Stop the Streak Saturday

The sports editor of our local paper has an interesting idea in today's column. It's probably unworkable at this late date, but interesting. He wants this weekend's football game against Columbia when Dartmouth tries to end a 17-game losing skein to be promoted as Stop the Streak Saturday. He writes:

The first thing Dartmouth needs to do is attract a crowd. Not the 5,000 or so die-hards who show up most Saturdays. No, we need a football crowd – with war paint, banners, cowbells, horns and Halloween masks. A capacity crowd of 13,000 ready to make some noise. That will give the boys in green a reason to play, don't you think?

How does he propose getting all those fannies in the stands to cheer the Big Green on? Free tickets and a "Joe Willie" (Namath) type guarantee of victory. If Dartmouth loses everyone gets a free ticket to the next game.

The columnist admits Dartmouth will take something of a financial hit for the game but suggests that added refreshment and program sales will soften the blow a bit. And he writes:

I'll bet there's an alum or two out there who would write a quick check to cover the difference in lost revenue if that large (non-paying) crowd helped bring victory to Dartmouth.

Discuss among yourselves.

The weekly polls and rankings are in. The GPI ranking (a BCS-type hybird) looks like this in regard to Dartmouth opponents, current and future:

8. New Hampshire
29. Colgate
41. Penn
45. Holy Cross
50. Harvard
52. Brown
58. Columbia
74. Yale
82. Cornell
104. Princeton
107. Dartmouth

90. Butler
113. Sacred Heart
121. Georgetown

The Sports Network Poll

9. UNH
17. Colgate
22. Holy Cross
46. Brown
50. Harvard
55. Penn

The FCS Coaches Poll

8. UNH
17. Colgate
22. Holy Cross

The Dunkel Index with last week's ranking in parentheses

10. UNH (4)
28. Penn (51)
33. Holy Cross (36)
36. Harvard (28)
41. Brown (46)
44. Yale (49)
47. Colgate (44)
51. Columbia (33)
77. Cornell (61)
99. Dartmouth (98)
100. Princeton (102)

109. Sacred Heart (97)
115. Georgetown (117)
116. Butler (97)

The Sagarin ratings with last week's ranking in parentheses (245 teams ranked)

96. UNH (81)
150. Penn (160)
160. Colgate (146)
164. Columbia (161)
171. Holy Cross (151)
172. Harvard (138)
185. Brown (160)
196. Yale (188)
210. Cornell (182)
224. Dartmouth (216)
236. Princeton (214)

221. Butler (210)
237. Sacred Heart (230)
243. Georgetown (241)

Green Alert Take: It's clear that playing weak teams hurts you more in the Sagarin ratings. Brown fell 25 slots after a win over Princeton while Holy Cross plummeted 20 spots after a win over Dartmouth. In the Dunkel numbers, Brown and Holy Cross rose, if only slightly.

The annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game pitting the top graduated high school seniors from New Hampshire against those from Vermont moved from Dartmouth's Memorial Field to the high school field in Windsor, Vt., last year in anticipation of stadium construction at Dartmouth that was ultimately postponed. The Rutland Herald reports that the game will be played in Windsor again next summer and not at Memorial Field, which, "had been the game site for most of the 56 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowls."

Brown University has hired an outside marketing firm to work with its athletic program. The Daily Herald has a story.

The perennial powerhouse Dartmouth men's rugby team finished off a perfect regular season with a win over Brown last week and hosts Yale Saturday morning at 11 at the nearby Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse in the first round of the Ivy League championship. If you haven't seen the Big Green play or checked out the gorgeous facility and setting, there's plenty of time to get over there and back for the football fesitivities. The Daily Dartmouth has a story.

A Sports Business Journal story spun out of the United Football League has a quote from John Slusher '90, Nike Vice President of Global Sports Marketing. Slusher lettered at Dartmouth in 1988 and '89 after graduating from California's Chadwick School. Freshman linebacker Garrett Wymore, who was second on the Big Green in tackles Saturday, is a graduate of Chadwick.

Extra Point
Last week brought a Sign of the Apocalypse mailing from a college. The 8x11 package that included 3-D glasses to bring life to the enclosed booklet.