D1.ticker's Athletic Director U. is compiling a conference-by-conference series of rankings on the appeal of athletic director positions within conferences. The latest to go under the microscope is the Ivy League, which is of particular interest in these parts as Dartmouth looks for a permanent replacement for Harry Sheehy, who stepped down last month. The Athletic Director U study is introduced this way (LINK):
Dozens of sitting Athletic Directors or executive-level administrators who currently are or could soon be an Ivy League AD were invited to share feedback on each AD job in the league. The data was used to provide detailed insights about the potential for success at each school.
Variables used for the rankings include comparative facilities, potential for donor/corporate sponsorship, institutional leadership, the school's "brand," comparative potential for success in football, men's basketball and non-revenue sports, the potential for an AD to move up to the Power 5 and the quality of life.
The Athletic Director U email teaser summarized the findings in the charts reproduced below succinctly:
Particularly interesting right now with both Penn & Dartmouth permanent AD chairs open. Survey results showed a clear overall divide between the top four jobs - Princeton, Harvard, Yale & Penn - and the other four - Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia & Brown.
Here are the charts:
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EXTRA POINT
Mrs. BGA has a gentle 10-minute drive between our Vermont hillside and the little bus that runs her down I-91 to Hanover each day. Her trip to the park & ride where she catches the bus requires her to travel just one-quarter of a mile on our dirt road, which has full sun most of the day, dries out amazingly early in mud season, and as I write this looks nothing like the picture above. The rest of her drive is on blacktop.
I wish I were heading into Hanover each day for spring football or for freelance work, but until the pandemic releases it grip on the world my only commute is on the dirt road to the trail where I try to hike every day. It's two miles of narrow, heavily shadowed, hilly and curving road that last week made the picture look tame. No blacktop at all.
The road to the trail was greasy but not a problem yesterday. But with no way of knowing if another day approaching 60 degrees was going to turn it back into a quagmire we made an executive decision this morning. Mrs. BGA would take my little Honda Fit to the bus and I would take her all-wheel drive to the trail.
It might be overkill but the memory of having our car – an all-wheel drive SUV – pulled out of the goo and towed home after sinking up to its frame on our old road on Moose Mountain remains. There are a lot of joys that come with living in rural Northern New England. Mud season is not one of them.
