Given the official announcement yesterday that there would be no Ivy League play this spring – with at best an outside chance at local, non-conference competition – the Ancient Eight is closing in on a full year without a single athletic event.
As a BGA Daily reader so aptly put it, "Football, you are now on the clock."
•
The Washington Post has a story HERE and The New York Times writes about the decision to shut down athletics for the rest of the year under the headline, Ivy League Cancels Spring Sports Despite Pleas From Athletes. The story begins this way (LINK):
Ivy League university presidents, who had previously canceled football and basketball seasons, all but ensured that no sports will be played this academic year when they voted Thursday not to allow league competition this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ivy League leaders did leave open the possibility that some teams could play sports like baseball, softball, track and field, and lacrosse against nearby colleges if public health conditions improved. But that would require drastic changes at colleges in communities that range from large cities, like Columbia and Pennsylvania, to more remote areas, like Dartmouth and Cornell.
More from the story:
The Ivy League is the only Division I conference that will not try to play baseball this season.
“For a league that prides itself in being the leaders of creating opportunities for students, we have had ours ripped away,” Ryan Marra, a sophomore first baseman at Brown, wrote on Twitter.
He added: “We have been constantly tested, monitored, and have followed all the protocols we were told would get us a season. Numbers needed to go down, and they have. We needed to stay healthy, and we have. The reality of it is this decision was made a long time ago.”
So was it? Made long ago, I mean.
From a story in the Yale Daily News (LINK):
When asked for a timeline of when the decision was made and what prompted the Council of Presidents to decide to cancel the spring sports season, (Matt Panto, the conference's associate executive director of strategic communications and external relations) said that the Ivy League does not comment on Council discussions and referred the News to the joint statement that was released with the announcement.
Green Alert Take: Thanks for clearing that up.
•
A story in The Dartmouth about the decision on spring sports includes this curious Catch-22 about what will happen if there are even a few non-conference competitions this spring. Italics are mine (LINK):
The Ivy League will issue a blanket spring sport non-participation waiver, granting spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility. Even if scaled-back local competition occurs, the waiver will stand. The NCAA, however, has not issued such a waiver, meaning that Ivy League athletes who compete this season would not automatically be given an extra year of eligibility at non-Ivy League institutions. The Ivy League is working with the NCAA to achieve an exemption for Ivy League athletes with the understanding that if there is any competition this spring, it will be significantly limited.
•
Back to football. Could Dartmouth be tackling in practice on occasion this fall? (If there's football, that is . . .)
A story in The Exponent, a Purdue University publication, hints it is possible. From the story headlined, Purdue professor making waves in concussion research (LINK):
(Professor Eric) Nauman is working with Dartmouth College’s football team to study the forces exerted when players are tackled, a departure from previous studies that have examined the acceleration of players into contact.
Dartmouth’s football team typically runs no-tackle practices, but is making an exception for Nauman’s research and allowing some time for contact. Because of the cancellation of the Ivy League’s season, though, field testing will not take place until fall of 2021.
Green Alert Take: Got 10 seconds? I'm going to go out on a limb and say the answer as to whether the author of the story got the tackling piece right can be found in this very brief but also very memorable clip from the classic movie Cool Hand Luke.
•
Regarding the now-you-see-em, no-you-don't, now-you-see-'em five Big Green sports, Dartmouth quotes junior tight end Joe Kramer and sophomore longsnapper Josh Greene in a story headlined, Athletes react to reinstatement following threatened Title IX litigation. (LINK)
•
From a story in the Everett (Mass.) Independent about 1904 Dartmouth grad Matthew Bullock (LINK):
An outstanding student, Matthew entered Dartmouth College in 1900. The young man arrived at Hanover, NH, carrying only one suitcase but with $50 given to him by his hard-working father, an amount equal to $1,428.57 in today’s dollars. While the relationship between Dartmouth and Matthew may have been originally based on his status as a star athlete, he quickly showed his diversity academically as a member of Paleopitas, the senior honors society, athletically in track where he specialized in broad jump and high jump for four years, in football where he was one of the college’s top football players for three years and musically, singing in the Church and Chapel Choirs and several glee clubs. According to one article from the Worcester Telegram, “he was blessed with a marvelous baritone singing voice…and sang professionally as a Dartmouth student and after he graduated.”
BGA Daily referenced Bullock's story as part of Dartmouth's Black History Month celebration HERE.
•
Graduated Dartmouth snapper Grant Jaffe follows up his interview with onetime teammate Niko Lalos with a couple more videos, including this one where Micah Croom (USC) and Charles Mack (Sacred Heart) discuss moving on from the Big Green as grad transfers:
 |
| A younger Griff with his then-favorite toy. If you'd like to buy him a little kibble, click on that donate button up there on the right. |
