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And now back to your regularly scheduled programming . . .
The Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer has an irreverent column headlined, Imagining what a college football season could look like — even in midst of COVID-19 that includes this (LINK):
First we learn there will be no Cornell-Brown game, the Ivy League shutting down all fall sports. And this was going to be Dartmouth’s year.
And this, which is really piling on:
Next we hear that the Big 10 will play conference games only, not especially comforting news for Rutgers.
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The Spun has a Q&A (LINK) with Harvard senior defensive back Jordan Hill, voted the Crimson captain for 2020. As a fifth-year senior at Harvard this fall, he's unsure what to think, saying . . .
They said they’re going to re-analyze the situation in January to see if that’s something we’ll do. But they haven’t made a concrete decision, so it makes it hard to make plans moving forward because I don’t know what this academic year is going to look like and whether or not I can play in the spring. Or maybe I should wait and try and go all out for next fall. I’d say the lack of stability or the fact that they haven’t made a decision has made it difficult for me.
Green Alert Take: To be sure, there are potential fifth-year seniors at Dartmouth like Drew Estrada and DJ Avery who have to be thinking the same thing.
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The Times Leader of Martins Ferry, Ohio, spoke to incoming Brown freshman safety Curtis McGhee III. From the story (LINK) . . .
“We will be taking one class (online) this semester. Then we report Jan. 21 and our freshmen year will continue until Aug. 15. So I will be going four straight semesters before getting a break. I am sticking with my decision to continue my career at Brown,” when asked if he harbored thoughts of going elsewhere. “I think the odds are slim if we play in the spring. I am not sure any college football will be played this year.”
And (italics are mine) . . .
“We had a team Zoom meeting Wednesday after the decision was announced. Coach (head coach James) Perry didn’t give us a lot of information. He said more would be coming in the next few days,” the Maroon Knight star added. “He did tell us to keep any negative stuff off social media.”
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Columnist Dave Hyde in Florida’s Sun Sentinel has a commentary headlined, A college football season on the brink due to COVID-19 — and it’s time to say so that cuts through the fog and asks a common sense question (LINK):
At what point does someone in a position of authority in college football look at the unsteady footing we’re all on with the coronavirus pandemic and say, “Why are we pretending to have the season as scheduled?
And honestly, does this surprise anyone? It shouldn't:
No matter how much good the planning is from coaches and athletic departments, the plan can’t work. It relies on the kids acting properly. We’ve seen how that’s gone in places far beyond the athletic fields these days. Florida International had 12 football players test positive, and were sent into a 48-hour isolation while re-testing was done. Seven of them broke isolation, former trainer Kevin O’Neill said.
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A column in the Nevada Appeal giveth and taketh away (LINK):
The lede:
Leave it to the Ivy League to be the voice of reason in college athletics.
And then this:
Ivy League sports are merely a pleasant diversion, a way to boost the morale of the student body and bring the campus together.
Green Alert Take: Clearly the writer has never been to an Ivy League football game. He missed the mark on the seriousness (and talent) on display on the gridiron just as he misses the mark on the interest of the majority of the student body.
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While most of what is being reported is about college football, the Durango Herald from the Four Corners area reports that New Mexico will not play high school football this fall and is looking at shifting football as well as boys and girls soccer to the spring. In making her decision the governor cited the Ivy League decision to cancel sports this fall. (LINK)
Per the story, New Mexico is still considering whether to move cross country, golf and tennis. Of interest as high schools and colleges think about doubling up sports in the spring:
As a trained journalist I was taught always to keep myself out of stories and I can count on one hand – and have fingers left over – the number of times in my years in the newspaper business I included anything about myself in a story I wrote. But blogging, I came to understand, is different. A little personal touch, the so-called experts say, helps put the blogger (a term I despise), what is written, and how it is presented in context.
The suspension of fall sports to the spring semester will, of course, conflict with the end of winter sports as well as spring sports. Smaller schools that have more athletes playing multiple sports will be disproportionately affected, especially with those who play football or soccer and also participate in baseball, softball or track and field.
The New Mexico governor admitted she doesn’t have authority over college sports but said she will “ask the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University not to participate in contact sports this fall.”
Also per the story, Utah is going ahead with all sports this fall and Colorado is still mulling what it will do.
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The Daily Pennsylvanian has a story under the headline, Penn vows not to cut any varsity sports after multiple peers slash athletics programs; Penn currently sponsors 33 varsity sports, and sources say that will not change anytime soon. (LINK)
The story points out that Penn fields 33 teams while "Brown, Stanford, and Dartmouth had 38, 36, and 35 sports, respectively, before the cuts were announced, whereas the average NCAA Division 1 school has only 19."
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Speaking of Penn, congratulations go out to Quakers sports information director Mike Mahoney and Jenn Novik, who tied the knot yesterday in a ceremony streamed via Zoom. While their reception in Center City Philly was postponed until next year, the pair exchanged vows in a gazebo while their legion of friends around the country looked on. Mahoney is a 1992 Dartmouth graduate and former Big Green sports information assistant.
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EXTRA POINT
As a trained journalist I was taught always to keep myself out of stories and I can count on one hand – and have fingers left over – the number of times in my years in the newspaper business I included anything about myself in a story I wrote. But blogging, I came to understand, is different. A little personal touch, the so-called experts say, helps put the blogger (a term I despise), what is written, and how it is presented in context.All of that is by way of explaining why over the years visitors to this electronic precinct have read about that future Certain Penn State '16 helping his Little League team to a 21-1 record and a few years later helping the PSU golf club team qualify for nationals. I've written about That Certain Dartmouth '14 hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and landing ranger positions at Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, the Everglades and at Glacier Bay National Park. You've read about me missing just one Dartmouth football game as the beat writer covering the Big Green – when Mrs. BGA was being honored by the University of New Hampshire – and you've read about our wonderful golden retrievers.
All of which is the long way around to congratulating That Certain Dartmouth '14 for posting the third-fastest time ever run by a woman in the Silverton (Colorado) Alpine Marathon while finishing second, behind only a professional runner who qualified for the Olympic Trials. TCD '14, pictured wearing a Dartmouth DP2 shirt, was fifth overall among women and men in the trail run that included almost 4,000 feet of climbing and peaked at 12,930 feet.
