They Will Love This In Philly

From a CNN reporter:

In the interest of accuracy, a story in the Daily Pennsylvanian (LINK) offers this more accurate representation of what he said:

"I never really did the big time college football. I went to an Ivy League school, it wasn't really quite the same [as LSU or Alabama]," said Trump.

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By now you know the Big Ten and Pac-12 have called off their football (and all sports) seasons. (LINK)

There's a threat of a little internecine conflict in the Big Ten with Nebraska making noises about playing independently this year. Per Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, who spent a year as a basketball player at Penn, the Cornhuskers are playing with fire. From a Yahoo story (LINK):

When Warren was asked specifically by Yahoo Sports if Nebraska could play college football this fall, he gave an answer that would make his hardline predecessor nod with approval.

“No,” he said, firmly. “Not and be a member of the Big Ten Conference.”

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The Big XII says it is going to play this year while other conferences and independents are still deciding how to proceed (LINK). 

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The natural question for the conferences who are sitting idle this fall is the same as it is for the Ivy League, the rest of the FCS and all the rest of the schools that have called off football this fall: What about playing in the spring? The Associated Press has a story under the headline, Spring college football: When? How much? Who plays? From that story (LINK):

Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said before a spring football season is planned, there has to be a discussion about fall 2021.

“I think the two have to be tied together. In my mind, we’ve made the decision and we’ve canceled the 2020 season,” Chryst said. “Now how do we want to do 2021?”

And this:

Former NCAA executive and college football player Mark Lewis said playing two full seasons or even close to that should be a nonstarter. 

“If you look back to the last 20 years of of college football, there’s been a de-emphasis of spring activity, spring practice, the number of days you can practice, the number of days you can practice with pads, the number of contact practices you can have. All those have been reduced with purpose,” Lewis said. 

“What are you gaining by playing in spring if you’re trying to add more games? I don’t think that’s necessarily a good idea.”

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While colleges try to decide how to proceed the Vermont Principals' Association has made drastic changes to how football will be played at the high school level in the Green Mountain State. From the Burlington Free Press (LINK):

Football programs will be allowed to hold low-contact practices and plans are in the works to hold a 7-on-7 touch football season instead of the traditional offering.

And . . .

"A lot of it comes down to blocking and players being really close to each other — respiratory droplets on each other, breathing on each other, when a player is tackled there is a whole group of people together," (Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA) said. "It became very clear that football is problematic." 

Green Alert Take: Touch football? For the second time today, nuff said.

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Former Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey gets a mention as a strong practice squad candidate in a story posted on something called the Riot Report, which covers the Carolina Panthers. The story is headlined, Not Only A Group Of 53”: Why The Practice Squad Matters In Carolina. From the story (LINK):

With some uncertainty over Russel Okung’s status, the Panthers would be wise to carry another offensive tackle on the practice squad in addition to the four on the active roster – while I wouldn’t count Monteiro out of that discussion,  Kaskey is the more interesting option, having spent much of the 2019 season on their practice squad after going undrafted out of Dartmouth before getting promoted to the active roster late in 2019.

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EXTRA POINT

We have friends who soon after they bought a lake house put little labels on all of the cabinets and doors as a reminder of where to find what. We thought it hilarious.

I thought about that last night as I went to turn off the ceiling fan in our living room and instead turned off the lights. There are no fewer than six switches in the same location for the fan, various lights and assorted outlets. We've been in this house for more than a year and not only do I still mix up those switches from time to time, but despite plugging things into the outlets and throwing switches to see if they come on I haven't yet figured out what a couple of switches are for.

It's the same in our guest room where there's a mystery switch.

It gets even crazier in our mud room and another area just inside it that we call "the stupid room." (Apologies to the architect who designed a very nice house, but it's wasted space.) Anyway, each of those two rooms has a three-switch panel that controls the same three lights. But the order is different in each one. We've tried to figure out the thought process for why this switch turns on that light in the mud room, but the same switch in the same position in the stupid room turns on a different light, but haven't yet been able to solve the puzzle. If we could figure that out we might actually turn on the intended light on the first try.

Bottom line is it's a very nice house in a wonderful little town with breathtaking views, but it could use a few labels (and you can stop laughing now).