Jeff's Last Words... (sort of)
Today's New York Times has a short profile and look back on Jeff Orleans career.
Unfortunately, this is the key paragraph:
"Orleans does not see the league’s model changing anytime soon. He dismissed talk of a conference basketball tournament and said the sacrifices required to upgrade Ivy football were simply not worth it."
Again, I think Orleans has not been a disaster by any stretch. But this reluctance to make any substantive change is disappointing. Contrary to what Orleans says later in the article, such changes would not make the Ivies look like the Big Ten.
And a funny side note: the Times uses the same picture of Orleans with Dianne Murphy that I used in my blog piece about him last week. Apparently pictures of him are harder to come by than I thought.
posted by Jake @ 7:50:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
It was kind of strange that Orleans compared the Ivies to the Big Ten. But better that, I suppose, than the Big East or the ACC. Or even the Patriot League.
Still, no post-season basketball tournament ever? (And getting spring football practice was akin to pulling teeth.) Had we one, the Lions might very well be enroute to the NCAA tournament. There's also no good reason why the Ivy football champion should be barred every year from the FCS series of games. If Fordham or Lehigh can participate, after all....
The Times story seemed approving of Orleans' tenure. Others might less charitably view him as one of those characters in John P. Marquand's novels who outlives his times but hangs around for another 10 or so years anyway. And he looked in the dated picture just like one of those earnest, gentlemanly and bow-tied fuddy-duddies who pop up a few times yearly to beg for PBS.
rs
Orleans obviously is a yes-man to the end. Even walking for the last time through the thick wooden doors that enclose the Ivy inner sanctum--and the Ivy presidents' brains--he had to chant their mantra.
Ivy League sports, as an entity and a brand, are dying along with Orleans' bow tie.
My question is - with a new, more football-friendly executive director, do you think that athletics departments in the Ivy League could push for things like overturning the postseason ban in football, an 11-game season, etc.?
I don't think they'll hire someone that doesn't think along the same lines of school presidents. I think this position is just a mouthpiece for the administrations.
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