Ivy Opener: Head(coach)less Big Green fall to Harvard

The Ivy season officially began over the weekend, with Harvard soundly beating Dartmouth 76-47.

That's no surprise, as the Crimson seem to be the only team capable of challenging Cornell for the Ivy League title, while the Big Green have only 3 wins on the season.

But what is shocking is that Dartmouth head coach Terry Dunn resigned the day before the game, making Dartmouth the second Ivy school to change head coaches midway through the season (after Penn, obviously). No interim head coach was named for the game, however, so Dartmouth played the Crimson without an official head coach. A replacement is expected to be announced this week.

Read below the jump for the details about what may (or may not) have brought this about.

Fox Sports writer Jeff Goodman, citing "multiple sources" said that Dunn was forced to resign after players threatened to boycott the Harvard game. He wrote that each player signed a document saying that they would refuse to play under Dunn and the team delivered that to the administration.

However, that claim was dismissed as false by interim athletic director Bob Ceplikas and as "bogus" by senior captain Robby Pride in an article in The Dartmouth.

Dunn was in his sixth season with the Big Green, and had compiled a 47-103 record, including a 3-10 record this year. Interesting to note is that the three assistants who took over in Dunn's absence are all in their first year, as his entire staff resigned this past offseason.