Thursday, October 10, 2024

A Fitting Honor

Buddy Teevens Stadium picture from a Dartmouth handout

Breaking news yesterday:

From the NFF release (LINK):

First presented in 1974, the NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award provides national recognition to those whose efforts to support the NFF and its goals have been local in nature or who have made significant contributions to the game of football either to the manner in which it is played and coached or to the manner in which it is enjoyed by spectators. Teevens becomes the 45th recipient of the award.

And . . .

"Universally loved and admired, Buddy connected with everyone who crossed his path," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. "He mentored thousands of players and assistant coaches during his 44 years on the sidelines, and his passion for the game led him to become an innovator and pioneer in making the game safer for future generations as well as hiring female coaches. Buddy was a great coach but more than that he was just a great guy who wanted to make the game better for all. 

Here are the five most recent recipients of the award, which now has been presented to a Dartmouth person twice in that span:

2024 – Buddy Teevens, Head Football Coach
2023 – Bill Hancock, College Football Playoff Executive Director
2020 – Don McPherson, Hall of Fame QB & Advocate for Prevention of Gender-Based Violence
2018 – Murry Bowden, Atlanta Hall Management Chairman
2016 – Grant Teaff, AFCA Executive Director & Coach

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For a project when I was an undergrad I wrote a computer program for baseball statistics I called the REA, short for Runs Efficiency Average. I might have been a little ahead of the curve when it came to analytics, but I've slid way, way back and have no idea what half of the acronyms in sports mean these days. SI has a piece about something calll Success Rate in football and lists the three top Ivy League teams at this juncture in the category for offense, and the top three for defense (LINK):

Offensive Success Rate:
1. Columbia (46.04%)
2. Penn (44.44%)
3. Yale (43.37%)

Defensive Success Rate:
1. Dartmouth (66.92%)
2. Harvard (64.26%)
3. Princeton (58.21%)

Curious what that means? I had to look elsewhere for this definition of Success Rate (LINK):

A simple way of determining whether a play was successful or not, based on the percentage of yards to go gained. A play is deemed “successful” when:

• At least 50% of the yards-to-go are earned on 1st down (i.e. 5 yds. on 1st-and-10)
• At least 70% of the yards-to-go are earned on 2nd down (i.e. 7 yds. on 2nd-and-10, or 5 yds. on 2nd-and-6)
• 100% of the yards-to-go are earned on 3rd and 4th down (i.e. you get a first down)
• A Touchdown would also be considered a successful play, no matter the yards-to-go

I would presume defensive success rate is when your opponent fails to meet those objectives. ;-)

Green Alert Take: I think I'll stick with Points For and Points Against.

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It used to be each February on this site there would be pictures of high school seniors "signing" to play football at Dartmouth. While their scholarship-bound classmates were signing actual "Letters of Intent," future Ivy Leaguers were signing something non-binding, because the Ivy did not use or recognize the LOI (also called the NLI).

Now no one will will be signing those things because the National Letter of Intent is no longer. From an ESPN story headlined NCAA approves elimination of national letter of intent program (LINK):

The NLI will be replaced by a new financial aid agreement that will provide many of the same core functions as the NLI and will likely be tied to a contract related to an impending revenue-sharing model across college athletics.

Under the new rules, transfer athletes will be allowed to sign with a new school after they've formally entered the portal. Per the NCAA, once a prospect has signed a written offer of athletic aid, other schools will be "prohibited from recruiting communications."

And . . .

The elimination of the NLI program arrives little more than a year after the Collegiate Commissioners Association, which oversees the NLI program, approved policy changes that allowed athletes to pull out of NLI agreements without penalty under certain circumstances. Those changes -- related to coaching changes and requests for release -- went into effect for the 2023-24 signing periods for athletes who enrolled during the 2024-25 academic year. 

Green Alert Take: What impact will all that have on the Ivy League? Probably very little but stay tuned.

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Today's Sign of the Apocalypse comes out of the California high school football ranks. From a story headlined Group of high school coaches come together to boycott league opponent after "decades" of concerns (LINK):

The coaches, who are members of the 5-team Marine League, came out with a joint statement late last month where they represented their respective programs at the four other members of the league - San Pedro, Gardena, Carson and Banning high schools. ...

They allege that Narbonne has had over 20 transfers since last season, and that financial incentives that are in the "tens of thousands of dollars" and housing arrangements are among the inducements being provided.

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EXTRA POINT
The so-called experts were suggesting a few weeks ago that we were in store for a pretty good foliage season this year but it hasn't really panned out. The usual reds have not shown out this fall. Still the view out the BGA World Headquarters office window this morning was pretty eye-catching. And yes, our grass is still that bright green.

Click photo for a better look. ;-)

Interestingly, the TV news out of Burlington, Vt.,  last night had a story about several villages south of here closing certain roads that in recent years had been overrun by leaf peepers from away. There are plenty of locations in our little town where the views are just as beautiful . . . but I'm not about to share them with the camera-carrying pensioners on tour buses crisscrossing the state these days. ;-)

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