By now you've probably seen this release, or at least heard that the Ivy League is canceling the winter sports season. The Ivy League release also confirms what pretty much everyone believed: There will not be football in the spring.
Here's the full release from the Ivy Office:
IVY LEAGUE OUTLINES INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS PLANS; NO COMPETITION FOR WINTER SPORTS
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Consistent with its commitment to safeguard the health and well-being of student athletes, the greater campus community and general public, the Ivy League Council of Presidents has decided that league schools will not conduct intercollegiate athletics competition in winter sports during the 2020-21 season. In addition, the Ivy League will not conduct competition for fall sports during the upcoming spring semester. Lastly, intercollegiate athletics competition for spring sports is postponed through at least the end of February 2021.
The unanimous decisions by the Ivy League Council of Presidents follow extended consideration of options and strategies to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, an analysis of current increasing rates of COVID-19 – locally, regionally and nationally – and the resulting need to continue the campus policies related to travel, group size and visitors to campus that safeguard the campus and community.
Athletics training opportunities and practices for enrolled student-athletes will be permitted, provided they are structured in accordance with each institution’s procedures and applicable state and local regulations. This approach is consistent with the phased approach implemented by the Ivy League for all sports in the fall 2020 term.
The Council will continue to closely monitor and evaluate the public health climate and consider changes to policies when warranted in order to return to more normal campus operations, including potential spring intercollegiate athletics competition.
Winter and fall sport student-athletes will not lose a season of Ivy League or NCAA eligibility, whether or not they enroll. Students who wish to pursue competition during a fifth-year of undergraduate education at their home institution, if permitted, or as a graduate student elsewhere will need to work with their institutions in accordance with campus policy to determine their options beyond their current anticipated graduation date.
The Ivy League Council of Presidents offered the following joint statement:
Throughout the last nine months, we have asked our campus communities to make extraordinary adjustments in order to do our part in combating the global pandemic and to safeguard the health and well-being of our students, faculty members, staff and the communities in which they live and work.
Regrettably, the current trends regarding transmission of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent protocols that must be put in place are impeding our strong desire to return to intercollegiate athletics competition in a safe manner.
Student-athletes, their families and coaches are again being asked to make enormous sacrifices for the good of public health — and we do not make this decision lightly. While these decisions come with great disappointment and frustration, our commitment to the safety and lasting health of our student-athletes and wider communities must remain our highest priority.
We look forward to the day when intercollegiate athletics — which are such an important part of the fabric of our campus communities — will safely return in a manner and format we all know and appreciate.
Ivy League Council of Presidents
Christina Paxson, Brown University
Lee Bollinger, Columbia University
Martha Pollack, Cornell University
Philip Hanlon, Dartmouth College
Lawrence Bacow, Harvard University
Amy Gutmann, University of Pennsylvania
Christopher Eisgruber, Princeton University
Peter Salovey, Yale University
Green Alert Take: If you read the news or watch TV it's clear the Ivy League is doing the right thing. Allowing winter and fall athletes the option to "pursue competition during a fifth-year of undergraduate education at their home institution," is the right thing as well, although leaving it up to the individual schools to determine whether that will be allowed is problematic at best. It will surely result in unintended consequences regarding recruiting and rosters for at least the next four years.
Green Alert Take II: I remember when the Ivy League called off its basketball tournaments last winter the message board posters speculating that football could be in jeopardy and naïvely thinking they were getting out in front of their skis. Now I find myself wondering, should the vaccine not help get control of the pandemic, if the 2021 season might be in trouble.
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The Dartmouth writes about the Ivy League decision but unfortunately does not include reactions from any athletes or coaches. (LINK)
The local Valley News has a similar generic story. (LINK)
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This Week's Woods Watch Party will feature the 2011 Dartmouth football game against Cornell with running back Nick Schwieger '12, linebacker Bronson Green '14 and receiver Bo Patterson '15 commenting on the action.
Editor's Note: BGA Premium covered the game and while the hope is that once again this space can reprise the game preview and game story that's unlikely because the BGA archives date back only to 2012. I'll be digging through a few old CDs and will try to bring an older MacBook hard drive to life in an attempt to dig up the missing story but I'm not optimistic.
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The Valley News has a story under the headline, College’s Dartmouth Hall to get $42 million renovation that includes this (LINK):
Dartmouth’s trustees have approved a $42 million spending plan to gut and rebuild the interior of the building, which is a locus of the college’s humanities program and in which nearly all Dartmouth students have attended classes.
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Headline on an InDepthNH story: NH Joins 6 States in Suspending Interstate Youth Hockey Competitions. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: About time.
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EXTRA POINT
I've been reading a book titled, The Stranger In the Woods; The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit. You may remember the story of Christopher Knight, who disappeared in 1986 and spent the next 27 years holed up in the woods of Maine, leaving his hidden encampment only in the dark of night to break into summer cabins and an overnight camp less than a mile from his hideout to steal provisions he needed to survive. After finally being caught in 2013 he told authorities he spoke with another person just once in his almost three decades in the woods, burglarizing on average 40 cabins a year, some many times over.
While I've joked about wanting to head off somewhere far from the headlines of the day, Knight is someone who actually did it. He was completely out of touch.
Or was he?
Curious to learn a little more, I dug up a 23-minute video documentary about the "Last True Hermit," that, like the book, tells us Knight pilfered radios from the camps and even a small television that he used for a short time. Said a state trooper interviewed for the film: "He even knew who the Kardashians were."
Now that, my friends, is truly a Sign of the Apocalypse.
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Sunset out our kitchen window a couple of nights ago – and the colors are accurate:
