Dartmouth Picked Seventh

I missed this while I was on vacation and perhaps you did, too. Dartmouth was chosen to finish seventh by Phil Steele's College Football Preview Magazine. Phil Steele's, in case you are wondering, has become increasingly favored among FCS fans in recent years as other magazines have pared back or completely dropped their coverage of the "second tier" of college football.

Phil Steele's Ivy League predictions (courtesy of a regular reader who sent them along):

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Cornell
4. Brown
5. Penn
6. Princeton
7. Dartmouth
8. Columbia

Steele's comment on Dartmouth:

"Just looking at the Ivy standings and seeing that Teevens has gone from 1 to 2 to 3 wins in Ivy play should have me calling for 4 this season but with a less experienced squad and questions about the QB, O-line and defense overall (last in Ivy in '07), the progression may come to a halt."

The only Dartmouth player to earn preseason All-Ivy recognition is senior tailback Milan Willliams, chosen to the second team. Interestingly, the preseason Ivy League offensive and defensive players are both from Yale (tailback Mike McLeod and linebacker Bobby Abare) but Harvard is picked to win the title.

Green Alert Take: You can debate his conclusions, but it's hard to quibble with Steele's concerns about the Big Green this fall. As for his All-Ivy preseason team, I guessed he would have Milan on the second team but expected offensive lineman Alex Rapp to join him. And while I can understand, given last year's season-ending injury why safety Ian Wilson isn't on the team, anyone who saw him play in the first three games last year would have him on the preseason All-Ivy first team. He was as dominant defensively as any Dartmouth player has been for 20 years - and that's saying something.

You know the season is approaching when conferences start holding their media day as the CAA did this week. Chosen to finish second behind Massachusetts in the North Division by the coaches: New Hampshire. Wildcat tight end Scott Sicko and punter Tom Bishop were named to the 2008 CAA Football Preseason All-Conference Team. Release

(The Ivy League media day, by the way, is Aug. 12 at Yale. And in case you are wondering, the countdown to Dartmouth's first practice is 35 days.)

Another sign the season is approaching: Stories are starting to pop up about the next football game to be played in Hanover, two weeks one week from Saturday. It won't be the best football Memorial Field will see, but the 55th annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game might well draw the largest crowd of the year to watch the best graduated seniors from New Hampshire take on those from Vermont. As this Rutland Herald story notes, the game has raised more than $5 million for the Shriners' Hospitals for Children in Springfield, Mass., and Montreal, Quebec, as well as the Shriners' Burns Institute in Boston. Kudos to Dartmouth for continuing to host the game.

Speaking of hospitals, I helped out with one of the Dartmouth press guides several years ago (not football) and when I asked the coach, "What are the major concerns recruits or their families have when you talk with them," medical care in a rural environment was high on the list. That led to inclusion of more information on Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the media/recruiting guide. Given that concern, a story in today's Daily Dartmouth under the headline, "DHMC ranked among top hospitals in nation," must have been well-received around Dartmouth's athletic complex.

In other Dartmouth news out of the athletics realm, the college sent out this note yesterday:

The most ambitious fund-raising initiative in Dartmouth history, the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, reached a milestone in June as it surpassed the $1.1 billion mark. The campaign, which began in 2002, is on track to raise the remaining $200 million of the $1.3 billion goal by its scheduled end-date in December 2009.

Find the full release here.

And finally, a reader close to the Dartmouth program yesterday shared this link to a story about a Penn recruit who got in a little hot water for a prank he pulled with a headless "road kill" deer. The reader shared this sentiment: "I'm not really sure what to say about this, except I'm not sure how many places outside of central Pennsylvania this could happen." Having lived in central Pennsylvania, I had to laugh.

PS: If you have any pull, please have the torrential rain in Northern New England stop. That certain Hanover High freshman-to-be is at camp (in a cabin with screen windows) and it's been coming down endlessly since he checked in on Sunday. :-(