Boise State, Purdue And Dartmouth?

Stick around long enough and you'll either learn something you never knew or will relearn something you forgot. Not sure which of those it was, but Boise State's perfect season resulted in one of those learning opportunities. From USA Today:

Since the AP poll began in 1936, two schools have finished as the nation's only unbeaten and untied team and failed to win a share of a national title. Dartmouth finished 9-0 in 1965; Purdue did the same in 1943.

Speaking of which, I have been reminded that the Boise State-Oklahoma game was broadcast on Fox, not on ESPN or ABC. That probably means no ESPN Classic for the most entertaining football game you'd ever want to see ... and that's a shame. (For a synopsis of the game you should have stayed up to watch, click here.)

I somehow missed this one in the fall: Chris Nowinski, the former Harvard football player turned pro wrestler, is the author of a new book entitled Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis. I never thought I'd be linking to a story headlined WWE News, Notes, but click here for a quick look at Nowinski and the book. From the column:

A former Harvard football player, WWE wrestler and victim of a career-ending head injury, Nowinski exposes how nearly every child playing football is affected.

For Amazon's treatment of the book, click here.

It's hard to feel sorry for anyone at Harvard, but I sorta do after reading an opinion piece in the Crimson about the school's antiquated calendar. From the Crimson:

If you had gone to almost any college or university in the country, today you would likely be spending time at home with family, traveling, or simply taking some time to recover from the stresses of student life. But you chose Harvard; today, you study in the cold, morbid Cambridge winter.

While the new term/semester is about to start up around the rest of the Ivies, Harvard still has "reading period," where students return from break to prepare for exams. We had the same system when I was in college and it was an absolute killer seeing my friends relaxing at the holidays while I still had exams hanging over my head. ...

Should Harvard ever change the schedule, it would benefit Dartmouth, its travel partner for basketball. Because of the Harvard exam schedule, the Big Green men's team generally ends up playing the Crimson twice before any other Ivy League games are played. If Dartmouth or Harvard sweeps the two games, the losing team is effectively eliminated from the Ivy League race (a result of still having four games with Penn and Princeton) before anyone else in the conference has played a single league game.

Speaking of which, Dartmouth and Harvard kick off the Ivy season on the hardwood Saturday in Hanover. Last night the Big Green men's team made it five wins in its last six games by beating an Army team that brought a 10-4 record into Leede Arena. Dartmouth took a 66-58 win over the Cadets, who had stayed within 12 points of Michigan a couple of games back. Dartmouth is now 5-7. The Big Green women's team also won to improve to 4-8 and should be a factor in the Ivy League race.