make it impractical for competition to occur" in the spring, when only freshman and seniors are slated to be on campus.
Green Alert Take II: Not to be a Donnie Downer, but Dartmouth operates under the quarter system. Spring sport practices begin early in the college's winter quarter and competition actually begins before the start of the spring quarter. To properly prepare for and compete in a spring season generally requires an athlete to be on campus both winter and spring. Dartmouth has said students will have two in-person quarters in 2020-21 and one quarter online. Let's look at the juniors. They are on in the fall, so by rights they would have to choose winter OR spring (or summer) for their only other quarter on campus. If that's the case, they could be around for preseason in the winter or the bulk of the season in the spring, but not both. Ah, but wait a minute. Spring is being reserved for freshmen and seniors, meaning the only openings in the spring would be those created by those seniors and freshmen who opt out.
Green Alert Take III: I may have raised an Ivy Leaguer but I'm most assuredly not one. Maybe I'm missing something or just don't understand. I would assume smarter people than I am have things figured out. It's all very confusing and from this perspective simply fielding a full football team in the spring sure seems to be trying to pound a square peg into a round hole – and that's not even taking into account what is happening with the pandemic.
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The Green Bay Press Gazette has a story behind the paywall built around Dartmouth quarterback Nick Howard under the headline, Former Southwest star on postponement of Ivy League season: ‘It hurts.'
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WCAX sports anchor Mike McCune, a former All-Ivy League offensive lineman at Dartmouth, speaks to the conference calling off fall sports:
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Princeton Tigers Football has an interview with very thoughtful Tigers coach Bob Surace regarding the Ivy League decision canceling football this fall. A of Surace's thoughts:
"Our schools don’t have to make a decision based on TV revenue and other things. We care about our players and are doing what is right, the only thing we had to debate on this."
And . . .
“I haven’t talked to a coach at any level who is not concerned about getting through this season without getting shut down. They all have doubts for their kids and if you have doubts, then you know what the right answer is: Wait until we know we can do this with less risk.
“It stinks. I was in tears today talking to the team. I still break up thinking about it because I know what it means to them. My dad was a coach and so for 50 years I’ve been at football games in the fall as a player, coach, and water boy. It’s being taken away now for the right reasons but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
And this from the column:
In the statement, the Ivy Presidents said only no sports until at least January 1, not a word about hoping to resume thereafter. That’s not necessarily ominous, but Surace says an expression of hope would not have cruel.
“Their language was not a strong as I would have liked,” he said. “Look, right now I realize we’re all just trying to get to tomorrow, but they could have said we will play in the spring if we can do it.
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While Surace and Ivy League coaches are holding out hope that they might have a spring season, a FootballScoop story under the headline Urban Meyer: ‘No chance’ college football moves to spring suggests it's not necessarily a good thing, at least at the FBS level. From the story (LINK):
“When you play 2,000 competitive reps, your body is not ready for contact in three months or two months,” Meyer said in a special edition of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff (via Eleven Warriors). “It’s not. I would not put those players in harm’s way.
“You talk about student-athlete welfare, no chance. You’re not doing that.”
Also from the story:
Pushing the season to the spring, beginning hypothetically in February or March, would be asking players to play anywhere from 24 to 30 games in a 9-ish month period.
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The Big Ten is going to a conference only schedule for all sports this fall, including football. (LINK)
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The California Community College Athletic Association is shifting football and all of its sports to the spring. (LINK)
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The National Junior College Athletic Association Presidential Advisory Council has recommended that a majority of competition move to the spring semester of 2021. (LINK)
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The SI site DawgsDaily has a story under the headline, Anonymous Survey: Georgia Football's Cortez Hankton top rising assistant coaches. (LINK) Hankton, of course, got his start as a college wide receiver coach at Dartmouth.
From the story:
The rules of the survey were that the assistants had to be under the age of 40 unless the coach was either a coordinator or co-coordinator on offense or defense.
And . . .
"A high-ranking NFL staff member was extremely complimentary of Hankton and said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Hankton land an offensive coordinator job in the near future."
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EXTRA POINT
I think I refunded subscriptions to those of you who had already signed up for BGA Premium. If I missed you, drop me and email.
