A FRONT ROW VIEW: Athletic Dept. fails to phone home Bagnoli

Picture yourself as the manager of a baseball team in the seventh game of the World Series. Your starting pitcher has given you eight strong innings and your team is ahead, 1-0. Unfortunately, your starter is now dead tired and in order to finish the game and win it all, you confidently stride out to the mound to call for your ace reliever, he of the 97-mile per hour fastball. But just as you're about to make the call to the bullpen, the umpire calmly informs you that you can't call for a reliever because they are all attending mandatory orientation sessions. While both the sports and the situation may not be identical, the consequence is similar for coach Al Bagnoli and the rest of the Penn football team as the Quakers begin their 1993 season. They won't have much relief in Saturday's season-opener against Dartmouth. And its all thanks to a catastrophic blunder by the Penn Athletic Department, they of the experts in communication skills. In case you don't know, freshmen are eligible to play varsity football this season. And also in case you don't know, a new Ivy League rule states that freshmen can't compete in any sport when mandatory orientation sessions conflict with any scheduled on-field activity. The new policy, which was agreed upon in the spring by all eight Ivy schools (remember this point), states that when one school's orientation conflicts with a scheduled sporting event, a concerted effort should be made by both schools involved to reschedule the event. If a new date cannot be found, then both school's freshmen are not able to participate in the event. What a stupid rule which Penn shouldn't have agreed to in the first place. Nonetheless, all eight Ivy schools – including Penn – agreed to this policy in the spring. And since football schedules along with school calendars are set at least two years in advance, both Dartmouth and Penn officials knew there would be a conflict with Saturday's game. But they still agreed to the policy nonetheless. Dartmouth assumed that this meant that it was understood that Penn's freshmen would also not play. Penn – well let's just say Penn officials for some reason failed to mention to Bagnoli until two weeks ago that about 35 of his players would not be eligible to play on Saturday. Let's go through the events once again, to see who is at fault here. Penn athletic officials agree to a policy that they know will prohibit Quaker freshmen from playing against the three-time defending Ivy champs. This happens in April. Bagnoli, who is in charge of the Penn football program, is not told this minute detail until a couple of weeks ago. Then, Penn athletic officials attempt to appeal the ruling that they themselves agreed to five months ago. Sounds like Penn officials really have their act in order, doesn't it? "We could have handled the situation better. We could have told Al sooner," said Senior Assistant Athletic Director Carolyn Schlie-Femovich, making a late run for Understatement of the Year. I guess you could say that. I'm sure it would have been nice if the coach of the football team had more advance notice that he would be without the services of about one-quarter of his team. I could just see if the Penn Athletic Department were a bunch of lawyers. "Sorry, sir, we forgot to mention that we settled out of court on your divorce suit. Your wife gets everything, is that okay? And also, it's due in full by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. Sorry we didn't tell you earlier, we forgot. "But we could have handled the situation better. We could have told you sooner." Makes you want to go right out and put the department on retainer, doesn't it? Bagnoli has said that he probably would have played 10-12 freshmen, mostly on special teams, and that their loss for one week hurts the depth of the team. This means that although no freshmen are penciled into the starting lineup, the Quakers will be at a loss for replacements when starters get tired, hurt or don't perform up to par. So if you see the Quakers a little understaffed this weekend, you can thank the Penn Athletic Department in all of its glory. Seems as if when AD Paul Rubincam announced in July that he would be stepping down from his current position to become the new Director of Special Gifts, the rest of his staff got caught up in the hubbub, wondering what special gifts they could get, and forgot to take that long walk up one flight of stairs to simply whisper "Hey Al, no freshmen against Dartmouth." Now, thanks to the Athletic Department's stumbling and bumbling with this situation, the Penn community will be forced to wait two weeks to see the first-ever freshman play varsity football on Franklin Field. Until then, Bagnoli and the rest of his staff will be forced to stay in the dugout looking at that depleted bullpen. Dan Feldman is a College senior from Dallas, Texas, and Sports Editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian.