Delay of Game

I'm at the Dartmouth-Harvard baseball doubleheader. Dartmouth won the first game and the second is about to start. The full Green-White football report will be posted on BGA tonight. In case you weren't there, it ended 10-10 when Foley Schmidt's 61-yard field goal attempt – albeit with no rush – hit the crossbar and bounced back onto the field. Check in tonight.

Green-White

The Dartmouth Green-White game will take place today starting at 10 a.m. on Memorial Field. For information on the FREE live video stream of the game, click here.

Visit Green Alert Premium tonight for a story and statistics about the game.

The forecast for kickoff is 51 degrees and partly cloudy with the sun breaking through and the temperature rising a few degrees during the game.

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Dartmouth athletics notched Ivy League championship No. 2 of the 2010-11 school year last night as the women's lacrosse team overpowered Harvard, 14-7, to grab a share of the crown along with Penn. A loud and enthusiastic Freshman Parents Weekend crowd of more than 1,000 turned out to watch the Big Green knock off its archrival under the lights. (link) In a game that would reward the winner with a piece of the championship Dartmouth took the early lead and was never really challenged.

At halftime of the contest the Dartmouth women's tennis team was recognized for winning the first Ivy League title in program history.

Among those at the contest was former Athletic Director Josie Harper, the onetime Dartmouth women's lacrosse coach.

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More good news for Dartmouth yesterday as Brown swept a baseball doubleheader with Yale in New Haven. The Big Green and Bulldogs had come into the final weekend of the season tied atop the Rolfe Division standings. Dartmouth will play host to Harvard in a twinbill today while Yale visits Brown. The Big Green will close the Ivy season tomorrow with two games in Crimsonland.

Here's what yesterday's results mean: Any combination of Dartmouth wins and Yale losses today that adds up to three would give the Big Green the Rolfe title. And regardless of what happens, Dartmouth can do no worse than go into the final day of the season tied for the Rolfe lead.

Find the 2011 Ivy League baseball standings here.

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Now it is the Providence Journal's chance to point out the one that got away. From a story about the New England Patriots' top draft pick, Nate Solder of Colorado:

Solder looked all of 6-foot-8 as he dwarfed team owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft, who spent the day showing him around the facility. Solder clearly has a body that will allow for more weight. His relatively lean frame obviously is one reason he considered playing basketball in college, not football.

“It would have been at Dartmouth,” the Colorado native said. “But I chose football. I’m so glad I did.”

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And finally, a thank you to Dartmouth video coordinator/assistant director of football operations Chris Feller, who wraps up his time in Hanover today. Patiently answering my emails and questions while also sharing the occasional tidbit the past several years, Chris has been a big help to me in covering the team. Best of luck to Chris and his beloved Cincinnati Reds (and Pittsburgh Steelers) as he returns to his native midwest.

Scenes from Spring

(Click to supersize, then click again to super, super size ;-)

Tune In

Tune in radio station WTPL at 2:05 today to hear Wayne Young '72, color commentator for Dartmouth football and play-by-play caller for Big Green baseball, talk about those two sports and probably more. Young is a former Dartmouth football captain and catcher on a College World Series Big Green baseball team.

You can tune in for the live stream here.

Watch Green-White Live and for Free!

Dartmouth's Green-White Game Saturday will be streamed live and free on the DartmouthSports.com website. Click here to get started. (The game is offered at no charge because – unlike in the fall – there will be no audio, and it will be streamed with available camera locations.)

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In this video, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens talks about spring football with a look ahead to the Green-White.

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Speaking of spring football, Columbia's spring game a couple of weeks ago was "sponsored by Rack & Soul," and in Providence tomorrow you can catch the Brown vs. White Spring Football Game, presented by Office Max. (italics are mine) Not sure what the schools get out of the corporate connection – it's surprising that the press releases don't go out of their way to emphasize what it means for the fans – but it's clear the big-time is filtering down.

Cornell's spring game at 4 tomorrow will include a live chat during the contest. Columbia had a "live blog" during its game.

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Dartmouth will introduce its 2011 captains at halftime of the Green-White. Another reminder that this is the year of the quarterback in the Ivy League is the fact that QB Kyle Newhall-Caballero has been named a captain at Brown, junior QB Sean Brackett is a captain at Columbia and QB Tommy Wornham has been named at Princeton.

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From last night's Big Green Alert:

Taken by the New England Patriots with the 17th pick of the draft was 6-foot-9, 315-pound offensive tackle Nate Solder of Colorado. He almost ended up in New England once before.

The story has been told many times before but Solder chose playing football at Colorado over playing basketball at Dartmouth.

What is less known is that Solder might have ended up as a two-sport athlete at Dartmouth.

“His brother John played for me at Stanford,” Teevens recounted Thursday. “I once bought a tanned elk skin from his father as part of a fundraiser.

“I talked with (Nate) and told him to come on out and be a combination (basketball-football) guy for us. Obviously he has done well with football.”

Although Solder was projected as a Dartmouth basketball recruit, Teevens had other plans for him. “He would have played for us,” the coach said in no uncertain terms.

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A couple of former Dartmouth players were at Radio City Musical Hall for the draft last night and were quoted on ESPN.com. Click here to read what Carroll Papajohn '10 and Bo Yanker '10 had to say about the NFL labor issues. Thanks to a loyal reader for a link I never would have found ;-)

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Still on the draft, because longsnapper Shane Peterlin knows the odds are against him being drafted he probably can't wait until the last name is called. At that point you can bet he'll have a telephone handy in hopes of a free agent offer. The Daily Dartmouth writes about Peterlin, who is represented by Plan B Sports Management out of Cincinnati.

Peterlin and defensive end Charles Bay both have attracted the interest of NFL teams. Teevens told the Daily D:

“We like to recruit guys with the aspiration to play in the NFL, and we try to help them parlay that athletic talent into a possible career. At the same time, I also want them to have an academic dream. We talk to them about dreams outside of athletics. That’s the unique thing about the Ivies.”

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A headline from the University of New Hampshire football site:

CHaD Announces Plans for N.H. East-West High School All-Star Football Game at UNH

Green Alert Take: I was a little taken aback that an all-star game to support Children's Hospital at Dartmouth would be played 90 miles away from CHaD. Hopefully the west stands project at Memorial Field will be completed before long, allowing the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Game to return to its rightful home, and the new CHaD game to be played where it probably belongs as well.

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Six-foot-ten, 240-pound Yale basketball center Greg Mangano has declared for the NBA draft. That said, Mangano told the Milford-Orange (CT) Bulletin

“I fully intend on pulling my name out by the May 8 deadline. There is a form I have to send into the NBA offices by May 8. I haven’t hired an agent and that will get me fully reinstated by the NCAA.”

Mangano averaged 18.6 points and 10.4 rebounds in Ivy League player this year.

According to Mangano, while he knows he won't be picked if he stays in the draft, Yale coach James Jones told him there has been very real NBA interest. That's in contrast to the situation some years ago when a Brown benchwarmer who had no intentions of continuing to play submitted his name for the draft as a lark. Needless to say, he got lots of press and lots of laughs but was not picked.

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And finally, we had a very nice birthday dinner in town earlier this week with That Certain Hanover High Graduate. Barring a cold getting worse she'll be running the 5000 for the first time this spring tomorrow at the UMass Pre-Conference Meet. And congrats to her for being selected to be a Dartmouth Undergraduate Advisor (UGA) next year!

Still Another Name

The wonders of Twitter seem to be confirming that Clemson wide receiver Robbie Anthony is headed to Dartmouth. Find his bio here and video of him during Clemson drills here. A graduate of Bishop Moore HS in Orlando, Fla., who had been majoring in architecture at Clemson, Anthony appeared in one game for the Tigers last fall (Presbyterian).

Find his high school highlight video as a wide receiver/kicker/punter here. The video notes he played two years of varsity basketball, ran track for four years, has run 4.5 in the 40 and 52.0 in the 400, had a 4.0 GPA in high school and was named to the National Honor Society.

In a video from his high school days Anthony shows how to kick a field goal.

As a transfer coming from the FBS (nee I-A) he will be eligible next fall.

Feeling the Draft(s)?

Today's topic: The draft(s).

The NFL Draft schedule: First round tonight at 8 p.m., rounds 2-3 tomorrow at 6 p.m. and rounds 4-7 Saturday at noon. Talk about drawing it out. Yawn. ;-)

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A search of ESPN's 2011 draft prospects reveals nine Ivy Leaguers mentioned, with Dartmouth's Charles Bay and Shane Peterlin not among them. Then again, the list includes Princeton linebacker Steve Cody, a 2011 Tiger captain, but does not include Yale fullback Shane Bannon and tight end Chris Blohm, who have both drawn significant NFL interest according to the Portal 31 blog. All that said, here are the Ivy players that ESPN has included on its list of prospects:

HARVARD
RB Gino Gordon
QB Andrew Hatch
OG Charles Osborne
S Collin Zych

PRINCETON
OLB Steve Cody
WR Trey Peacock

YALE
DE Tom McCarthy
S Adam Money
OLB Sean Williams

New Hampshire, by the way, has seven players listed by ESPN. Colgate and Holy Cross each have one one while Bucknell and Sacred Heart have none.

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Speaking of drafts ...

Dartmouth held its draft for Saturday's Green-White game yesterday with quarterback Tim McManus (green) and center Zach Wodka (white) going first. Picking for the Green was done by John Gallagher, Austen Fletcher and Tyler Melancon. Picking for the White was done by Ryan O'Neill, JB Andreassi and Alex Shulman. Also pictured: Assistant coach Clint Cosgrove.

Top draft picks by positions:

GREEN
QB - Tim McManus
RB - Dominick Pierre
WR - Michael Reilly, Brad Dornak
TE - Mitch Aprahamian
HB - Dan Hengeler
OT - Kyle Cook, Grant Palmer
OG - John Hanna, Pat Lahey
C - Sanders Davis

DE - Connor Phillips, Teddy Reed
DT - Royce Egeolu, Martin Pomykala
LB - Ben Magnus, Tom Patek, Michael Runger
DB - Shawn Abuhoff, Chad Hollis, Mike Banaciski, Cole Pembroke, Garrett Waggoner

ST - Foley Schmidt

WHITE
QB - Dan Rooney
RB - Nick Schwieger
WR - Dana Barbaro, Garrett Babb
TE - Justin Foley
HB - Chris Hardy
OT - John Scheve, Dan Jamokha
OG - Cohle Fowler, Rob Bathe
C - Zach Wodka

DE - Mick Davis, Matt Oh
DT - Mark Dwyer, Eddie Smith
LB - Luke Hussey, Garrett Wymore, Brendan Murray
DB - Chase Womack, AJ Dettorre, Diego Fernandez-Soto, Joey Casey, Anthony Diblasi

ST - Daniel Barstein

The rest of the roster will be assigned by the coaches.

Nota Bene: Like practice schedules and the weather in these parts, Green-White rosters are subject to frequent and sometimes dramatic change. If you print 'em, print 'em in pencil ;-)

Two More Names

Credit Google with delivering news of a couple more Dartmouth football recruits. Heading to Hanover from Newton (NJ) HS are Evan Chrustic, a 6-foot-4, 250 defensive tackle, and Garrett Schmidt, a 6-3, 240 tight end from Olentangy HS, Lewis Center, Ohio.

Chrustic's college plans were reported in a New Jersey Herald wrestling notebook that wrote he "will be going to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the fall to play football." Chrustic was an All-West Jersey third-team pick. It probably didn't help his chances for postseason honors that his team went 3-7. A talented wrestler, he medaled in the New Jersey state wrestling championships. Find a very quick clip of him in this westling move of the week video.

Schmidt – who will be the third unrelated Schmidt on the Big Green in the fall, joining Foley and Phil – was reported to be headed to Dartmouth in a story about a teammate who will be playing at Northwestern. ThisWeekSports.com wrote: "Garrett Schmidt recently announced that he would play at Dartmouth, a Football Championship Subdivision program (formerly Division I-AA)."

To see Schmidt's highlight video, click here.

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There's renewed optimism in Princeton with the return of injured quarterback Tommy Wornham who missed the second half of last season including the Tigers' loss to Dartmouth. Two years ago Wornham completed 18-of-29 passes for 211 yards and ran seven times for 49 yards in a win over the Big Green. The Princeton Packet writes about the triggerman for the Tigers' uptempo offense:

Bob Surace, who is gearing up for his second season as head coach, is still looking for the Tigers to run the fast-paced offense that can provide big points when it’s run well, but led to too many quick three-and-outs without Wornham.

"Oregon and Auburn, the two national championship teams, run it,” Surace said. “What we have to do is be successful with it. Earlier in the year, when we were humming along on offense, we were having success with it. Tommy went down and we probably weren’t as suited for it without him."

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It's hard not to be impressed by what the University of New Hampshire football program has accomplished over the past decade or so despite almost no local recruiting base and a stadium that compared to those of its conference brethren can only charitably be called, "subpar." With Rhode Island moving to the Northeast Conference, UMass to the MAC and the Big East flirting with Villanova, UNH and Maine may be in line for a lot of frequent flyer miles as members of the Colonial Athletic Association. With that in mind, the editorial staff at the UNH school newspaper has written a piece under the headline:

If CAA collapses, (Athletic Director Marty) Scarano needs to be prepared
Move to Patriot League may be an option

From the story:

The Patriot League would likely jump at the prospect of adding a team with the FCS prestige that UNH has.

Green Alert Take: UNH could certainly do worse than align with the Patriot League. But whether the PL would "jump" at the prospect of adding New Hampshire is another question. Not to disparage a fine university that tries to do things the right way, but apart from a bizarre relationship with Towson University for several years, the Patriot League has been made up of schools that draw largely from a different academic pool than UNH. The suspicion here is that some associated with the PL would be concerned that adding a larger, public university would water down the Patriot League brand.

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There aren't any Ivy or FCS teams included, but this list of NFL draft picks since 2000 by FBS conference teams is pretty interesting.

Night Moves?

There was one clear loser in the Green Alert Memorial Field night game poll. Fans made it clear they are not interested in a Thursday game. Perhaps surprisingly in a league and at a school where tradition is cherished, few voted against a night game of any sort. Here are the final numbers:

If Memorial Field hosts a night game it should be:

• on a Saturday: 61 percent
• on a Friday: 35 percent
• on a Thursday: 3 percent

Click here to see this highlight video of former Dartmouth punter Brian Scullin '09. Scullin is back in town offering a few punting tips and training for another NFL bid.

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Week Two opponent Sacred Heart will be breaking in a new quarterback next fall with the graduation of All-New England pick Dale Fink, considered by some close to the Dartmouth program as the best quarterback Dartmouth saw all last fall. In the Pioneers' Red & White spring game, 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore Tim Little completed 14-of-21 passes for 161 yards, one touchdown and one interception while 6-2 redshirt sophomore Luke Wischnowski hit on 9-of-21 for 171 yards and two interceptions. Neither threw a pass last year.

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The Sports Network has a roundup of this year's FCS draft hopefuls with a look at how last year's FCS draft picks fared. Turns out Brown defensive tackle David Howard, taken by Tennessee in the seventh round with the 241st overall pick, was the only FCS draftee who was cut. He was signed late in the year to the Oakland practice squad.

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Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar linked to the start of season ticket sales at Columbia. He pointed out that Columbia ticketing now has a "mouse over" feature that shows the view from different sections of Wien Stadium. While I'm not sure you'd choose one seat over another based on the pictures, kudos to Columbia for trying something innovative for the Ivies.

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Former Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph, who tortured Dartmouth for four years, has thrown just one pass this season with the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League but he made the most of it, tossing a 14-yard touchdown against the Philadelphia Soul and former Colgate QB standout Ryan Vena, who did his own damage against Dartmouth over a decade ago.

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Dartmouth baseball moved back into a tie for the Rolfe Division lead yesterday with a 2-1, 11-4 sweep of Brown in the friendly confines of Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park. With the back-to-back sweeps of the Bears and Yale's 2-2 weekend against Harvard the Big Green and Bulldogs are both 10-6 in the Ivy League. (Ivy League standings) Dartmouth concludes the regular Ivy League season this weekend with a pair of games against Harvard on Red Rolfe Field Saturday and two at Harvard a day later. Yale plays home-and-away twinbills against Brown.

Dartmouth College photo

Dartmouth (23-10) now has won 21 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in the nation. The Big Green is 39-5 at home since the opening of Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

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Dartmouth football kicks off a busy final week of spring practice today. The Big Green will also practice Thursday and Friday before finishing with the Green-White Game Saturday morning. Check BGA each night for complete wrapup of each session.

Weekend Wrap

Long-snapper Shane Peterlin's pro aspirations get a mention in the Dartmouth Sports Weekly. Talking with former punter Brian Scullin at yesterday's baseball game he reported Peterlin has his underhanded fastball really humming right now.

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With apologies to the guys in uniform, the catch of the day at yesterday's baseball game was made by football wide receiver/quarterback (or is it quarterback/wide receiver?) Timmy McManus. Sitting halfway up the stands alongside the first base line, McManus had a foul ball fly well over his head, bonk off the bricks above Karl Michael Pool and directly back to him where he calmly one-handed it.

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From an obit in the San Francisco Chronicle for Peter Bogardus '51:

Mr. Bogardus also played freshman football and started for the following three years as a lineman on the Dartmouth varsity team. In his senior year, the Ivy League Dartmouth Big Green played a rare game against the much stronger Michigan team at Ann Arbor, and lost 27-6, which Mr. Bogardus considered an honorable defeat.

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TriCities.com has an update on former Dartmouth corner Chris Laws '97, a promising player from Tennessee whose football career was ended by injury, but who went on earn an MBA at Harvard. (link)

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More good spring news for Dartmouth athletics as Peter Williamson became the first Ivy League men's golfer since 1993-94 – and just the seventh ever – to win two conference individual titles. Williamson, a junior who crossed the street from Hanover High to attend college, also was named the Ivy League Player of the Year. (link)

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Exciting times on the baseball diamond yesterday as Dartmouth rebounded from last week's disappointment at Yale with a doubleheader sweep of Brown. Thanks to Harvard's split with Yale, Dartmouth can move back into a tie for the Red Rolfe Division lead with a sweep of today's rescheduled twinbill with the Bears. (link)

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This just in on the Dartmouth women's rugby team:

The Women's Rugby team heads to Buffalo this week to play in the USA Rugby National Round of Sixteen. They are preparing for possibly the toughest pool in this year's tournament, as perennial National Championship match participants Penn State and Stanford will both be there. Dartmouth (#9) faces Stanford (#8) at 10 a.m. on Friday, and Penn State (#1) squares off against University of Northern Iowa (#16) at noon. Winners play at noon on Saturday, losers at 10 a.m., to determine the Final Four team from this pool. Follow the team during the match on twitter (dartmouthwomensrugby.com).

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David Coulson of College Sporting News delivers some pretty effective body shots to the NCAA in a column spun out of the organization's fight against the North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname.

Green Grabs an Ivy Title

A year ago it took Dartmouth to the midnight hour to earn its only Ivy League championship when the baseball team knocked off Columbia in the conference playoffs.

Yesterday the Dartmouth women's tennis team not only won a share of the the Big Green's first crown of the year, but the first in program history thanks to a 4-3 win at Harvard. Find the story here.

Dartmouth women's lacrosse, meanwhile, continued the chase for an Ivy League championship with a 15-10 win over Princeton. The Big Green can clinch a share of the crown with a win over Harvard Friday night in Hanover. Find the story here.

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Stopped by the gorgeous Corey Ford Clubhouse yesterday to catch some of the Dartmouth rugby team's 33-5 win over Ohio State. Former wide receiver Tanner Scott gets a mention in this recap. In addition to scoring a try, Scott made a terrific open-field stop of a Buckeye who had sliced through the Dartmouth line and seemed headed for an easy score until the only player who could stop him brought him down.

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Like so many others, Harvard's spring game was something less than an offensive showdown with the first touchdown in a 14-7 contest coming on a returned punt block. Colton Chapple quarterbacked the first team, going 8-for-19 for 126 yards. Tailback Treavor Scales did not play and presumptive starting QB Collier Winters' name does not appear in the recap.

A writeup on Princeton's spring game can be found here. Not much in the way of statistics or details but the video interview reminds us that Princeton could be a completely different team next year with the return from injury of talented quarterback Tommy Wornham and standout linebacker Steven Cody.

Not a surprise this soggy spring but Yale's Blue-White game yesterday was rained out. The Bulldogs will wrap up the spring with a Monday practice instead.

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They may not know this down in the valley yet, but it is an absolutely gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky. A great day for baseball. Let's play two!

Ah Spring

The good news is that the temperature in the Upper Valley is supposed to climb to the mid-70's by the middle of next week. The bad news? We woke to a new covering of snow here on the mountain this morning and it's coming down pretty good right now. Ah spring (?) in Northern New England.

A reminder: Yesterday's football practice was postponed. Dartmouth will finish the spring with a busy week of practices on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and BGA will be there every step of the way.

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The Boston Herald has a story about 6-foot-8, 319-pound Colorado left tackle Nate Solder, who was "headed to Foxboro for an official pre-draft visit recently." A likely first-round pick in the NFL draft, Solder, as noted in this space a number of times over the past couple of years, almost wore a Big Green uniform. But not a football uniform. From the Herald:

... (H)e chose the University of Colorado to play football over Dartmouth, where he would have played basketball.

“It just wasn’t the level of competition I was looking for,” Solder said of Dartmouth’s basketball program. “That’s why I chose football.”

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Columbia held its Blue-White scrimmage last night and as happens frequently, the defense dominated in a 7-6 game. Quarterback Sean Brackett, heralded as one of the Ivy League's best, completed just 9-of-30 passes for 75 yards with a long of 15. He rushed 12 times for 23 net yards although he, like Dartmouth's Tim McManus, has his effectiveness limited by essentially playing two-hand touch with the quarterback. Jerry Bell, who QB'd the White team, was 16-for-31 for 160 yards with one interception and a long of 44. Converted wide receiver Bruce Grant led the ground game with 18 carries for 49 yards.

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Yale's spring game is set for today at 2 p.m. The Portal 31 blog has a preview of sorts plus a link to this SI.com story that lists two Yalies among 15 small-school draft prospects. Included are tight end/fullback Shane Bannon and defensive end Tom McCarthy.

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Princeton also winds up spring ball today. Like every school in the Ivy League for the first time in recent memory, Princeton has its starting quarterback returning:

The Princeton offense has welcomed back two-year starter Tommy Wornham, who was among the national passing and total offense leaders before suffering a season-ending injury against Brown.

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The Providence Journal writes about Jockapella, football players and other athletes at Brown singing a capella.

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Some University of New Hampshire reaction to the announcement that UMass will move to the football classification "formerly known as I-A." From a Seacoast online story:

With seven straight appearances in the NCAA playoffs — with six of those trips reaching the national quarterfinals — UNH is enjoying the best run of success in its history. But now, with another close-proximity CAA team leaving, it might be forced to re-evaluate its position.

"I'd obviously advocate looking for potential league members in the Northeast," said UNH athletics director Marty Scarano. "I think the league, as a whole, is going to have to address this now that it's official."

From a story in The New Hampshire school newspaper:

Scarano didn't rule out the possibility of a move if necessary, however, though he does feel such a thought is very unlikely.

"In a nutshell, we've been very proactive in not only sustaining what we do in the CAA but also having contingency plans if, in fact, [a move is] necessary," Scarano said. "Our main intent is to stay in the CAA, however; to make the CAA whole again, if you would, which would mean bringing some northern teams into the fold. Basically, we're doing the very best we can to maintain what we do, and there's no sense that we aren't going to go forward in a dynamic, positive way like we've been doing."

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With Dartmouth's weekend baseball and softball games pushed back to Sunday and Monday the place to be today is the Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse where the Big Green will play host to Ohio State at noon. Former wide receiver Tanner Scott and offensive lineman John O'Sullivan are both on the Big Green roster.

Delay of Game (Or Practice)

Midterms, cold weather and the short turnaround from yesterday afternoon's scrimmaging led Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens to move this morning's scheduled 7 a.m. practice to next Friday. The Big Green will now close out spring practice with sessions next Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with the Green-White game Saturday morning. Full coverage of each session will appear nightly on BGA.

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A Cincinnati Bengals blogger writes that Dartmouth grad Reggie Williams '76 was one of the best draft picks in team history. (link)

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Former Dartmouth and NFL quarterback Jeff Kemp '81 will be the guest speaker at a Tennessee prayer breakfast. (link)

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Harvard radio will provide coverage of the Crimson's spring scrimmage tomorrow evening. From a WHRB blog posting:

Although it has been a relatively tame spring, there are several storylines to watch, from the race for the backup quarterback role behind Collier Winters to the emergence of new starters along the offensive line.

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Columbia's spring game is under the lights tonight in New York City.

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Yale's Be The Match bone marrow registry, started by retired football coach Larry Ciotti, added almost 900 potential donors to the list.

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With the UMass football move to the Mid-American Conference, New Hampshire and Maine are the last two New England schools in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Although it meant a drop in the level of football, Rhode Island's impending move from the CAA to the Northeast Conference is looking smarter and smarter according to a story in the Providence Journal. From the Projo:

"What we did,” (URI athletic director Thorr) Bjorn said, “was focused on continuing to play football. The fear I had was that the teams we were losing, Hofstra and Northeastern, along with additional budget cuts, could put our program at risk.”

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As a Massachusetts native who was an assistant at Boston University and head coach at Maine, Buddy Teevens has more than a passing familiarity with the old Yankee Conference, which morphed into the northern part of the CAA. Asked about the UMass move yesterday Teevens had this to say:

“I’m happy for UMass and it’s nice to have another major college football program in the state. But for the New Hampshires, the Maines, and the Rhode Islands it just gets harder and harder. It’s one less opponent that you can schedule.

“I went through it when I was at Tulane trying to get into a conference, Conference USA and all that. Guys are jumping and you are the odd man out. It’s tough."

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Budget woes have men's and women's fencing, wrestling and women's skiing facing the axe at Brown according to the Daily Herald. In case you are wondering, Dartmouth is currently the only Ivy League school that does not have women's varsity fencing and one of two not to have men's fencing or wrestling.

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Imagine this. A talented high school wide receiver goes to a school that regularly draws more than 100,000 fans for football games but chooses to play lacrosse instead of football. He graduates as an all-conference lacrosse player and then decides to feed his football Jones by using his final fall of athletic eligibility as a grad student at a school that drew 1,277 for its final home game. He catches just 12 passes in his only season of college football but now finds himself being swarmed by NFL scouts. Stop imagining. It's a true story. NJ.com writes about Chris Hogan's journey from Penn State laxer to NFL prospect out of that noted football powerhouse Monmouth College. From the story:

I asked the Browns guy how he had heard of him,” said Hogan’s agent, Art Weiss. “He told me, ‘Everybody’s heard of this guy.’ ”

This and That

Today's Boston Globe has a few paragraphs about the impending installation of lights at Dartmouth's Memorial Field.

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The Indianapolis Star writes about a 3,000-yard high school running back who had been hearing from Dartmouth and Louisville before choosing to pursue running track in college.

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The Globe reports that MAC-bound UMass will get to play at Gillette Stadium rent-free. Whether the Minutemen will be long for the MAC remains to be seen. As the Globe writes ...

... (I)f the Big East called tomorrow and invited the Minutemen as their 10th team in football and 18th team in basketball, a deal would be signed in a Massachusetts minute.

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You had to figure this was coming. From a story in the Yale Daily:

Yale is under federal investigation for possible violations of Title IX, but in the gender equality statute’s traditional sports context, the University seems to be on solid footing, despite different levels of funding between male and female teams.

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The Wall Street Journal has a story under the headline:

How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football
With national reaction to injuries mounting, TR's private summit led to crucial rule changes—including the forward pass.

The piece begins this way:

Football is in trouble. NFL owners have locked out the players, meaning that the upcoming season could be cancelled. Even if the games go on, a lingering dispute over head injuries has saddled the sport with a messy controversy.

From the story:

Today a major problem is concussions. One study sponsored by the NFL found that professional veterans over the age of 50 are five times as likely as the general population to suffer from dementia. Those numbers are bad, but consider the situation in 1905, when 18 people died on the gridiron.

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Here's an interesting take on the value of sports from a story I freelanced last week about Dartmouth women's lacrosse player Shannie MacKenzie:

"The head of the desk I worked on was an athlete at Northwestern and he is a huge believer that the characteristics you develop and the things you learn in sports carry on," she said. "His main takeaway is that there are a lot of smart and really successful people at these jobs and a lot of them don't know what it's like to fail and to lose.

"As an athlete you know what it's like and you know how to rebound. You can't let failing scar you for the next 'X' amount of years. You give it that 10 minutes or two hours of thought and then you bounce back."

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A few snow flurries up here on the mountain this morning. The forecast for this afternoon's practice is low 40's with wind and a 30 percent chance of rain. Wunnerful, wunnerful.

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Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens on the schedule for the rest of the spring from BGA premium:

“We will scrimmage this week on Thursday as opposed to Friday. We’ll go early on Friday morning for an abbreviated practice because we have some morning classes and don’t want to double dip with such a short recovery period after banging on Thursday. That will be a challenge mentally: Can you get up and get out of bed and go full bore?

“I’m glad we’re practicing Friday morning with it being Easter weekend. It’s midterms time as well. That will give them Saturday, Sunday and Monday to recoup. We’ll probably scrimmage a little bit again on Tuesday then go lighter and pick teams on Thursday before we have the (Green-White) scrimmage on Saturday (April 30).

Catch Up With the Green

A new website called Lateral Sports is serving as a "search aggregator" that provides links to streaming video, audio or live stats for college teams. Although it doesn't appear to distinguish between paid video/audio and freebies, it's an interesting concept and worth taking a look at. Find the Dartmouth Lateral Sports links for upcoming contests here.

Here's a fun one. On the Lateral Sports home page, type in your zip code and find a list of college athletes from your area.

*

Dartmouth defensive back Chad Hollis has a column in the Daily Dartmouth that begins this way:

Think back to every great football movie you’ve ever seen. Now think about the last scene. Think about the epic goal-line push in “Friday Night Lights,” the inspiring halftime speech in “Any Given Sunday” and the amazing last-second touchdown in “Remember the Titans.” Now ask yourself: What do these moments all have in common?

Stumped? While you might be tempted to say large sweaty men or a soundtrack filled with inaudible grunts, the answer is a little more obvious. These three movies highlight three very different aspects of football that each contains a final football game under stadium lights.

And then the kicker ...

Dartmouth football finally has the chance to recreate one of these memorable moments. Last week, the Town of Hanover authorized the installation of permanent lights on Memorial Field.

*

Speaking of night football at Dartmouth, have you checked out the poll over there to the left? It probably should have been mentioned that a Thursday night game would probably only be an option if it meant television.

*

Dartmouth long-snapper Shane Peterlin gets a quick mention in a Massachusetts' paper story previewing the NFL draft. (link) As noted last night on the Green Alert site, Peterlin has been joined in Hanover by former Dartmouth punter Brian Scullin '09, who recently got a call from the Washington Redskins and is in town working out. He's also offering a little guidance to punter Daniel Barstein while he's in campus.

*

Check out this Yale spring practice video. (I turned off the audio ;-) And this one that has a little more football.

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A Columbia Spectator columnist questions why Cornell is having so much athletic success and points at future job opportunities available to Cornell grads as playing a role in recruiting top athletes to Ithaca. Certainly Wharton doesn't hurt Penn's recruiting.

*

When Dartmouth football plays host to Bucknell in Hanover on Oct. 19, 2013, these Bucknell recruits will be juniors.

*

The news that UMass is expected to announce a move to the MAC and what used to be called Division I-A gets something less than an enthusiastic greeting from Dave Coulson of College Sporting News and the Lehigh Football Nation.

UMass to MAC

ESPN reports a press conference tomorrow to announce the Minutemen will go to the MAC in 2012. Another blow to the CAA.

Back at It

Curious about the 2012 Ivy League composite schedule? Our friends at College Sporting News have pulled it together here. (The 2011 composite schedule posted on the BGA blog last week can be found here.)

*

The impending installation of lights at Dartmouth's Memorial Field gets a quick mention in the latest Chalktalk from the National Football Foundation.

*

Take a second and vote in the new poll about what day (or if) a night football game should be played on Memorial Field.

*

Former Dartmouth assistant Pete Lembo, now head coach at Ball State, mentions the talented staff he was part of under John Lyons during his days with the Big Green in a spring report.

*

The Sports Network continues to refer to Columbia linebacker Alex Gross as the best NFL defensive prospect from the Ivy League. On the other side of the ball, TSN says the best offensive prospect is Yale tight end Chris Blohm.

*

The Portal 31 Yale blog reports that Duke defensive lineman Tevin Hood was at the Bulldogs' practice Monday and intends to transfer to Yale. Although projecting a starting lineup can be a dangerous thing, there's a potential starting lineup posted on Portal 31. It shows a very well-balanced group of returnees that on offense features veteran starters returning at quarterback, tailback, wide receiver, three offensive line spots and kicker. Defensively, Portal 31 sees returning starters in each area of the field with one tackle, one end, two linebackers, one corner back and one safety coming back along with the punter.

*

Week 5 opponent Holy Cross concluded practice with its annual spring game. Vermont product Max Librizzi, whose sister captained the Dartmouth women's basketball team, completed 10-of-17 passes for 98 yards and the lone touchdown in the contest.

*

Dave Jenkerson, Dartmouth's new strength coach, comes from St. Anselm College, where he worked under Athletic Director Jo-Ann Nester. A former associate athletic director at Dartmouth and then AD at the University of San Diego, Nester has announced her retirement effective at the end of the year.

*

In case you are wondering, we're back from the Great College Tour 2011 and will have a full practice report up on Green Alert Premium tonight.

*

For what it's worth, we were walking past the Carrier Dome at Syracuse yesterday just as large group of high school seniors was heading into the building. A security guard shooed us into the building with them and like Forest Gump we suddenly found ourselves in the "accepted students" luncheon on the (uncovered) turf. We didn't eat but That Certain Hanover High Junior certainly enjoyed being at the 50-yard line and looking around the building. He was clearly impressed by The 'Cuse. While he liked the Orange a lot, he still hopes to see himself in blue and white in the fall of 2012.

*

While we were away That Certain Hanover High Grad ran the 1500 in Saturday's meet at Memorial Field and placed third in the 20-runner pack as Dartmouth finished 1-2-3 in the event. She was the top-finishing freshman in the race and third among nine Big Green runners.

*

And finally, leaving Moose Mountain last Thursday morning at 4:15 a.m., we very nearly got bogged down (literally) in the late-arriving mud on our road. We were hopeful that upon returning last evening we would find the mud had abated. Hah. It is really nasty out there.

Before-and-After II

Before-and-After answers (part two):

former celtic/labor law
Satch SANDERS DAVIS Bacon

60's British duo/travelling man
Chad and JEREMY RICK Nelson

old president/ heavyweight champ
Andrew JACKSON FLOYD Patterson

tennis player/ tender is the night
Roscoe TANNER SCOTT Fitzgerald

death wish/ special ops
Charles BBRONSON GREEN beret

Memorial Field Past and Present

Greetings from Syracuse, N.Y., where we will finish up the Great College Tour 2011 today. We (wisely) decided not to set up the tent last night after driving through snow showers, hail, rain and wind approaching 50 mph on the winding trip here from Happy Valley.

*

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a lengthy look at the history of Memorial Field spun out of the impending addition of lights. There's some good historical background and perspective offered by former Dartmouth SID Jack DeGange. It's Jack I turn to when I need a history lesson. Speaking of which, there are still copies of his book available over there on the side. Get 'em while they last!

*

Dartmouth linebacker Aaron Limonthas came up short in his bid to be next year's student body president. The D has a story.

*

The Yale web page has a story about three Bulldogs hoping to hear their names called on draft day and the photo accompanying the story is from Dartmouth's Memorial Field.

*

One year after Penn football player Owen Thomas took his own life students wore shirts bearing his number 40 and honored him with a walk that raised $16,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The Daily Pennsylvanian reports.

*

Penn State's spring game wasn't the only one abbreviated by the weather. A lightning strike at nearby Lewisburg Saturday forced an end to the Bucknell spring game.

*

We'll be back in town late tonight and coverage of spring football will resume tomorrow after practice

*

And finally, a few more Dartmouth football names in "before-and-afters" from That Certain Loyal Reader:

• former celtic/labor law

• 60's British duo/travelling man

• tennis player/ tender is the night

• old president/ heavyweight champ

• death wish/ special ops

Answers tonight ...

Rain, Rain Didn't Go Away

Well, all I can say is it is a good thing this year's trip to Penn State was about more than football. It took just under nine hours to drive here and then they up and called the Blue-White game one series into the second half because of rain. It's fair to say that didn't go over particularly well with one member of our three person travel party (clue: the youngest one).

The best part of the day came after the 10-0 game was called when a handful of huge Nittany Lion players made like little kids and did sliding belly flops on their way to the tunnel and off the field.

The weather wasn't nearly as bad as predicted but it was bad enough that we were a little concerned when we headed back to the campground. Fortunately we had put anything we couldn't afford to get wet in the car, and had just a few puddles inside that we were able to sponge away in 10 minutes or so. That said, between the rain and the 34-degree weather when I got up this morning I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to convince Mrs. BGA to camp this early in the year again ;-(

*

Dartmouth gets a quick mention in this story centered around the development of the Head Impact Telemetry System helmet monitor system that the Big Green has been fortunate to be part of for several years. This has been discussed here before, but Simbex, which developed the system, is located in Lebanon.

*

While we were in State College, Pa., yesterday, a former State College High quarterback was giving the Dartmouth baseball team a headache. Brook Hart, the 6-foot-5 southpaw who passed for 390 yards and three touchdowns in a Yale victory over Dartmouth in the 2009 season, gave up one earned run and struck out seven in 8 2/3 innings to help the Bulldogs complete a sweep of Saturday's doubleheader with the Big Green. Yale took the first game 6-1 and the nightcap 5-1 to move into a tie with Dartmouth for the Red Rolfe Division lead. The same two teams will meet up for another twinbill today.

*

A strong second half by Navy helped the undefeated Midshipmen to a 27-10 (men's rugby) win over Dartmouth yesterday in Hanover.

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Check out some rules changes for college football next fall here.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Here's hoping the forecast where you are today is better than the forecast here in Happy Valley where they are calling for 2.23 inches of rain. Folks, that's a gully washer and I'm a little concerned about our tent ;-). We won't leave anything in it when we head over the Beaver Stadium shortly for the Blue-White Game – if they even hold it. ...

Speaking of which, we had our campus tour yesterday and the consensus among the three of us was that it was one of the best college tours we've had anywhere, anytime, including when we were looking two years ago with That Hanover High Grad. We had a really terrific pair of guides who hit all the high points. I don't know how many schools this size could have a tour like that and not have to load visitors up on buses.

Right at the start of the tour the guides explained to us that there's this cheer in Happy Valley where one group shouts "We Are," and another group responds, "Penn State." (Gotta admit, we knew that one coming in ;-). Anyway, perhaps a dozen times in the 90-minute tour someone random walking by, leaning out of a building or on a bike would shout at us, "We Are." In once voice we would respond. Sometimes you didn't even see who it was who instigated the cheer. Thankfully it never happened in the library.

Here's the interesting part. Our guide, who came from the Philadelphia area, was accepted at all of the schools to which he applied, including Penn. In talking with him after the tour he couldn't stress how happy he is with the choice he made. Very interesting.

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Caught a really good Penn State-Purdue baseball game last night. Unfortunately, the good guys lost.

*

This was also interesting. I remember reading about it before but perhaps you haven't heard the story. Penn State President Graham Spanier rooms with freshmen for a few days at the start of each school year. Neat idea. The tour guide told us that one year Spanier went to hang his towel up near the shower in his dorm and discovered there were no hooks. Needless to say, within days there were towel hooks in every bathroom.

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In Dartmouth sports news, the 2-2 Big Green rugby team hosts Navy (4-0) today in a critical College Premier League contest at 1 p.m. at the Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse opposite the golf course. Dartmouth pretty much needs a win to keep its playoff hopes and a shot at the national title alive.

Former gridders John O’Sullivan and Kevin Gallagher are expected to see action in the game, which will be streamed on the Dartmouth Sports Network.

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As for Thursday's practice, one of my spies in the sky saw a little of the session including mostly running plays in the hurry up mode. Word is that Tim McManus continues to look sharp handling and running. Throws were mostly quick outs.

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Dartmouth linebacker Aaron Limonthas lays out his platform for president of the student body here.

Just Checking In

A chilly start to the day here in Happy Valley with the temperature in the mid-30s. We have a college tour scheduled this morning, a trip down memory lane in the afternoon, a visit to the carnival outside of Beaver Stadium in early evening and Penn State-Purdue baseball tonight. Should be a great day.

The forecast is horrible for the Blue-White game tomorrow with thunder storms and "1.77 inches of rain on the way" which will keep the crowd down. I don't think they'll be topping 70,000 this year!

I just hope the tent stays dry.

Not much for you this morning but how about this? An eBay auction of a "RARE Dartmouth College Vintage Skirt Green/White Indian," that you could have had for $150 but no one bid on.

Have Fun ... Answers

Here are the solutions to this morning's puzzler.

Aerosmith/American Idiot
Steven TYLER GREEN day

rocket man/yogi bear
Elton JOHN HANNA Barbera

Jazz player/the bridge
CJ MILES GAY Talese

wacky professor/astral weeks
Irwin COREY VANN Morrison

turtles/brokerage firm
Flo and EDDIE SMITH Barney

terminator/prep school
Sarah CONNOR PHILLIPS Exeter

get to the point/st lucie county town
Cut to the CHASE JENSEN Beach

late singer/popular 90's tv show
Ray CHARLES BAY Watch

stone cold/mutiny on the bounty
Steve AUSTIN FLETCHER Christian

can't buy a thrill/ giants descendant
Steely DAN ROONEY Mara

Thanks again to That Certain BGA Reader ;-)

Have Fun With This

OK, here we go. What follows are Jeopardy style "before and afters" with the name of a 2010 Dartmouth football player in the middle. Before we get to the puzzles, here's an example (hint: It's an NFL Hall of Fame running back):

1962 doo-wop hit/chicken noodle

Give up?

The answer is ...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Duke of EARL CAMPBELL soup


Understand how the game is played? Now try to find the Dartmouth player in the following clues (answers will be posted later today):


• Aerosmith/American Idiot

• Rocket man/Yogi Bear

• jazz player/the bridge

• wacky professor/astral weeks

• turtles/brokerage firm

• terminator/prep school

• get to the point/st lucie county town

• late singer/popular 90's tv show

• stone cold/mutiny on the bounty

• can't buy a thrill/giants descendant


To help you out, here is last year's Dartmouth roster:

A.J. Dettorre
A.J. Houston
Aaron Limonthas
Aaron Mondshine
Alex Douglas
Alex Johns
Alex Shulman
Alex Wodka
Andy Gay
Anthony Diblasi
Austen Fletcher
Austin Katigan
Ben Magnus
Billy Bradshaw
Brad Dornak
Brendan Murray
Brett Kana
Brian Kosnik
Brock Middleton
Bronson Green
Bruno Vetter
Buddy Benaderet
Cam Colwell
Chad Hollis
Charles Bay
Chase Jensen
Chase Womack
Chris Hardy
Clay Robbins
Cohle Fowler
Cole Marcoux
Cole Pembroke
Conner Kempe
Connor Phillips
Corey Vann
Dan Henggeler
Dan Rooney
Dana Barbaro
Daniel Barstein
Daniel Jamokha
Dean Bakes
Diego Fernandez-Soto
Dominick Pierre
Donald Kephart
Eddie Smith
Edward von Kuhn
Elliot Kastner
Ethan Posey
Foley Schmidt
Garrett Babb
Garrett Waggoner
Garrett Wymore
Grant Palmer
Greg Patton
Hunter Foraker
J.B. Andreassi
Jackson Floyd
Jason Lawrence
Jeremy Rick
Jimmy Johnson
Joey Casey
John Gallagher
John Golio
John Hanna
John Higgins
John O'Sullivan
John Scheve
Joseph Dowdell
Julian Flamer
Justin Foley
Kevin de Regt
Kevin Gallagher
Kyle Cook
Lane Shipley
Luke Hussey
Mark Dwyer
Marlon Alebiosu
Martin Pomykala
Matt Oh
Matthew Kelly
Max Kingsley
Michael Reilly
Michael Runger
Michael Tree
Mick Davis
Mike Banaciski
Miles Gay
Mitch Aprahamian
Nick Schwieger
Niles Murphy
Pat Scorah
Patrick Lahey
Peter Calvanelli
Philip Schmidt
R.C. Willenbrock
Rob Bathe
Robbie Krattiger
Robbie Rodriguez
Royce Egeolu
Ryan Hrabak
Ryan O'Neill
Ryan Paganetti
Sanders Davis
Shane Peterlin
Shawn Abuhoff
Shawn Bode
Steve Morris
Steve Stafford
T.J. Cameron
Tanner Scott
Teddy Reed
Thomas Prewitt
Tim McManus
Tom Patek
Tyler Green
Tyler Melancon
Will Deevy
Will Montgomery
William Connolly
Zach Wodka

Food for Thought

What better way to start a smorgasbord of news items than with a story about eating? The Daily Dartmouth earlier this week had a piece about athletes and eating that included an interview with Thomas Prewitt, Dartmouth's 6-foot-7, 310-pound (per last year's roster) offensive lineman. "The Governor," (my nickname for him) who spent the winter studying in Barcelona, shared an apartment and cooking with friends. From the story:

“Our diet was God-awful,” he said. “It consisted of spaghetti, eggs, potatoes and assorted meats. We hardly ate any fruits or vegetables.”

Prewitt also said he ended up losing 15 or 20 pounds in Barcelona, forcing him to focus on putting the weight back on when he returned from Europe.

“As an offensive linesman, I have to keep myself at a good, heavy weight,” he said. “You can’t get too heavy, but you can’t be too light either.”

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Cornell has raised the bar for Ivy League football websites. There's an introduction to the site here and you can visit the new site here. You could easily spend a half hour navigating the links. Be sure to take the aerial tour of campus (you might want to take some Dramanine first if you end up spinning around the way I did) and if you figure out how to zoom down to Schoellkopf Field the 360-degree look at the stadium is really impressive.

Green Alert Take: There's no question the new Cornell football site will be a hit with kids. For the rest of us it might raise the question, when is much almost too much ;-)

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The lede of a story in the Daily Pennsylvanian about the Quakers' newly named captains:

No football team has ever won three-straight Ivy League championships, but juniors Luke Nawrocki, Erik Rask and Greg Van Roten will attempt to lead their squad to the record books next fall.

What the DP means, of course, is no team has ever won three consecutive Ivy League titles without sharing any of them.

For what it's worth, three titles isn't even a Penn record record. The Quakers won four in a row from 1983-86. (Dartmouth won five in a row from 1969-73. )

*

The Yale Daily News has a story about spring practice heating up in New Haven. From the story:

Though the Elis have lost some key starters from last season, much of the team that finished second in the Ivy League will return to the Yale Bowl next fall. Eight starters return on the Blue defense, and quarterback Patrick Witt ’12 will lead the offense for the third consecutive year.

“Whether you’re playing pee-wee or in the NFL, it’s huge to have a returning quarterback,” Williams said. “(Witt) has complete knowledge of what we’re doing offensively and of his rhythm with receivers and tight ends. He has a better comfort level and trust in the offensive line. It gives you confidence.”

*

A University of Rhode Island offensive lineman who was a match for someone battling leukemia completed a bone marrow donation Monday. (story)

Holy Cross and Bucknell are holding bone marrow testing drives tomorrow and Brown will join the Be the Match effort on Tuesday. New Hampshire will test on May 2 (and kudos to coach Sean McDonnell for making this video encouraging another large turnout over on the Seacoast).

*

A few years back the message boards were buzzing with talk about a potential Dartmouth-Drake football game. It doesn't seem to have materialized but Drake found a more dramatic game. As this Sports Network story reports, the school is making a 15-day trip to play a Mexican all-star team in the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl May 21 in Moshi, Tanzania this spring. It's the first time an American college football team will have played in Africa. (NCAA rules prohibit playing an NCAA opponent.)

While on the continent the Drake players will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (4 1/2 days up and 1 1/2 days down), enjoy a safari and work on an addition to an orphanage.

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More history making from the Dartmouth baseball team, which rallied from a 10-7 eighth-inning deficit to knock off Boston College yesterday, 15-10. From the college release:

The last Dartmouth team to begin a season 18-6 or better came 86 years ago when the 1925 Big Green squad was 19-5 en route to a 24-5 season ... The 16-game home winning streak is the second longest in the program's history -- Dartmouth won 32 consecutive games in Hanover from the beginning of the 1923 season into the 1926 campaign.

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A couple of basketball notes. The Miami Herald reports that Harvard won't be looking for a new men's basketball coach. Not yet, at least. From the story:

Tommy Amaker turned down overtures from the University of Miami and will remain basketball coach at Harvard. UM officials flew to Boston on Monday to try and persuade Amaker and his wife, Stephanie, a professor in the Harvard medical school, to come to Miami.

They offered a five-year package believed to average $1.1 million per year. Amaker said he was “flattered,” but decided to stay with the Crimson, which won its first Ivy League title this season with 23 victories.

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And this is kind of fun for those of us who saw him play against Dartmouth the past few years. Former Vermont men's basketball standout Marqus Blakely has signed with the Houston Rockets for the final game of the season.

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Here's the thing about "best of," "worst of" and other lists: Although some of them are really ridiculous and impossible to qualify, they are hard to ignore and get people talking. This one will as well.

The Daily Beast has a list of the "Most Stressful Colleges." Here are the top five and Ivies:

1. Columbia
2. Stanford
3. Harvard
4. Penn
5. Washington U (St. Louis)
10. Yale
12. Princeton
13. Dartmouth
16. Cornell
17. Brown

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And finally, the BGA blog might be a little quiet the next several days as we bring That Certain Hanover High Junior on a college visit to a Certain Big Ten school with an octogenarian head football coach. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning at O-Dark-O'Clock. Hard to believe looking out the window here on the mountain, but we'll be tenting it, so Internet availability may be spotty. That said, this will be our sixth consecutive trip out that way for the Blue-White game (I didn't give it away, did I?) and though we've tented it each time, I've managed to get the blog updated most mornings so don't be a stranger.

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One final thing. There will definitely be two blog posts tomorrow and they will be a lot of fun. Credit to a loyal reader (and emailer) who has become a friend.

LB Tossing Hat in Ring

Linebacker Aaron Limonthas will be running for Dartmouth student body president as a write-in candidate. He served as 2010 summer term president. From the Daily Dartmouth:

Limonthas — who is from Houston, Texas, and is majoring in sociology — is a linebacker on the football team and president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, he said. He is also an undergraduate advisor, has his own radio show, is the historian of the College’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter and is a member of the African American Society.

Limonthas became active in Student Assembly during his sophomore winter and has served as Swim Dock Committee Chair since his Summer term presidency.

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The Boston Herald earlier this week published a list of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame/Jack Grinold Eastern Massachusetts Chapter scholar-athlete award recipients for 2011. There are three Dartmouth-bound honorees and 12 future Ivy Leaguers included. The list:

Zachary Bartlett, Xaverian (Wesleyan)
John Bergantino, Belmont Hill (Penn)
Eric Bermudez, Masconomet (Annapolis)
John Carrier, Cohasset (Bowdoin)
Matthew Costello, Everett (Princeton)
Peter Crampton, Lexington (Carnegie-Mellon)
Nathan Crary, Dennis-Yarmouth (Tufts)
Ned Deane, Andover (Amherst)
Ryan Delisle, St. John’s Prep (Harvard)
Glen Duffy, Natick (undecided)
Anthony Fabiano, Wakefield (Harvard)
Ryan Flannery, North Attleboro (Columbia)
Michael Grassa, BB&N (undecided)
Kane Haffey, Duxbury (undecided)
Louis Hunt, Belmont Hill (Amherst)
Daniel Johnson, North Attleboro (Bowdoin)
Brad Keirstead, Waltham (Bentley)
Denis Maguire, Duxbury (Bowdoin)
Alec May, King Philip (Georgetown)
Kyle McGuire, Mansfield (undecided)
Brian Miller, Andover (Boston College)
Nick Noonan, Milton (Hamilton)
Obum Obukwelu, BC High (Harvard)
Peter Savarese, BB&N (Dartmouth)
Max Schaphorst, Needham (undecided)
Ben Shelton, Wayland (undecided)
Zachary Smerlas, Lincoln-Sudbury (Brown)
Charles Storey, Milton Academy (Dartmouth)
Brian Strachan, St. Sebastian’s (Brown)
Chris Tamasi, Xaverian (Amherst)
Anthony Tedesco, Mansfield (Bowdoin)
Ben Ticknor, Milton Academy (Dartmouth)
Michael Weisman, North Andover (Columbia)

*

The Daily Pennsylvanian has a recap of Penn's spring game. Another story under the headline Underclassmen shine in spring included this:

Saturday, the Penn varsity football team took on quite possibly the toughest Ivy League opponent of the year: itself.

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On the scheduling front, the Holy Cross site has a video of head coach Tom Gilmore discussing the Crusaders' finalized schedule that includes challenging out-of-conference contests against Massachsuetts, Harvard, New Hampshire, Brown and Dartmouth. Gilmore, a former Dartmouth defensive coordinator, mentions the contest with the Big Green at the 3-minute mark.

The College Sporting News site has a nice composite Ivy League schedule for 2011 here.

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In case you missed it, the BGA reported yesterday that the Dartmouth-UNH series will resume with the final two games in the current contract at UNH in 2014 and in Hanover in 2016 for the Big Green's season-opener. (link)

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The Brown Daily Herald has a story and graphic on average head coaching salaries in the Ivy League. It suggests Brown's coaches have the lowest average at $63,618 with Dartmouth next at $77,040. Interestingly, Harvard head coaches on average make just $617 a year more than those in Hanover, which is third-lowest in the Ivies. Cornell is reported to have the highest salaries at $91,368. The Ivy average is listed at $81,788.

Green Alert Take: The numbers are drawn from something called the Office of Post Secondary Education and I'm not sure I'm buying them. ... If those Harvard figures are accurate, there are probably a few severely underpaid coaches down in Cambridge. Football coach Tim Murphy (18 seasons, five Ivy League titles), women's basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith (29 seasons, 11 Ivy League titles) and men's hoop coach Tommy Amaker (one title) are among the highest paid coaches in the league for their sports, if not the highest paid. That spreads the money a little thinner for the rest of the coaches.

The Daily Herald also has a graphic and story listing the purported athletic budgets at the eight Ivy League schools. If you believe Harvard's budget is $17.9 million and Yale's budget – for a much less successful program – is exactly double that at $35.8 million I've got a bridge you might be interested in. I've written this before, but in trying to do the same kind of story for the newspaper one year I discovered budgets are reported so differently as to make any comparison not between apples and oranges, but as a Dartmouth administrator famously said to me, as between "apples and hubcaps."

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Amaker, by the way, has had his name surface with regard to the vacant University of Miami head coaching position. The Boston Globe reports.

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Villanova football to the Big East talks are on hold and the Philadelphia Inquirer wants to know why.

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After narrowly missing a spot on the Atlanta Braves' roster, Ed Lucas '04 went hitless in his first nine at-bats for the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves before breaking out last night with two hits in three trips to the plate including a two-run double. (picture) Lucas won the Alfred E. Watson Trophy as Dartmouth's outstanding male athlete after batting .405 as a senior. He played jayvee quarterback as a freshman.

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Speaking of baseball, here are some interesting numbers that came out of Sunday's doubleheader sweep of Princeton that raised the Big Green's Ivy League record to 6-2. From the sports information release:

Dartmouth improved its all-time record to 1,775-1,773-24 since first fielding a baseball team in 1866. It is the first time that record has been above .500 since April 28, 1991, less than three weeks shy of 20 years ago … Coach Whalen evened his career record to 420-420-1.

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And one final baseball note about 23-year-old Trevor Cahill who was headed to Dartmouth before the Oakland A's wooed him with a pro contract. In a story about the 2010 National League all-star signing an extension, the San Franciso Chronicle wrote:

Over the course of last season, the price tag went way up, and on Monday afternoon before Oakland's 2-1 victory over the White Sox in 10 innings at U.S. Cellular Field, Cahill signed a five-year deal worth a guaranteed $30.5 million. ...

"In all my years here, I've never seen someone make such great strides in such a short amount of time," (A's general manager Billy) Beane said of Cahill ...

More on UNH

As anticipated, Dartmouth's cross-state rival will be facing Holy Cross this year. Details on that game and renewal of the series with the Big Green and another with Colgate is on the UNH website.

UNH Back on Schedule in '14 and '16

From a Dartmouth press release:

The athletics departments of Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire announced the resumption of their scheduled football series, which has two games remaining in the contract. The Big Green will travel to UNH for a game on Sept. 27, 2014, and the Wildcats will return to Hanover for Dartmouth's season opener on Sept. 17, 2016. The two teams last met on the gridiron in the 2009 season in Durham.

Looking to the Future

While Dartmouth's Future Football Schedules page with schedules through 2010 hasn't yet been updated, the schedules in the pull-down window on the football schedule page are now posted through 2013. The 2012 schedule confirms a second visit by Sacred Heart. The 2013 schedule features six home games and four on the road with non-conference visits from Holy Cross and Bucknell confirmed.

2012
Sept. 15 Butler
Sept. 22 at Holy Cross
Sept. 29 Penn
Oct. 6 at Yale
Oct. 13 Sacred Heart
Oct. 20 at Columbia
Oct. 27 Harvard
Nov. 3 at Cornell
Nov. 10 Brown
Nov. 17 at Princeton

2013
Sept. 21 at Butler
Sept. 28 Holy Cross
Oct. 5 at Penn
Oct. 12 Yale
Oct. 19 Bucknell
Oct. 26 Columbia
Nov. 2 at Harvard
Nov. 9 Cornell
Nov. 16 at Brown
Nov. 23 Princeton

The lone non-conference game listed on the Future Football Schedules page beyond 2013 is at 2015 visit to Georgetown. The only sure thing beyond the contest with the Hoyas is that the Dartmouth-UNH series still has two games remaining on the contract.

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Today's Manchester Union Leader has a story suggesting message board chatter about a potential Holy Cross-New Hampshire game this fall might have some basis in fact. Although there is no confirmation from officials at the two schools, the story says the teams appear to have reached an agreement to play Oct. 1 in Durham. Published schedules show neither team has a game scheduled for that date.

Connecting the dots, the Holy Cross spring prospectus lists 10 tentative opponents with the note that there is, "one non-conference opponent still to be announced."

The UNH schedule released on Feb. 22, meanwhile, included a strange matchup against Central State on Sept. 17. The game against a Division II team that has gone 2-20 over the last two years will not help UNH's chances at gaining an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if it doesn't win the CAA, and that has led to speculation that the Wildcats might trade the game out for one against Holy Cross.

News the Holy Cross might indeed be playing at UNH on Oct. 1 sent me scrambling to double-check the date of the Dartmouth-Holy Cross game because there can be a lot of sore bodies the next week. Turns out the Crusaders play Brown on Oct. 8 and Dartmouth one week later.

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It's an off day for Dartmouth football. The Big Green will do the first hitting of the spring tomorrow afternoon. Check Big Green Alert premium for coverage.

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The temperature could reach the low 70s today and just now I heard the rumble of thunder. Spring is, uh, springing.