Senioritis

A nod to Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar Columbia football blog for digging up the number of seniors on each Ivy League football team heading into preseason:

T-1. Columbia 26
T-1. Princeton 26
3. Harvard 25
4. Brown 22
5. Yale 21
6. Penn 20
7. Cornell 19
8. Dartmouth 17

While coaches talk frequently about the importance of senior leadership and experience (and members of the media regurgitate those sentiments) there have been very good teams with fewer seniors on them and very bad teams with more seniors on them. Dartmouth fans will have to be rooting for the former this season.

Ivy League schools are finding new and inventive ways to try to drum up attendance and Harvard is no different. It is offering youth football teams the opportunity to sell tickets and receive half of the ticket sales back to support their program. From a Harvard flyer:

"For instance, your team sells 50 football tickets ($15/each) to your fans, family and friends, you will receive half the ticket sales back in cash. That's a total of $375 for your team!

"Teams that sell 50 tickets will be recognized on the Harvard Stadium videoboard. Teams that sell 100 tickets will be escorted to watch team warm ups on the field prior to kickoff."

Seems like a good deal for the teams and the school. Oh yeah, and all kids 12 and under get in free to any home game. It will be interesting to see how Harvard attendance fares this fall.

I'd scanned this Associated Press story but didn't really read it down until someone sent along a link with this addendum: "This is supposed to be a DI program!" Here's how the story starts:

In a twist on Little League moms lining up after-game treats, New Mexico State's budget-conscious football staff distributed an e-mail this week asking fans to donate after-practice or late-night snacks for hungry players.

Repeat after me: NFL preseason games are actually exhibitions. Of course, the NFL doesn't want you to think that way because you won't be buying tickets and the TV ratings will go down if you do. The NFL refers to these are preseason games, but when starting quarterbacks play one or two series, they are exhibitions, plain and simple. Now even the media are playing along with the league. The AP story on last night's New York Jets exhibition game against the St. Louis Rams said rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez completed a 48-yard touchdown pass, "on his first NFL play Friday night." First NFL play? I could be wrong but I don't think that pass is going to count when Sanchez' numbers are tallied up at the end of his career.

This is just so bizarre. A few colleges are now putting helmet cams on their quarterbacks. I'm not making this up. Find a USA Today story here. Here's the thinking:

"We're just trying to see through the eyes of the quarterback and help them make decisions faster," new offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich says. "You can get a good idea of where their eyes are at any time. It's a first-person account of exactly what they're doing. It's a way to reinforce what they are doing or what we'd like them to do."