Closing In On It

Welcome to August! The calendar change means at least two things. Practice starts this month and games kick off next month ;-)

*

The drumbeat is suggesting an announcement of Dartmouth's first-ever night game at Memorial Field (or ever for that matter) could be coming as soon as today. Be sure to jump in the poll over there to the left (apologies for the pun).

*

Whether the first night game is against Penn or Colgate it figures to be a huge challenge. You can make a good case that those could be the two best teams on the Big Green schedule.

The fine Phil Steele FCS magazine that features full pages on all teams in the division is posting pages for members of its preseason top 40. You can find Steele's look at No. 27 Colgate here. (By the way, after watching video of one of the incoming freshmen out in Hamilton and knowing how effective the Raiders are with a running quarterback I'm not sure I'm buying ol' Phil's take on the next 'Gate quarterback.)

While we're at it, Harvard came in at 29 on Phil's hit parade. You can find his look at the Crimson here.

Phil Steele's FCS magazine wasn't on the bookshelves here the last I looked but you can order one here.

*

Still no word on the free agency status of Charles Bay, Shane Peterlin and Brian Scullin, all hoping to make it into a camp this summer. Harvard has a piece on defensive back Collin Zych signing with Dallas and offensive guard Brent Osborne with Seattle. (link) Princeton has a release on tight end Harry Flaherty reaching an agreement with New Orleans (link) and Yale writes about defensive end Tom McCarthy going to camp with Atlanta. (link)

*

In the continuing effort to save you the trouble of having to go to Twitter or Facebook to follow the Ivy League's 56to56 trivia, here's the latest:

50to56: In ’62, @dartmouthsports became the first Ivy team since formation to go the entire season undefeated (9-0).

49to56: Gary Wood of @CornellSports paced the League in rushing for a second-straight season in ’63.

48to56: The Ivies had two @NFFNetwork Scholar-Athletes in '64: @PUTigers Cosmo Iacavazzi & @GoColumbiaLions Archie Roberts.

Wrapped up coverage of the Tommy Keane Invitational with a terrific, 22-hole championship match yesterday. I remember when I was writing a story about the renovation of Hanover Country Club the tour guide showing me the new layout made sure to point out this view of Baker Tower from the 16th tee. Pretty sweet, huh?

I had some fun with the lede to my Saturday story:

It would be an exaggeration to say Mike Hathorn’s emotions will be as confused as a chameleon on John Daly's pants Sunday when his match in the morning round of the 36th annual Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament is decided.

Speaking of golf at Dartmouth, keep an eye out for the opening of Dartmouth's new online pro shop from Hanover Country Club.

*

And finally, if you signed up for the BGA alert option be sure to Email Big Green Alert with current email addresses of those immediate family members who should be receiving the daily alerts. Thank you.