Sacred Knowledge

Pictures of Sacred Heart's Campus Field, which opened in 1993 in Fairfield, Conn., are hard to come by. This one is from Google Earth. Capacity is variously listed at 3,500 or 4,000. Last year the Pioneers averaged 2,178 for their six home games. Dartmouth will entertain SHU in 2010 and play at Campus Field the next fall to complete a home-and-home that will replace New Hampshire on the Big Green schedule.

A few facts about Sacred Heart football:

• The school was founded in 1963 and the football program began in 1991.
• The Pioneers were Division III in 1991-92, DII from 1993-98 and have been I-AA/FCS since 1999.
• The all-time football record is 81-103-0.
• The Pioneers are members of the Northeast Conference along with Albany, Monmouth, Central Connecticut State, Robert Morris, Duquesne, Wagner and St. Francis (Pa.).
• The Northeast Conference will receive an automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs starting in 2010.
  
• The Pioneers won their first six games before finishing 8-3 last fall, their first winning record since 2004.
  
• Their first three wins were over Division II Assumption, D-II Bentley and Iona, which dropped the sport after the season.
• They have never played an Ivy League team.
• Their only game against a Patriot League team was a 56-21 loss to Holy Cross in 2005.
• Head coach Paul Gorham coached receivers at New Hampshire in 1986-87 and was on the staff at Brown from 1994-98.
  
• This year's roster includes a transfer running back who lettered two times at Central Michigan, where he ran for 69 yards against Kentucky and led the team in with seven rushing TD's as a freshman.
• The Pioneers' preseason roster for 2009 includes several junior college products and two players who prepped at noted football factory Milford Academy.

Find Sacred Heart's 2009 prospectus here and and another picture of its field here.

A few assorted facts about Sacred Heart University culled from last year's media guide: Famous alums include Kevin Nealon '75 of Saturday Night Live and John Ratzenberger '72 of Cheers. ... Enrollment was listed at 3,465 fulltime undergrads and total enrollment of more than 6,000. ... The top for states sending freshmen to SHU were New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

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The well-regarded Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine handicaps the 2009 Ivy League race this way:

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

Green Alert Take: Dartmouth aside, while most would agree that Columbia is improving, to project a first-division finish for the Lions is a real roll of the dice. Princeton might be overvalued a bit and Brown undervalued.

The USA Today Sports Weekly Top 25 features three Dartmouth opponents:

6. UNH
20. Colgate
21. Harvard

Green Alert Take: Given Colgate's losses up front and the graduation of star tailback Jordan Scott, it's a surprise to see the Raiders picked that high. UNH also took a serious enough hit up front that No. 6 might be a tad optimistic. Also deserving of consideration would be Holy Cross.