Wrapping It Up

Three Ivy Leaguers earned honorable-mention status on the end-of-year College Sporting News 2009 FCS Fabulous Fifty All-American Team.

Chosen to the first team unanimously was New Hampshire tight end Scott Sicko. UNH defensive back Terrence Klein also was named to the first team.

Honorable-mention picks:
OG Ben Sessions, Harvard
OT James Williams, Harvard
WR Buddy Farnham, Brown
QB Dominic Randolph, Holy Cross
WR Pat Simonds, Colgate
C Dino Vasso, UNH

Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar has an interesting take on the growing importance of the running game in the Ivy League. Among the factoids he dug up: Thirteen Ivy Leaguers had a total of 21 seasons with 1,000 or more rushing yards from 2000-2009. Only Dartmouth did not have a 1,000-yard rusher during that span.

(Wonder if Jake will update his story when the decade ends on Dec. 31, 2010 ;-)

Dartmouth gets a mention in a story about the two-time Montana high school offensive player of the year committing to Boise State. Matt Miller is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound athlete slated to play wide receiver on the blue turf. He is said to run a sub 4.5 40. From the story:

Arkansas, Stanford, Arizona State, North Carolina, Oregon State were just some of the BCS conference schools that had put an offer on the table for Miller.

Most impressive may be the offers from Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford.

Playing Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium would be a tall order for the Penn men's basketball team in the best of times. These are not the best of times as the official Penn website conceded after last evening's nationally televised debacle:

The Penn men's basketball team hit the wrong team at the wrong time Thursday night, as No. 7 Duke ran over and around the Quakers in every which way en route to a 114-55 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Penn players, coaches and fans will have no problem turning their calendars tomorrow morning. 2009 has been memorable for a lot of the wrong reasons, and in a perverted way Thursday night's result seems a most appropriate way to end it. The 59-point deficit was far and away the worst loss in program history, surpassing a 98-49 loss Penn suffered at UCLA on Dec. 14, 1987. It also moved the Quakers to 0-9 on the season, tying the program's longest losing streak (originally set during the 1981-82 season) and gave this team the worst start in program history.