One Game For All The Marbles

First, and most importantly, Happy Mother's Day to Mrs. BGA and to moms everywhere!

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There's a lot that could be written about the Dartmouth-Princeton Ivy League Championship Series doubleheader player here in New Jersey yesterday and Rick Bender does his usual strong job on the Dartmouth athletics website with a thorough analysis of what happened. He even has a couple of videos on the site.

Here's the part of the story Rick doesn't tell you. The Princeton student section was loud and aggressive and having one heckuva party through the first 16 innings of the day. And when Dartmouth rallied to take the lead in the eighth and Ryan Smith came on to blow the Tigers away in the ninth? You could have heard a batting glove drop. Not a peep – and a lot of hanging heads as the Princeton students left the yard.

If the noise in the stands bothers you there's one really effective way to take care of it: Take care of it on the field.

Dartmouth and Princeton will square off today at 1 p.m. in a winner-take-all game for the Ivy League championship and a berth in the NCAA's.

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Speaking of which, did the Ivy League shoot itself in the foot by instituting a conference lacrosse tournament? The Dartmouth women's team clinched a share of the Ivy title on a Friday night, then knocked off undefeated and top-ranked Maryland two days later. If the season ended right there the Big Green was a lead-pipe cinch to get a bid to the NCAA's. But a loss to Harvard in one semifinal of the Ivy tournament and an upset in the other semi could leave Dartmouth on the outside looking in when the draw is announced unless the committee opts to take three Ivy teams.

The Ivy tournament was introduced to improve the Ivy League's NCAA prospects but if it ends up costing one of the two best teams in the league a chance to go on it will have defeated its purpose.

Think about this. One of the Ivy League arguments against having a postseason basketball tournament is to make sure the best team in the league goes on to the NCAA's. Lo and behold the Ivy League has started a tournament in another sport that could keep arguably the best team in the league out of the NCAA's. Discuss among yourselves.

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And finally, while the Dartmouth baseball team is playing for a chance to go on and the women's lacrosse team will be keeping its fingers crossed that its season will continue, the Ivy League football champions will be ... . Aw never mind. You know the rest.

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A 6-foot-4, 205-pound wide receiver from Virginia has a possible appearance at Dartmouth's camp on his summer docket. Link