You Say: Bring On The Playoffs

This one didn't surprise me even a little bit. OK, maybe the 12 people who said things are fine the way they are caught me off blance, but that 75 percent wanted to go to the playoffs was certainly no surprise. Put me in that camp as well.

The venerable Sagarin Ratings have been posted and as always, they are both interesting and maddening. What's neat about these ratings is that they mix in both the, ahem, I-A and I-AA teams. (It's their nomenclature, not mine.)Here's the rating for Ivy League teams and Dartmouth opponents, keeping in mind 245 teams are rated:

124. Harvard
131. Yale
153. Penn
168. Princeton
169. Brown
183. Cornell
193. Dartmouth
213. Columbia

97. New Hampshire
156. Colgate
161. Holy Cross

The Ivy League is ranked the No. 18 conference overall and 6th in, ahem, I-AA. The Patriot League is at No. 20. The Colonial, home of UNH, is ranked No. 12, ahead of the I-A Sun Belt.

The Sports Network has named its preseason All-America team and four Ivy Leaguers are among the seven honored players Dartmouth will face this fall. Here are the seven:

OFFENSE
First Team
Scott Sicko, New Hampshire, TE, Jr., 6-3, 225

Second Team
Dominic Randolph, Holy Cross , QB, Sr., 6-3, 223
Mike McLeod, Yale, RB, Jr., 5-11, 200
Nicholas Hennessey, Colgate, T, Sr., 6-6, 300

Third Team
James Williams, Harvard, T, Sr., 6-6, 285

DEFENSE
Second Team
Bobby Abare, Yale, LB, Sr., 6-2, 210
Andrew Berry, Harvard, CB, Sr., 6-1, 175

I went over the list three times looking for Colgate tailback Jordan Scott and couldn't find him. It's possible he was overlooked because of his legal difficulties this year, but I have a hard time believing there are six running backs better than he is in the FCS. There aren't. End of story.

Cornell coach Jim Knowles has an interesting Q&A on the Cornell website. ... There's not much meat to Columbia coach Norries Wilson's camp update, but the straight-talking coach tells it like it is with this comment:

Anyone can look good in shorts, tomorrow the shoulder pads go on, and I will get a better look at what’s what.

A little more on Russell Wilson, a quarterback who would have looked pretty good in Green, from the News Observer down in Raleigh, N.C.:

Redshirt freshman Russell Wilson was named N.C. State's starting quarterback on Friday afternoon. Five things to know:

1. He has athletic blood lines. Paternal grandfather Harrison Wilson Jr. played baseball and basketball at Kentucky State. Father Harrison III played football and baseball at Dartmouth and spent a brief time with the San Diego Chargers.

The local paper reports today that the new Dartmouth baseball field is well behind schedule, a result of the summer's record-setting rains, a surprise discovery or two on the site, and a key employee of the company doing the project taking another job. The story said the Big Green is scrambling to find another site for fall workouts.

And finally, that certain Hanover High freshman to be is on his way to Plymouth, N.H., today for his first football scrimmage. He doesn't expect to see any action but with just 29 kids on the roster, he might. ... The junior-to-be received her cross country uniform yesterday. Hanover girls cross country finished fourth in the nation in Oregon last fall and won new unis and warmups from Nike as a result of the appearance in the elite meet.

Oh, and one more thing. Today's Blog is brought to you from the back of the '84 VW camper parked outside of the Etna Town Library. That's right. Internet on the mountain is down again. Fortunately, our one-room village library now has wireless and I can access it from the VW out here on the side of the road.