Yale's The One

The idea of last week's poll was to find out what one team, other than Harvard, you would most like to see Dartmouth defeat next fall. Several emailers suggested Colgate was the logical choice, both because it is the first game of the year and because it would set the tone for the season. I've got no quarrel with that thinking. The guess here is that any and all coaches would have voted for Colgate on those grounds alone.

But the hope was to find out what opponent, again other than Harvard, you'd most like to see Dartmouth beat in the event it won just one game. Assuming that's how most people voted, the top five spots went pretty much as I expected. I suppose you can sum it up this way:

It's always going to be HYP until you take out the H. Then it's going to be YP ;-).

As a trophy win, it's no surprise to me that New Hampshire came in third after YP. The tradition of the Penn series being what it is, the Quakers being one of the presumptive Ivy League favorites next fall, and Penn being the Ivy League opener probably all contributed to the Quakers finishing fourth. And Colgate was a logical pick to finish high both because it is the opener and because it, too, would represent something of a trophy win.

The surprises? What looks to be a very good Holy Cross team was mired in seventh place (one vote lower than Columbia). And not one of the 123 ballots mentioned Cornell. You'd think someone would hold a grudge against the Big Red.

Here's how the balloting broke down:

1. Yale 29 percent
2. Princeton 18 percent
3. UNH 17 percent
4. Penn 11 percent
5. Colgate 8 percent
6. Brown 5 percent
7. Columbia 4+ percent
8. Holy Cross 4 percent
9. Cornell 0 percent

Several folks asked which team I voted for and given that I was operating on the presumption of just one win, I went with New Hampshire. The thinking was that if the Ivy League title was out of reach, I'd want to beat the best team on schedule. Or the team that Dartmouth has gone longest without winning against. Both of those point to UNH.

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings measuring overall success of the intercollegiate athletic programs at the nation's Division I colleges and universities hasn't yet been updated with spring results. When the update comes, Dartmouth's baseball championship should help the Big Green's cause.

Unsurprisingly, Stanford is No. 1 through the winter results with Minnesota second, North Carolina third, Michigan fourth and Penn State rounding out the top five. Here's how the Ivy League sits:

38. Princeton
53. Cornell
61. Harvard
65. Yale
72. Dartmouth
99. Penn
132. Columbia
194. Brown

The June 20th Dartmouth Friend of Football Golf Classic is hoping to fill out a field of 100 golfers and identify a few more sponsors. Donations for the raffle and auction are also being sought. From a recent email:

The Reunion Classes of 1979, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2004 will all be in town so come join them for great food, excellent beverages, BAD golf, and lots of laughs! Family and friends are welcome and there is lots of time to have a post golf beverage and still make your Saturday night reunion dinner.

To help out, or for more information, contact curt(dot)oberg(at)dartmouth(dot)edu.

The Portal 31 blog covering Yale football for the New Haven Register is reporting that linebacker/tight end Jordan Jefferson of Palo Alto, Calif., has decommitted from Lehigh in favor of attending Yale. While Buddy Teevens' stint as head coach at Stanford didn't necessarily give him the pick of Ivy-bound recruits in the Bay Area (Ivy League passing leader Nathan Ford of Cornell also came from Palo Alto) it certainly helped. But Jefferson going to Yale is a reminder that with former Stanford standout and assistant coach Tom Williams at Yale, there's another sheriff in town. (Or at least a deputy ;-)

And finally, that certain Hanover High School freshman caught the first game of yesterday's jayvee doubleheader and did a terrific job of blocking just about every ball that bounced in the dirt in front of or to the side of him. Last night he somewhat proudly showed me his black-and-blue marks. I think there's more black-and-blue than skin color showing and I was duly impressed. As someone who avoided catching at all costs when I played baseball, it's astonishing to me that we're two-for-two with catchers in the family.