Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens was interviewed briefly for a piece on WPTZ, the NBC affiliate in Burlington, Vt., HERE that didn't tell you anything you didn't already know. The headline on the station's website basically tells the whole story: Dartmouth Football: Ivy League not ruling out spring football season.
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Speaking of spring football, a writer for the Detroit Free Press offered up a few ideas for the sport at the FBS level that might give the Ivy League office something to think about. This is from the Free Press story (LINK):
Allow FBS teams to schedule home-and-home games with one league opponent and two nonconference games with nearby schools (to minimize travel costs and potential transmission risks). These four exhibitions, that would not count in standings, also would align with the NCAA’s recently changed rules that allows players to participate in four games and retain redshirt eligibility.
And . . .
Tweak the rules and get creative. Have drill work in practice between the two squads for a day beforehand, much like the NFL does during training camp. Play two or three quarters split between the top units. Make a quarter for first-year players. Give coaches flexibility to teach on-field during the game action.
Green Alert Take: Ivy League players already lost 12 days of spring practice and they will be losing both a full preseason and a season. Having them forfeit a full year of eligibility in exchange for a bastardized seven-game conference season in the spring would be unfortunate. The Ivy League might instead build off the ideas offered by the Free Press writer and instead hold an expanded spring practice schedule featuring home-and-home exhibitions against their traditional basketball "travel partner" (in Dartmouth's case against Harvard) and perhaps a wild-card exhibition against the next-nearest Ivy. Then start anew in the 2021 preseason with no one having given up a year of eligibility. Thoughts?
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The lede of the New York Times story featuring quotes from Teevens paints a picture that should have you thinking (LINK):
The idea of playing college sports this fall has felt iffy all along, like assembling a massive and unwieldy Jenga tower of good intentions and questionable hopes.
Now, it is teetering with each bit of news. …
One by one the pieces are removed. The tower sways. When will the whole structure come crashing down?
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Inside Higher Ed has a breakdown of "Athletic Adjustments" across the country HERE.
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The Athletic has a column behind the paywall in which the author offers up this thought (LINK):
"If this (COVID-19) really continues down the path that I think it’s going down, there is a very likely chance that there’s going to be some high-profile kids signing with agents in the next 60 days."
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In other news . . .
The website SwimSwam has a story under the headline, When Dartmouth Swimmers Tried To Sell Their Program On Ebay that is worth a read. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: Worth mentioning is that former Valley News sports editor Don Mahler went to bat for the Dartmouth swimming teams at the time. Given that the VN has disbanded its sports department something similar is unlikely to happen this time around.
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EXTRA POINT
Over the weekend Mrs. BGA and I dipped into our collection of DVR'd movies once again. Because I chose the last one, this time it would be her turn to pick (although I reserved the right to use my one veto). We ended up watching Singing in the Rain.
I don't think I ever watched the whole movie before and, if you promise not to tell anyone, I quite enjoyed it. The scene below was pretty funny and had me thinking two things:
• A dancer like Donald O'Connor might have made a pretty fair cornerback, wide receiver or kick returner. That's great body control and those are some pretty fast feet ;-)
• And if you thought breakdancing was new a few years ago, think again.
