Quote from: Ralph Turner on Today at 12:39:40 PM

Quote from: WUPHF on Today at 07:24:44 AMThe Boston Globe has a new blog that is mostly paid, but you can do one Substack for free.  And the story about Brandeis is really interesting.

My favorite line is from the Brandeis president, hearing from others: 'You know what — I know we need to change, but I'm near the end of my tenure, let the next person do it.'"

https://globecollegetown.substack.com/p/arthur-levine-brandeis-liberal-arts

Okay, let the Board by him out of his contract and hire the person who needs to do the job and get on with it.

I mean, to be fair to the president, I don't think it's laziness.

As anyone who has ever worked at a college can tell you, major changes take a lot of time. And every president is going to have different goals and visions for the institution. You don't want to hire a new president and tell them they have to put their initiatives on hold because your resources are pot committed to the stuff the last guy started.

Heck, you may even turn off good possible presidents who say, "I don't agree with this prior president's vision of necessary change, and I'm not starting my tenure trying to deal with it"

I wrote a story for the college news site about the history of the band! It should be live today, and when it is, I'll link here

Quote from: Bartman on Yesterday at 04:34:53 PM

Quote from: IC798891 on Yesterday at 02:19:45 PMAlso, the pep band is returning!

Wait, how do all those classically trained Music majors do the pep band thing? Love it, I hope Alfred brings their Pep Band and you have battling bands at half time. I grew up going to a bunch of Ivy football games and the halftimes were awesome with a themed halftime with both bands,  topics narrated by the announcer, mostly tongue in cheek stuff.....except for Cornell that had a straight up boring marching band. Bring all the bands back!.

The Pep Band is actually open to all students!

Also, there's gonna be a beer garden

Also, the pep band is returning!

Per his LinkedIn he's getting an MBA at Marist, though Brockport offers one as well.

Worth pointing out, re: his production. Sometimes transfers take a bit to get integrated into an offense. To wit, Jamie Donovan's 2004 season at Ithaca.

Week 1 and 2, he had 12 total carries. By Week 6, he was dropping 200 yards on Brockport.

Simmons had 3 touches for 5 yards in Week 1, but those numbers increased to 12 for 62 in Week 2. I would be willing to bet, by season's end, he'll be the feature back and putting up strong numbers.

My mistake with NYU hoops notwithstanding, there's a very common common thread running the six schools that have captured ~30% of the team titles in D3 the past three years.

1) Endowments in the billions. Now, obviously they all have much bigger student bodies than our schools so of course their endowments need to be much bigger. I will make the admittance that perhaps on a per student basis, they aren't as drastically different.

2) They're all within spitting distance of major cities

3) Their academic reputations give them national brand recognition, which massively increases their recruiting base. Coupled with their massive student bodies -- as seen in point 1 -- they're not the colleges at risk of closing/merging with this coming demographic shift. Which also helps prospective students and their parents feel good about the value of that degree.

I don't think it's a coincidence that we're seeing a shift towards these types of schools winning it all more frequently, and being represented in the upper reaches of the Director's Cup. Yeah, you might not see it in football, and sure, it's not a guarantee of anything. But like a lot of things we deal with today, being rich makes life a lot easier

Quote from: Bartman on September 07, 2026, 11:52:05 AMI was looking at the entire history of D3 Championships ...Ithaca , also under a Billion  has a pretty good Championship history.

But things are different now in D3. The best coaches are getting poached to go to higher divisions, and that's causing a ripple effect.

Ithaca's actually a great example of this

Tufts soccer won four NCAA titles with Josh Shapiro. He got hired by Harvard, so Tufts hired Ithaca's Kyle Dezotell, who had just guided Ithaca to a Top 10 ranking and its first NCAA win in 17 years. Dezotell won a title at Tufts in 2025.

NYU men's hoops made the title game in 2025 (I incorrectly credited them with winning it in a previous post) with Dave Klatsky. Klatsky got poached by Florida, so NYU hired Ithaca's Waleed Farid, who had just been named Region Coach of the Year by this very website and guided Ithaca to the second round of the playoffs.

And of course, Ithaca's last two football head coaches were poached by Ivy League institutions.

I think you're going to see this more and more.

Quote from: Bartman on September 07, 2026, 09:32:11 AMPoint taken when measured by Directorship points. But, when you look at actual Championships the Billion+ schools are not as dominant

Incorrect. Based on what I see, D3 awards 28 team titles in D3. So since 2024, that's 84 team titles.

The nine schools listed above with billion dollar endowments represent just 2.1% of the schools in D3, but have won 27 of 84 titles (32.1%) in that span.

EDIT: 26 of 84. I made a mistake with NYU men's hoops

Tufts won men's lacrosse and women's rowing in 2024, rowing, lacrosse, field hockey and men's soccer 2025 and men's lacrosse in rowing more in 2026. (8)

NYU won women's hoops in 2024, men's in 2025 (EDIT, no they didn't, they lost in it), women's XC in 2025, and women's swimming in 2026 (4)

Emory won golf in 2025 and 2026 and men's swimming in 2025 (3)

Chicago won men's tennis in 2024 and 2026, and women's in 2024 (3)

Washington St. Louis won women's soccer in 2024 and 2025, women's outdoor track in 2024, indoor in 2026 and women's tennis is 2025 (5)

MIT won women's indoor and outdoor track in 2025, women's swimming in 2025, and women's XC in 2024. (4)

Quote from: Bartman on September 07, 2026, 09:32:11 AMno D3 Football Championship is held by a Billion+ Endowment schoo

This is what you mean. Schools with billon dollar endowments don't win Stagg Bowls. But they're pretty much dominating D3 athletics

I think the quiet part you don't want to say out loud (But I will) is that for most fans, the sports that "matter" are the Big 4 ones with pro equivalents we grow up watching. (Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey). And so yeah, zero football titles on that list, and just two in the Big 4 sports.

And I'll admit I'm a bigger fan of IC football than any other sport (though I was just talking with our SID about the volleyball team's win over the #3 team in the country last night). But we shouldn't let our personal preferences cloud us from seeing the bigger picture.

Quote from: Bartman on September 06, 2026, 11:50:18 AMIt is interesting that high endowment D3 athletic schools do not seem to prioritize Championship caliber teams.

2026 Director's Cup finishes and endowment sizes

1. Washington St. Louis, $14.5 billion
2. Tufts, $2.8 billion
3. Hopkins, $13 billion
4. Emory, $11.5-$12 billion
5. Williams, $3.9 billion
6. Chicago, $10.9 billion
7. NYU, $7.4 Billion
8. UW Lacrosse $46 million
9. Claremont Mudd Scripps $505 million
10. Amherst $3.9 billion
11. MIT, $27 billion

Only two of the top 11 schools came in under two billion. More than half had ten billion or more.

Quote from: The Third Division on September 06, 2026, 02:20:40 AMHow many more years does Johns Hopkins have to play Ithaca before Johns Hopkins realized they're just the better team?

Ithaca vs Hopkins, scores and end of season rankings (current for now)

2026: #3 Hopkins 30, Unranked Ithaca 21
2025: #3 Hopkins 42, Unranked Ithaca 14
2024: #3 Hopkins 27, Unranked Ithaca 23
2023: #8 Hopkins 27, #18 Ithaca 17

Average score (rounded): 32 to 19

I'm guessing most Top 5-10 teams OOC games are nowhere near this competitive

Union with one of the most inexplicable losses I've seen -- in a game that neither team seemed all that interested in winning.

After a great play gives Union a pick six and a 17-3 lead, they allow a TD to make it 17-10 and the offense stalls, thanks in part to back-to-back false start penalties after getting a 1st and 10 at their own 46.

Susquehanna nearly fumbles away the punt return, then take over on their 9 yard line with less than two minutes to go and no timeouts. With 35 seconds to go, they're still only on their own 35 yard line. But somehow, Union allows a 34 yard TD on what was essentially the last play of regulation.

In OT, Susquehanna gets the benefit of a no-call on a...somewhat dicey after the whistle sorta, kinda, hit while pulling up after an incomplete pass on 2nd down. I could absolutely see the flag being thrown there -- though even the Union announcers said there was no ill intent.

Union lines up for a FG, only to inexplicably get called for a delay of game. Which is just coaching malpractice considering that in OT, your FG team should be ready to go, and you have a timeout to use.

Union instead gets knocked back five yards, the kick is blocked and run back for 6.

Honestly, Union had this thing in the bag and let it slip. 17-3 lead with less than 8 minutes to go. But the offense struggled -- they averaged just 3.1 YPP and had three turnovers. And while the defense was great for 53 minutes, they allowed a ton of chunk plays in the passing game in the last 7.

What could have been a nice statement win for the LL was instead a crusher of a loss.

Ithaca showed some good fight, especially with a couple of defensive RZ stands. The overall offensive number look good, though YMMV on how much you care about the production in the latter stages of a game that was 23-0 with 4:00 to go in the third and 30-7 early in the 4th.

The optimist view would be that Ithaca didn't tuck tail, and kept fighting to make plays for the 60 minutes. The pessimist view would be that Hopkins controlled the game until the outcome was all but decided, and probably just took its foot off the gas a bit early defensively.

All told, 333 total yards, 3 TD/2 INT from Reed, and 6 catches for 102 yards and 2 scores from Nick Lang.

Very interested in Ithaca-Alfred next week

Ithaca, predictably, is down 17-0 at halftime to Hopkins.

Union with something I've never seen before. A delay of game on the opening offensive play of the season. Followed up with a swing pass where the RB falls down for a two-yard loss, an incomplete pass that was initially ruled a lost fumble, and then an interception.

To recap the opening drive: Penalty, negative play, overturned turnover, actual turnover. If I were inclined to be generous, I'd say that at least the pick was essentially a punt. But still.

Susquehanna then drives to the one-foot line and fumbles it away.

Odd start in the capital region

I simply do not get offensive coordinators.

Hobart is up 24-17, 2nd and 6 on their own 48, clock running just under 3 minutes. They have the best RB in the conference, if not the best player in the conference, and they try to get cute and run a reverse, the pitch of which is fumbled. Alfred recovers and returns it to the 28. They were lucky it wasn't taken to the house.

The Saxons drive to the 12 before Hobart's defensive line -- which ate Alfred's line alive all night -- finished the game off.

Like, what are we doing calling trick plays here guys? Give the ball to your workhorse, tell him to pick up six yards on two carries, and bring it home. If he can't, punt away from midfield, and tell your D-line, which had already sacked Parker 5 times, to pin their ears back and get more.

Sometimes I wish teams would lose when they do boneheaded things like that

Hobart looking like they will hang on though, up 24-17 with the ball and less than 4 minutes to go

Also, I stand corrected.

Matthew Parker *is* QB1 at Alfred, and he...kinda shredding them? 21-of-29 for 214 a TD and 0 picks, while adding (I think) 31 yards on three non-sack carries.