Let There Be Light

Last year Brown drew a throng of 17,360 when the Bears played the first night game in Brown Stadium history against Harvard. (Photos) This year it will be Holy Cross bringing in portable lighting for the first night game in Fitton Field history when the Crusaders play host to Massachusetts on Sept. 1. That got me thinking about ...

Ivy League schools that have played home games under the lights:

• Brown
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Harvard
• Penn
• Princeton

The only teams in the Ivy that haven't yet hosted night games: Dartmouth and Yale, and it's no secret that there's hope of that changing in Hanover in the not-too-distant future.

Among recent non-league opponents, 2011 Week One foe Colgate has played light games the past several years and 2010 Week One opponent Bucknell has as well. Now Holy Cross is going to join the party.

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Jake Novak over at the unofficial Columbia football blog Roar Lions Roar offens an interesting spin on yesterday's post showing Dartmouth with a whopping 35 final-year players next fall. His take is that it is more beneficial in non-conference games and less helpful in league contests. That being the case he predicts a Dartmouth sweep of non-league games for the second year in a row. The Big Green's non-conference schedule features a tough home opener against Colgate as well as road tests against Sacred Heart and Holy Cross.

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Like former football teammate Tanner Scott, offensive lineman John O'Sullivan has gotten into the scoring column for the Dartmouth rugby team, registering a try for the A side in a game against Barbados XV on the Big Green's trip to the island. Dartmouth is at Penn State today in a huge College Premier Division showdown. Scroll down to see who the experts at RugbyMag.com pick.

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RC Willenbrock, the Dartmouth kicker who missed all of his sophomore season with a back problem has returned to action with the Big Green lacrosse team. He's appeared in three games so far as a midfielder for 3-3 Dartmouth, which plays host to Harvard this afternoon. Find his football profile here and his lacrosse profile here.

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The Portal 31 Yale football blog has a note about 2010 Yale grad Tom Mante continuing to pursue a punting job in the NFL. Of all the punters that have come through the Ivy League in the past 20 years or so it is safe to say Mante might be at, or certainly near, the top for the combination of hang time and distance. Mante is one who got away. He is a graduate of Bishop Guertin HS in Nashua, NH.