Today: Where the Big Green has ranked in passing yards per completion, completion percentage, third- and fourth-down efficiency, red zone efficiency, time of possession, sacks allowed and fumbles lost:
(Click chart to enlarge.)
•
USA Today has a story under the headline, College football coaches face own risks from COVID-19 as they balance needs of their teams. The story notes that in the 130-team FBS there are 18 year coaches who are 60 or older and a total of 38 who are 55 or older. (LINK)
The Ivy League skews older. While just 13.8 percent of coaches in the FBS are at least 60 in the Ivies it is 30 percent. (Columbia's Al Bagnoli is 67 while Buddy Teevens and Harvard's Tim Murphy are 63.)
In the FBS 29 percent of coaches are at least 55 but in the Ivies it is 40 percent with Penn's Ray Priore at 57. Princeton's Bob Surace is 52.
•
In addition to James Madison, Elon is considering playing an independent schedule after the CAA announced it would not have league play this fall. The Daily News-Record has worked up a potential schedule for JMU which would have it playing Elon twice. (LINK)
•
Should have mentioned this last week but the Rose Parade has been canceled (LINK).
•
Dartmouth gets a mention in a Wall Street Journal story headlined With Budgets Under Pressure, Colleges Cut Country-Club Staples Like Golf and Tennis. The drop-head for the story: Sports lose varsity status in wake of Covid-19 cash crunch; schools rethink optics of costly, overwhelmingly white teams (LINK).
The Los Angeles Times editorial board chimed in with an editorial headlined Leveling the playing field in college admissions by trimming the sports lineup. From that story (LINK):
By May 30, close to 100 sports programs had been cut by U.S. colleges. And that was before Dartmouth College eliminated five, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth cut eight, and Brown and Stanford universities terminated 11 each.
And . . .
The schools involved cite various reasons, often blaming financial problems caused by the pandemic. But no matter what the impetus, the result will almost certainly be good news for the fairness of college admissions: Fewer spots will go toward side-door acceptances of student athletes, many of them privileged, and more will be available for Black and Latino applicants who haven’t attended private schools or couldn’t afford the cost to play.
By way of contrast, Newsweek has an opinion piece headlined Universities Should Not Sacrifice Athletics Due to Tight Budgets that mentions both Dartmouth and Brown as well as Stanford. (LINK)
•
EXTRA POINT
It's my version of the Charlie Brown football kicking story. Every year I buy a basket of hanging flowers hoping it is going to result in waterfalls of color flowing over the sides of the container. Every year my basket of flowers turns into a dried up, withered mess by mid-July, regardless of how diligently I water it and what secret culled from Google I try.
I've actually had a little more success this year but I'm concerned given that Accuweather is predicting the temperature will hit 89 degrees today at the BGA World Headquarters and the flowers don't seem to fare well in excessive heat. We hit the 90-degree mark for the fourth time this month yesterday when the temperature topped out at 93 degrees and twice already I've taken the flowers down and put them on the covered porch to get them out of the sun.
Today? For the second day in a row I'm not just taking them down, but I'm bringing them into the house, lest they roast. Here is a look at the flowers this morning as I give them a little sunlight before moving them indoors. Keep your fingers crossed!
