In The Game (World)

Note: Signup has begun for the premium Big Green Alert service. PayPal is working for some folks and not working for others. Frustrating. If you can't get it to work, please use the How to Subscribe/Pay By Check link. And remember, if you subscribed last year, you do not need to fill out the form asking for a password and username. Thanks.

So I'm cruising my favorite Internet haunts this morning to see if there's anything of interest to you lurking out there and I find this story about EA Sports' 2007 college football game. (I'm not a video gamer and neither are my kids, so you'll have to excuse me if I make a misstep here.)

Anyway, the story says: "EA enlisted a former Ivy League offensive lineman this year during development to help them adjust the play of the offensive line." Aha, I think, that must be Oge Young '96.

I did a story on Oge and his work at EA Sports a few years ago. It was a neat piece because Oge was involved, if I remember correctly, with the Madden NFL game while his brother Adam Young '99, a tight end, was on the New York Giants' practice squad. Adam, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Giants, had great hands but wasn't particularly fast. I remember asking Oge if he'd been tempted to juice up Adam's profile a little.

A little Googling later I found Oge is now a producer for Midway Austin down in Texas. As a judge for a gaming contest, he has a short bio and mug shot on this site. ... A list of the games he's worked on can be found here. ... And he's blogging about a game BlackSite here. ... So I guess there's a different offensive lineman behind the EA curtain. ...

While I was trying to locate Oge, I found former Dartmouth hockey goalie Jason Wong is/was at EA Sports as a producer for NHL 07. ... That Ivy degree can take you just about anywhere, apparently including the videosphere. (I thought I made that word up until I just Googled it to see. Nope.)

Another commentator takes a cheap shot at the Ivy League with regard to the impending text messaging ban in recruiting. From an opinion piece in The Sporting News:

The ban on text messaging was suggested by the Ivy Group, citing the invasive nature of sending messages to recruits on an unlimited basis. How could kids study if their phones were constantly buzzing or chirping with text messages?

Listening to the Ivy League schools on a matter like this is like turning the NFL into a two-hand touch league because little Jimmy got hurt playing Nerf football in the front yard.

After hibernating for most of the past six months or so, Ivy League football websites are starting to stir. Cornell has announced the hiring of two assistant coaches. ... Harvard has a blurb about cornerback Andrew Berry being named preseason All-American. ... In a brief about its schedule, Penn notes four of the Quakers' games will be televised. ... Princeton has a short story about being named No. 23 in the nation (and first in the Ivies) by the vaunted the Sports Media Entertainment poll. ... Holy Cross notes a former linebacker was a member of the world championship Team USA football squad in Kawasaki, Japan.

And finally, take a cruise over to Jake Novak's Roar Lions Roar blog and see his take on the Sports Media Entertainment poll and the Ivy League race.