By the Numbers

Thinking ahead to the 2010 Dartmouth football season, the numbers wonk in me saw an opportunity and decided to work up how Big Green football team has fared over each 10-year span since 1900.

Dartmouth by the Numbers:

1900-09 – 65-14
1910-19 – 61-18-4
1920-29 – 65-19-2
1930-39 – 60-23-7
1940-49 – 43-38-3
1950-59 – 41-45-4
1960-69 – 68-22-0
1970-79 – 60-27-3
1980-89 – 38-58-3
1990-99 – 62-35-3
2000-09 – 21-78-0

Interestingly, the 2000-09 span featured the same opponents every year with New Hampshire, Colgate and Holy Cross as the non-league foes. Those three combined for a glittering 120-57 record (.678) over the past five years, with just one losing season among the collective 15 years.

(An aside: Leading up to 2000, Dartmouth played a more diverse non-league schedule. In 1999 Lafayette and Lehigh were both on the slate. The '98 team played Maine and Lafayette, and the '97 team had Fordham and Lehigh.)

The first schedule change since 2000 is finally on tap this fall when Dartmouth will play host to Sacred Heart in place of the annual game against New Hampshire.

Another aside: Should three incoming Pioneer freshmen make the travel squad the game will be a Granite State homecoming for no fewer than five Sacred Heart players. Find the new opponent's spring roster here and a look at the Sacred Heart recruiting class here.

Speaking of updated spring rosters, find Cornell's here.

Incoming Dartmouth freshman Sanders Davis has been invited to play in the Nike Bayou Bowl pitting a team of seniors from Louisiana against a team from Texas on June 13 at 8 p.m., in Baytown, Texas. The 6-foot-5, 275-pound Davis is an offensive lineman. The Bayou Bowl roster page can be found here.

Former Columbia Lion and NFL all-pro defensive end Marcellus Wiley will be hosting a new show on ABC television called Winners Bracket. (link) I still remember watching the blade-skinny Wiley as a freshman tailback and being told by longtime Columbia SID Bill Steinman to keep an eye on the kid because he was going to be a monster. Bill had it right, although it would be on the other side of the ball.

Switching gears, while there's a lot of flowery praise for the way the upstart Cornell basketball team shoots the ball and moves on offense, the Big Red has shown itself to be pretty good at the other end of the floor in becoming the first Ivy League team since Penn in 1979 to make the NCAA Sweet 16. The New York Times writes:

Cornell showed it could play defense, too. Wisconsin’s swing offense, which inverts with big men outside and guards inside, had trouble in the second half dealing with Cornell’s numerous defenses. The Badgers saw a 2-2-1, a 1-2-2, a 1-3-1, some three-quarter-court zone defense and man-to-man defense.

Cornell was sharp enough on defense that it could switch defenses in the middle of a possession from zone to man, and it seemed to bother the Badgers.

There's a lot of praise coming in for Cornell coach Steve Donahue, and deservedly so. Whatever the future holds for him, he'll remain a favorite of mine for the caring and concern he showed, and continues to show for the family of former Dartmouth SID Kathy Slattery Phillips.

For a look at a winter to remember in Ithaca, N.Y., check out this Ithaca Journal story.

Former Dartmouth assistant Sharon Dawley helped the Vermont women's basketball team make history with its first NCAA Tournament victory ever, a 64-55 win over Wisconsin. (link) With her 128th win, Sharon became UVM's all-time leader in victories.

Almost lost in the clamor surrounding Cornell's run on the hardwood is the NCAA hockey tournament, which features two Ivy League teams. Yale is the fourth seed in the Northeast and will face North Dakota. Cornell is the second seed in the east and will face UNH. The Frozen Four is April 8 and 10. Find a hockey seedings story here and the bracket here.

U.S. News & World Report has a new college ranking headlined Most Popular Schools. It's essentially a list of schools in the order of their "yield." From the explanation:

If a school has a high yield (a large proportion of those admitted enroll), it means that the school is probably very popular and has a top reputation and that the students are highly motivated to go there. A very low yield indicates that the school could be a "safety" school or second choice for many of those who apply.

BYU tops the list (culled from the fall of 2008 entering class) at 78 percent yield, with Harvard second. Here's how the Ivy League schools ranked:

2. Harvard 76 percent
5. Yale 68
8. Penn 63
9. Columbia 60
10. Princeton 59
13. Brown 55
20. Dartmouth 49
30. Cornell 46

Just in front of Dartmouth: New Jersey Institute of Technology. Just behind Dartmouth: Virginia.

It's easy to quibble with the suggestion that a low yield indicates status as a "safety school." That certain Hanover High senior has applications in at several schools on this list and none are "safeties." Because predicting acceptance at highly selective schools is extremely difficult, it would be foolhardy not to apply to a number of them and she'll make a decision when all the dust has settled.

This week, by the way, those first college acceptances will be announced. Look for news on another couple of official recruits to break shortly ... and keep your fingers crossed for that certain Hanover senior ;-)

And finally, thanks for the e-mails. They mean a lot.