Tuesday Musings

The college has issued an official release on the status of the Memorial Field building project. Nothing new, but here's the official wording:

Dartmouth has decided to defer the full renovation of the West Stands of Memorial Field, home of the Dartmouth track and football programs. The College will address immediate maintenance needs of the stands during the spring and summer of 2009 so the West Stands will be ready for next fall’s season.

The Sagarin Ratings were updated following Saturday's playoff games and among other things they show the Patriot League one slot higher than the Ivy League. They also show the CAA, of which New Hampshire is a member, being ranked higher than the FCS Sun Belt Conference.

Here are the Sagarin Ratings for the Ivy League, all of the Patriot League teams and UNH. (Dartmouth opponents are in bold):

79 New Hampshire
111 Harvard
135 Brown
132 Holy Cross
137 Lafayette
139 Colgate
143 Penn
146 Yale
159 Lehigh
175 Princeton
179 Fordham
194 Cornell
202 Bucknell
204 Columbia
223 Dartmouth
227 Georgetown

For Sagarin's conference breakdown, click here.

Wonder about the Sagarin neighborhood in which Dartmouth ended the year? Here are the five teams rated ahead of the Big Green and the five rated below (schedule-makers take note):

218 SE Missouri State (4-8)
219 Austin Peay (2-9)
220 Butler (6-5)
221 Drake (6-5)
222 Morehead State (6-6)
223 Dartmouth (0-10)
224 Jackson State (7-4)
225 Tennessee Tech (3-9)
226 Marist (4-7)
227 Georgetown (2-8)
228 Davidson (4-7)

One thing is clear: The level of competition Dartmouth played didn't do much for the Big Green record, but it certainly helps in this kind of power rating.

And who is last in the nation? Coming in at No. 245, the 1-10 Campbell Camels of Buies Creek, N.C., whose lone win in their first season of varsity football in 58 years was a 36-26 victory at Carthage College.

A couple of coaching notes. Among the names that have popped up on an Internet coaching site regarding the Yale search are UMass head coach (and former Dartmouth/Brown/Yale assistant) Don Brown as well as former Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington coach Ty Willingham.

Donny Brown, a friend since his high school coaching days here in the Upper Valley, would be a terrific "get" for Yale, but it seems unlikely from this perspective that he'd make such a move. Then again, he did once go from being defensive coordinator at Yale to head coach at DIII Plymouth State.

As for Willingham, Yale would certainly get a lot of attention if it could convince him to come to New Haven, and he did have success at Stanford.

Finally, with apologies to Sports Illustrated, a Sign of the Ivy League Apocalypse:

A blogger unhappy with the state of the Penn basketball program has started a site called fireglenmiller.blogspot.com. Miller, of course, is the former Brown head coach who two years ago led the Quakers to the Ivy League championship. His team was third in the Ivies with an 8-6 record last winter. Penn is 1-6 this season.