100 Days

A couple of quick notes with exactly 100 days to go until Dartmouth football tees it up at Valparaiso in its Sept. 18 opener.

First, BGA's annual look at the incoming freshman class – featuring comments from coach Buddy Teevens – will be posted on BGA Premium on Monday, June 14. The post will be freely available to everyone.

Second, signup for the 2021 BGA Premium service will begin on Tuesday, July 6. On that morning information about how to subscribe to the Premium service will appear both here and on the BGA site. (LINK)

Daily BGA Premium postings will start on Aug. 10 with the debut of the opponent preview series followed by in-person coverage of all preseason practices. As has been the case every season since 2005, there will be at least one professionally written, newspaper-length story on the site seven days a week through Nov. 22.

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The first official Dartmouth gametime of the fall has been announced. Per the Union Leader, the Big Green’s Oct. 16 game at New Hampshire will kick off at 1 p.m.

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Atlanta Business Chronicle has a story about a clothing business that is one of the first in the country set to pay college athletes for endorsements. From the story (LINK):

A (Georgia) alum and diehard Bulldogs fan, (TJ) Callaway is now poised to connect with college athletes in a way he couldn’t have fathomed a decade ago: paying them to endorse his products. Onward Reserve will offer a handful of standout UGA athletes after midnight on July 1 — the date Georgia law says athletes can officially cash in on their name, image and likeness.

And . . .

Callaway will send opportunities next month to UGA athletes: track and field star Matthew Boling, quarterback Brock Vandagriff, placekicker Jack Podlesney, golfer Trent Phillips and baseball player Connor Tate.

Onward Reserve is slated to be the first Georgia-based business to sign college athletes to endorsement deals. But, the floodgates may be ready to open. Restaurant owners could partner with the college athlete who love their food. Car dealerships can make a fan-favorite college athlete their spokesperson.

And businesses that broker these relationships between brands and athletes are popping up.

Green Alert Take: Curious about how the "non-scholarship" Ivy League is going to handle Name, Image and Likeness? Me too.

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I hadn't seen this video in years and stumbled across it yesterday. Promise me, please, that you will watch it. You'll be glad you did. No, the Wearers of the Green was not a Ken Burns film, but it has that feel, right down to the pitch-perfect narration by former Dartmouth Athletic Director Seaver Peters. 

And though I've seen this many times and know it's coming, I still laugh at how Gerry Ashworth – 1964 Olympic gold medal sprinter, and onetime 60-yard dash world record holder – describes his feelings about Dartmouth. 

Now carve out the time and watch this:

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EXTRA POINT

You know that old story about the Golden Gate Bridge and how just when they finish painting it they have to start over again? It turns out that's not exactly true but I can relate.

We have a little over six acres of land here at our Vermont hillside home and apart from the footprint of the house and the driveway, most of it needs to be mowed. A good portion out front is field, and after being charged an exorbitant amount to have a local octogenarian brush hog it our first year year I wasn't ready to pay that again. Not when he was able to finish the work in less than three hours. So I hopped on our electric lawn tractor last fall and cut it down over the course of a long week.

I promised myself I wouldn't let the field grow up that long again this year and with too much time on my hands because of the pandemic I've been keeping it in check this spring.

But here's the thing. While the electric tractor is wonderful, it can mow just about 1.5 acres of the deep, thick stuff before it needs to be charged again, which takes overnight. Do the math. By the time I finish the field, then charge the tractor, then mow the lawn, then charge the tractor, then trim around all the fir trees, apple trees and various plantings and charge the tractor again, it's just about time to start back on the field again.

Like the Golden Gate story, it's not quite a finish-and-then-start again deal. But it is another reminder that the return of spring doesn't come without a pricetag. One way or another

The BGA World Headquarters "front forty"