Thursday, October 15, 2020

Interesting

Headline in a story in the Manchester Union-Leader: 20 Dartmouth team captains demand reinstatement for sports. The story begins this way (LINK):

Student athletes from 20 sports at Dartmouth College are calling on the administration to reinstate the five varsity teams cut in a cost-saving move.

The captains of teams such as football, men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and women’s ice hockey sent a letter to President Phil Hanlon and Athletic Director Harry Sheehy this week seeking to have men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, men’s and women’s golf teams, and the lightweight rowing team brought back.

After reading that football captains signed the letter I zipped over to the Dartmouth 2020-21 captains page to see what I missed about new captains. Turns out I hadn't missed much.

Per the page, Dartmouth has not announced new football captains. Nor are there women's soccer or ice hockey captains listed.

Also, a clarification. While the Union-Leader story says the move was about cost-saving, the lede to the college's July 9 release announcing it was cutting men's and women's golf, men's and women's swimming and men's lightweight rowing said it was about more than money:

To better balance the makeup of incoming undergraduate classes and help ease a budget deficit made worse by the pandemic, Dartmouth today announced changes to its varsity athletics program. 

The changes, which will eliminate five varsity athletic teams and a number of staff positions, will give Dartmouth more flexibility in admissions, reducing the number of recruited athletes in incoming classes by 10 percent. The move also contributes to the steps Dartmouth is taking to address budget challenges, including a projected $150 million financial deficit brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

SBLive out in Washington recently had another story recently about a Big Green recruit under the headline, In Dartmouth, Kentwood QB Jackson Proctor found a school that checks all the boxes. (LINK)

A North Carolina newspaper has a story about Jennifer King, who spent last year as a quality control coach at Dartmouth and this year is an offensive assistant with the NFL's Washington team. Speaking on a panel at a University of North Carolina at Pembroke event King said (LINK):

“I didn’t really envision doing this, because I didn’t see anyone that looked like me doing it. Now that I’m here, I think it’s super important for me to be a visual for those kids, not just for girls but for kids in general, to see someone that looks like them in a position that they can achieve. I think it really opens up your mind and your dreams for what you want to achieve.”

He surrendered the head coaching position a couple of years ago to become the CEO of Coastal Carolina football, but former Dartmouth defensive assistant Joe Moglia continues to be in the news. USA Today has a story about him headlined, With $1 salary, Joe Moglia may be the biggest bargain in college football. (LINK)

From the story:

Though Moglia handed the day-to-day coaching duties to Jamey Chadwell in 2019 following a seven-year run in which he won 72% of his games, Moglia has retained the title of executive director for football and chair of athletics — a decision-making role for which there’s no real blueprint in all of college football.

It’s also a job he’s essentially doing for free. 

As part of Coastal Carolina’s cutbacks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Moglia agreed to forego his $177,000 annual salary and accept just $1 as a formality, making him arguably the biggest bargain in college athletics. 

Coastal defeated No. 21 Louisiana Lafayette last night, 30-27.

Kevin DeMarrais, Columbia's Sports Information Director from 1965-84 and a member of the school's athletic hall of fame, has selected the school's Top-10 Most Memorable Football Games (other than the 1934 Rose Bowl and the 1947 win over Army). To the chargin of at least one a couple of BGA Daily readers, Dartmouth makes an appearance at the top of the list (LINK):

1. Columbia 31, Dartmouth 29 (November 6, 1971)

The Cardiac Kids gained their fifth nail-bitter win on Paul Kaliades' 34-yard "wounded duck" field goal with 48 seconds remaining.

In yesterday's BGA Daily I suggested Dartmouth and other Ivy League schools might be less likely to gain FBS transfers given adoption of a one-time transfer rule that would allow those players to have immediate eligibility at a new FBS school after transferring. Craig Haley, writing for Athlon, takes a different approach in a story headlined, Coaches believe FBS level would benefit greatly by additional 'free agency.' Craig's story begins this way (LINK):

"Greetings from the farm system."

Montana football coach Bobby Hauck reluctantly uttered those words on Tuesday, one day before a proposed one-time transfer exception was expected to be introduced into the NCAA's 2020–21 legislative cycle during a Division I Council meeting, according to SI.com. 

And this:

There's widespread concern on the FCS level that a one-time transfer rule would lead to underclassmen commonly jumping to FBS programs, much like the spike in recent years of FCS players making graduate transfers to FBS programs for their final season of eligibility. Many FCS coaches believe the graduate transfer rule is a form of free agency that allows FBS programs to benefit from the player development made on the lower half of Division I. 

Green Alert Take: Hauck makes a good point. I'd forgotten that FCS players moving up also had to sit out a year. That will change if the new rules are adopted. Will it effect the Ivy League? Not as much as it would North Dakota State or Montana, but it's something to consider.

From a USA Today story under the headline, NCAA moves forward with historic reforms for athletes on name, image and likeness, as well as transfers (LINK):

Athletes in major college sports this week moved another big step closer to being able sell their own signatures, endorse certain products and even join other football and basketball teams without penalty – a series of freedoms that promises to disrupt the old-fashioned notion of amateurism in college sports. 

Green Alert Take: And, perhaps, the in the Ivy League. 

The story also fleshes out the proposed transfer rule:

The Council also introduced a separate measure that would allow college football, basketball and baseball players to transfer to other colleges one time without onerous restrictions, potentially giving them freedom of movement to go with better access to the free market. . .  .

Recruiting dynamics also would change under proposed legislation allowing athletes to transfer to another school one time without having to sit out a year or seek a special waiver to be able to play immediately. This had been allowed in other NCAA sports besides football, basketball, baseball or men’s ice hockey and now could lead to new lineup fluctuations and increased turnover in these higher-profile sports.

The proposal includes a requirement that the transferring player and the head coach at the player's new team must certify that no tampering took place. If approved, the new transfer rule would be effective for players who seek to be immediately eligible in 2021-22. 

EXTRA POINT 

After we moved off the shoulder of Moose Mountain – the highest point in Hanover – I wondered if I would ever have reason in our new place to run back into the house to find my camera. Once again this morning, as the sky over Mount Moosilauke started to come to life, I realized the answer is a resounding yes ;-)