Big Day In Big Green Land

Here is today's schedule:

Penn at Harvard, Noon

Yale at Princeton, Noon

Brown at Columbia, Noon

Cornell at Dartmouth, 1 p.m.

New Hampshire at Bryant, Noon

Central Connecticut at Duquesne, 1 p.m.

Fordham at Georgetown, 1 p.m.

For fans at today's game, it's pretty simple. The score to watch is Penn at Harvard. Should the Crimson win, both Dartmouth and Cornell will be eliminated from the Ivy League race.

If Penn beats Harvard, the winner of Dartmouth-Cornell will still have a shot. The loser will be eliminated.

With four teams still alive at the start of the day, here's a reminder of how the standings look through eight weeks, keeping mind there's still a chance for a four-way tie:

Green Alert Take: Even should Harvard win today, the Ivy League's decision to allow its teams to play in the postseason adds meaning to today's game at Buddy Teevens Stadium. With a win over Cornell, Dartmouth would remain in the conversation for an at-large bid to the tournament.

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The Cornell Sun has a look at today's game HERE.

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BGA Overtime has a preview story headlined Surging Cornell Will Challenge Big Green HERE.

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It is Senior Day in Hanover and Dartmouth is celebrating the Class of 2026:

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Centennial Celebration

It was 100 years ago this fall that Dartmouth won the college football National Championship. Here's how one expert ranked the teams:

1925 Top-10

1) Dartmouth 8-0

2) Michigan 7-1

3) Alabama 10-0

4) Pittsburgh 8-1

5) West Virginia 8-1

6) Washington 10-1-1

7) Stanford 7-2

8) Tulane 9-0-1

9) Wisconsin 6-1-1

10) Washington & Jefferson 6-2-1

From a retrospective look at the 1925 season that included these rankings (LINK):

Dartmouth was widely regarded as the mythical national champion (MNC) at the time, and if there had been an AP poll in 1925, Dartmouth would have finished ranked #1 by a landslide vote.

While there are surely those today who would debate the Big Green being crowned national champions – we are looking at you, Tuscaloosa – as David Shribman wrote in Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (LINK):

No one would have questioned the primacy of a Dartmouth team that won by an average score of 43-4; a team so dominant that, as the season progressed, it often would decline to accept rivals’ penalties; and a team that prompted the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg, the Chicago coach who invented the quick kick, the lateral pass, and the quarterback-keeper play, to call it the greatest team he ever saw. And no one would have minimized the offensive power and defensive discipline of a team journalist Damon Runyon said was “champion of the world.”

To celebrate the centennial of Dartmouth's national championship football team, the college has produced T-shirts available for purchase:

Click HERE for ordering information.

 Find a story on the Dartmouth athletic communications site HERE.

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And finally, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005, the Dartmouth women's soccer team pushed No. 5 Arkansas to the limit only to fall, 1-0, on a goal in the 60th minute. Find a story HERE.

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EXTRA POINT

I almost always bring the same thing for a pick-me-up on my daily hike. Of course, it's not quite what it used to be, although the wrapper clearly hasn't changed.

Countdown To Cornell

Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle looks back at Princeton and ahead to Cornell in this quick video posted by the athletic communications office:

Coach McCorkle breaks down the matchup against a surging Cornell squad and what Senior Day means to this team.💚 #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/U5Vo0WzW44

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) November 13, 2025

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The Dartmouth has a story headlined Football hopes to keep momentum alive against red-hot Cornell University this Saturday that includes this from running back DJ Crowther (LINK):

“It’s definitely personal. We didn’t forget what happened last year, that long bus ride home, so we’re definitely gonna have that in the back of our minds, preparing each day this week … We just have to go out there and get that W.” 

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As it turns out, there will be a little extra motivation on the other side of the field as well. From a story out of Ithaca about a 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive end (LINK):

Maxwell Van Fleet will have 35 friends, family members and former coaches watching him play at Dartmouth this Saturday. The defensive tackle from Concord, New Hampshire, will be playing an hour from home, in front of everyone who watched him grow up.

There's just one problem: Dartmouth never recruited him. 

"I didn't get recruited by Dartmouth," Van Fleet said. "Not that I would have wanted to go there, but it's a little chip on my shoulder. I'm a hometown kid, and I'm gonna show up there, I'm gonna smack some heads and wear that chip on my shoulder."

Van Fleet, who played two seasons at Concord High School before finishing up at St. Paul's, has 26 tackles this fall with two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

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FanDuel has Dartmouth as a 10½ -point favorite over Cornell. In other Ivy League games:

• Harvard is favored by 23½ points at home over Penn.

• Yale is a 10½ -point favorite at Princeton.

• Brown is a 3½ -point favorite at Columbia.

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Pro Football Focus lists its highest-graded FCS teams after Week 11 in various categories and Dartmouth makes the top-10 cut in one. Here are the Ivy teams that appear in the rankings (LINK):

Tackling

1. Harvard – 92.7

2. Penn – 91.9

3. Presbyterian – 91.7

4. Bryant – 91.5

5. Dartmouth – 90.8

6. Cal Poly – 90.6

t7. South Dakota – 90.2

t7. Lamar – 90.2

9. Dayton – 90.1

10. William & Mary – 90.0

Offense

6. Harvard – 85.7

Passing

3. Harvard – 91.9

Pass-Blocking

6. Penn – 82.5

Run-Blocking

1. Yale – 76.4

8. Princeton – 67.9

Defense

5. Harvard – 94.0

Coverage

t1. Harvard – 93.3

Special Teams

t5. Yale – 90.0 

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A reminder that the BGA Overtime preview of Dartmouth-Cornell will go up tonight, and the game story will be posted tomorrow night.

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EXTRA POINT

This is the fifth football season since we moved to our Vermont hillside home, and in all the hundreds of drives I've made down I-91 to Hanover to cover practice or games, I never had never run into a traffic jam until yesterday afternoon.

For at least three or four miles the traffic never completely stopped, but it was "slow-and-go." I had a pretty good idea where the holdup was, but was floored when I got closer and saw the reason for the backup.

For the past several years there has been “rockfall remediation” taking place at a cliff on the west side of the highway. They actually had a detour off the highway for much of the summer of 2024 and again for a bit this summer. One lane of the highway has been closed for much of the past couple of years as the work continued.

Yesterday they brought in the heavy artillery and the backup was entirely because of lookie-loos checking out how wire mesh was being installed on the rock face. At least the slowdown gave me time to document what was happening:

If you look closely, you an see workers hanging off the rock wall.

Thursday Notes

 Cornell's game notes for Saturday's finale at Buddy Teevens Stadium have been posted HERE.

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The latest from FCS Football Central on SI regarding Ivy League prospects for the playoffs (LINK):

Ivy League

Locks: None

Should Be In: Harvard

Harvard moves into the "Should Be In" tier after moving to 8-0 and have beaten every team by 17 points or more. The Crimson still needs to take care of business against Penn and Yale to secure the auto bid, but if they finish 10-0, they should earn a Top 8 seed. Even at 9-1, the Crimson would be in position to get an at-large bid. 

Work To Do: Dartmouth, Yale

Yale stayed in the auto bid race with only one conference loss, and they have yet to play Harvard. The Bulldogs have played well, winning four straight games, but need to win out to secure the automatic bid. At this point, Dartmouth faces a challenging path forward and would need some assistance to stay on the bubble. An 8-2 Dartmouth would have a solid shot at getting an at-large spot due to non-conference wins over New Hampshire and potential NEC champion Central Connecticut State.

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From a HERO Sports piece headlined Week 12 Games To Watch Impacting FCS Playoff Seeds And Bubble (LINK): 

Ivy

Penn at No. 7/11 Harvard

At 8-0, Harvard could put itself in the Top 8 seed conversation if it beats Penn and Yale. It does not have any ranked wins, though.

Yale at Princeton

Yale is 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Ivy League play. If the Bulldogs beat Princeton and then upset Harvard, they would earn the auto-bid, and the Ivy League’s chance of getting two teams in would go up.

Cornell at Dartmouth

Dartmouth is 6-2 overall with a then-ranked win over New Hampshire, who could be on the playoff bubble. If it beats Cornell and Brown, an eight-win Dartmouth team would be considered by the committee.

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The Manchester Union Leader spends most of its weekend advance on New Hampshire but does have a little about Dartmouth in a capsule that includes this (LINK):

For Dartmouth, there’s a (slim) chance

Entering its final home game of the season on Saturday, Dartmouth is still in the conversation for the Ivy League title and an FCS playoff berth — albeit on the outskirts. 

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Dartmouth PR pulled this together:

Locked down. Williams and Keith lead the Ivy in picks.🔒🌲#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/CoRQDJXJCP

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) November 12, 2025

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And finally, the design for Floren Varsity House was impacted by the narrow footprint between the Memorial Field track and the baseball field. I offered up this potential renovation once before and thought to toss my idea out again. Keeping in mind that I'm clearly not an architect nor, as the attempts below show, a graphic designer, here's my concept to give the building more room:

Click graphic for a better look.

The idea is to expand the first floor of the building out to the edge of the track and raise the stands onto the roof of the expansion. That  would dramatically increase the space in the building, making room for an actual hallway along the length of the facility and perhaps allowing the weight room to be moved from the second floor down to the first – with glass windows and doors looking onto the field. 

The concept

Players, trainers and equipment staff could access the field directly rather than having to walk around to the sides or back of the building, or as the trainers sometimes do, without climbing up and over the railing at the front of the stands.

Fans would be the same distance from the field as they are now, but with an angle down to the field that many might prefer. Is a renovation like that possible? I don't know but it was fun to imagine.

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EXTRA POINT

Earlier this week a friend sent an AI-generated recap of his local high school's tremendous success on the football field in recent years. Per the report the school won its second state title in a row last year and their fourth in seven seasons. 

For the record, the school hasn't fielded a football team since World War II.

Obviously, you have to be very careful with AI. Trust but verify. Or maybe, not quite trust and verify.

That said, AI can still be helpful. Mrs. BGA and I have been watching the Jack Ryan TV series from a few years ago and given the number of characters and the story rapidly jumping from scene to scene – sometimes seemingly randomly – it can be more than a bit confusing. That being the case, I asked ChatGPT a couple of days ago to summarize the episodes to date and provide bios of important characters, all without any spoilers. It offered up easy-to-follow outlines of each episode that helped with our enjoyment of the series.

In The News

Town Topics, "Princeton's Weekly Community Newspaper Since 1946," does a solid job covering football and was able to catch up to coach Bob Surace for a few thoughts out of Saturday's 20-17 loss at Dartmouth. Among other things, Surace told the outlet (LINK):

"We only punted once all game. All of the things that you need to do to beat Dartmouth we did other than the two turnovers, and we weren’t great in the red zone.”

And . . .

“We have had some commonalities in our different games that we have lost; we have to be better in situational football. Dartmouth fumbled a couple of times and we weren’t able to get on them. Losing the turnover battle creates more challenges. Statistically you could go to the Harvard-Dartmouth game and our game, and when you look at yards and everything, there is not a whole lot of difference. Harvard won by 21 (31-10 on November 1) and we lost by three, the difference was situational football and the turnovers. We have a lot of youth playing and we are just making a few mistakes on all three sides of the ball. In the one-score games, they haunt you.” 

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A column on the Analyst site headlined No Smooth Sailing: Scenarios That Could Change the FCS Playoffs includes this (LINK):

Seventh-ranked Harvard (8-0) is going to the playoffs at either 10-0 or 9-1, and it might even be fine for an at-large bid even if it loses to Penn and Yale in the next two weeks. The Crimson’s decisive win over Dartmouth (6-2) basically decides any head-to-head tiebreaker the selection committee would need if both teams finished 8-2.

What’s unique is Dartmouth has the stronger resume than Yale, including a head-to-head win over the Bulldogs plus victories over New Hampshire and Central Connecticut State. But Yale (6-2), whose best win is over Penn, has more of an inside track to the playoffs than Dartmouth as a win at Princeton would set up a home game against rival Harvard for the Ivy’s new auto-bid.

It’s a precarious scenario for Dartmouth because three Ivy bids aren’t happening. Even two would change the field in a dramatic way from the past.

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As noted in this space last week, FCS bracketology was of no real interest until this year for Ivy League coaches, players and fans. That changed with the conference finally allowing its football teams to advance to the postseason. Here are two possible bracket outcomes:

HERO Sports has Harvard as a nine seed and includes this (LINK):

Bubble Teams Left Out
Ordered from the best chance to make the bracket out of this group to the worst chance.

25. Austin Peay
26. Northern Arizona
27. DARTMOUTH 
28. New Hampshire
29. William & Mary
30. Southern Illinois

HERO has Harvard opening against Villanova with the winner going on to face Monmouth, which last Saturday was soundly beaten by New Hampshire.

FCS Football Central on SI has Harvard as a seven-seed and includes this (LINK):

Bubble Teams Left Out:

Southeastern Louisiana

DARTMOUTH

Southern Utah

New Hampshire

William & Mary

Austin Peay

Lafayette

Southern Illinois

FCS Football Central offers this as a first-round game:

Central Connecticut State at No. 13 Rhode Island (Winner at No. 4 Lehigh)

And this as a second-round game: 

Illinois State at No. 10 North Dakota (Winner at No. 7 Harvard)

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This week's Sagarin Ratings among all DI teams with last week's rating in parentheses:

98 Harvard (91)

138 Yale (138)

157 Dartmouth (152)

198 Penn (177)

186 Princeton (196)

213 Brown (213)

199 Cornell (220)

231 Columbia (234)

153 New Hampshire (165)

196 Central Connecticut (212)

250 Fordham (239)

Sagarin has Dartmouth favored over Cornell by 10 points.

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Massey Ratings of only FCS teams with last week's rating in parentheses:

7 Harvard (7)

29 Yale (27)

30 Dartmouth (28)

51 Penn (39)

54 Princeton (68)

68 Cornell (74)

74 Brown (71)

87 Columbia (89)

Massey has Dartmouth defeating Cornell, 31-20, with 84 percent confidence, and Dartmouth handling Brown, 31-24, with 71 percent confidence.

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EXTRA POINT

I really can really relate to Charlie Brown and that football in my quest to see the Northern Lights. They are right there and I just know I'm finally going to see them and then . . . nothing but air.

That Certain Dartmouth '14 (who could be back at work at Bryce Canyon National Park for the first time in over a month depending on a vote) shared this photo of the Northern Lights and stars from her dark-sky Utah outpost:

And That Certain Nittany Lion '16 notes that there are, "Facebook posts from all over the Upper Valley of people seeing the northern lights almost as bright" as this one.

One of these days . . .

A This And That Tuesday

Cornell's sports information office has kicked off game week in Hanover with a preliminary look at Dartmouth HERE.

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BGA Overtime had its weekly thoughts and observations go up last night and will have The Optimist and The Pessimist tonight.

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Dartmouth comes in at No. 29 in the FCS coaches poll with wins over three of the other teams in the "receiving votes" category, and a respectable loss to the No. 11 team in the country (or No. 7 per the STATS Perform poll).

	FCS Coaches	W-L	Pts	Prev
1	North Dakota State (23)	10-0	599	1
2	Montana (1)	10-0	573	2
3	Montana State	8-2	527	3
4	Lehigh	10-0	514	4
5	Tarleton State	9-1	480	7
6	Tennessee Tech	10-0	473	5
7	Villanova	7-2	441	8
8	Mercer	8-1	423	T10
9	Rhode Island	8-2	379	T10
10	UC Davis	7-2	367	12
11	HARVARD	8-0	309	13
12	Monmouth	8-2	293	6
13	Illinois State	7-3	289	17
14	Lamar	8-2	280	18
15	South Dakota State	7-3	249	9
16	Jackson State	7-2	213	19
17	Stephen F. Austin	8-2	205	21
18	North Dakota	6-4	199	15
19	Youngstown State	6-4	178	22
20	Abilene Christian	6-4	176	20
21	Southeastern Louisiana	7-3	163	14
22	South Dakota	7-4	145	25
23	Southern Illinois	6-4	78	16
24	West Georgia	7-3	53	NR
25	Lafayette	7-3	46	NR
	Dropped Out:  None
	Others Receiving Votes: Western Carolina, 33; Alabama State, 26; YALE, 18; DARTMOUTH, 11; Gardner-Webb, 11; Sacramento State, 11; Presbyterian, 9; UT Rio Grande Valley, 9; Northern Arizona, 8; Austin Peay, 4; Central Connecticut State, 3; New Hampshire, 2; South Carolina State, 2; North Carolina Central, 1.

	Stats Perform	W-L	Pts	Prev
1	North Dakota State (55)	10-0	1,399	1
2	Montana	10-0	1,327	2
3	Montana State (1)	8-2	1,300	3
4	Lehigh	10-0	1,196	4
5	Tennessee Tech	10-0	1,157	5
6	Tarleton State	9-1	1,130	6
7	HARVARD	8-0	956	9
8	Mercer	8-1	916	12
9	UC Davis	6-3	890	11
10	Villanova	7-2	888	10
11	Rhode Island	8-2	800	14
12	Monmouth	8-2	661	7
13	North Dakota	6-4	653	13
14	Illinois State	7-3	629	16
15	Stephen F. Austin	8-2	598	17
16	South Dakota State	7-3	544	8
17	South Dakota	7-4	530	22
18	Abilene Christian	6-4	506	18
19	Lamar	8-2	503	20
20	Youngstown State	6-4	445	21
21	Southern Illinois	6-4	242	15
22	Jackson State	7-2	226	23
23	Southeastern Louisiana	7-3	208	19
24	Northern Arizona	6-4	81	NR
25	Western Carolina	6-4	75	24
	Dropped Out of Top 25: Presbyterian (25)
	Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots):  New Hampshire, 74; Alabama State, 69; Lafayette, 39; West Georgia, 36; Delaware State, 35; Austin Peay, 22; YALE, 18; Sacramento State, 11; DARTMOUTH, 10; Central Connecticut State, 9; South Carolina State, 7; Southern Utah, 3

From a Harvard release (LINK):

At the Ivy League level, Harvard's No. 7 ranking is the conference's best ranking since at least 1986, when Penn appeared at No. 6 in the NCAA Division I-AA football rankings. Prior to today, the highest media-poll ranking enjoyed by an Ancient Eight member was Penn's No. 8 position in 2003.

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While they are celebrating in Cambridge, things are a lot less rosy in Providence where Dartmouth will travel next week to close out its season. From a story on the GoLocalProv site headlined Brown Football Was a Power in the Ivy League, Now It Is a Doormat (LINK):

The Bears, now 0-5 in the Ivy League with two games remaining, are on pace to finish last in the league for the 5th time in ten years.

And . . .

The best Brown has finished in the past ten seasons is fourth, and it did it twice — in 2015 and 2016. In the past eight seasons, the best the Bears have finished is 6th — remember there are only eight teams in the Ivy.

And . . .

Maybe no other football program in the country has had a more precipitous decline.

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And finally, Dartmouth alum Kyle Hendricks is hanging up his spikes after a dozen years in the big leagues:

HAT TIP TO THE PROFESSOR.

Former @BigGreenBSB standout Kyle Hendricks announced his retirement from @MLB earlier today — capping a 12-year career. Hendricks led the league in ERA in 2016, on his way to winning a World Series title with the @Cubs. 🌿⚾️ pic.twitter.com/fsW3BZaKmi

— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) November 11, 2025

Find a nice MLB story on Hendricks HERE.

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EXTRA POINT

Every single night, Griff the Wonder Dog waits until Mrs. BGA finishes her dinner and then stations himself where he can fix his big brown eyes on her baby blues until he gets his own desert of a medium-sized biscuit and several tiny biscuits. His late friend Nala taught him the trick years ago and not only has he perfected it, but he has taken it to another level. If we feed the old boy before we head out to dinner and a movie, he makes the calculated guess when we get home that we have already eaten. So if we sit down to watch the news before heading upstairs he'll immediately station himself in front of Mrs. BGA until she caves and gets him his nightly treat. I've said this many times, but he has Mrs. BGA really, really well-trained.