Ivies Kick Off

The Ivy League preseason has kicked off with Cornell taking to the field for its first practice yesterday and Yale hitting the grass Friday.

Dartmouth isn't slated to hold its conditioning test until next Tuesday and to start practice one week from today.

Before the first email comes this way wondering why other teams get to practice more than Dartmouth . . . they don't. All Ivy League teams are allowed the same number of preseason practices. They simply distribute them differently because of different academic calendars.

Cornell begins classes on Aug. 24 and has to build its practice schedule around that. Dartmouth doesn't start classes until almost a month later, Sept. 21.

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Speaking of Cornell, the Big Red welcomes not the one previously reported transfer from the Pac-12 but two. This story notes that former Cal quarterback Beau Sweeney will be joined by former UCLA safety Josh Barut, once a Brown recruit. (The Cornell preview posted yesterday on Big Green Alert premium has been updated to reflect the arrival of Barut and confirm Sweeney joining the team.)

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Working on opponent previews for Dartmouth has produced some interesting numbers for the Big Green over the past five years. Here's Dartmouth scoring average vs. Ivy opponents over the last five years (record in parentheses):

• vs. Cornell 29.2 (3-2)
• vs. Columbia 24.4 (4-1)
• vs. Brown 21.0 (1-4)
• vs. Penn 18.6 (1-4)
• vs. Princeton 16.6 (1-4)
• vs. Harvard 12.6 (0-5)
• vs. Yale 11.6 (0-5)

Here's the opponents' scoring average against Dartmouth over the past five years:

• Yale 34.2
• Brown 32.6
• Harvard 32.6
• Cornell 24.6
• Penn 23.6
• Princeton 19.0
• Columbia 16.6

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The Harvard preview will be posted later today on BGA premium.

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And finally, you may recall that we went down to Massachusetts recently to watch Those Certain Two Hanover Kids' cousin perform with his major league drum corps, The Cadets. Over the weekend The Cadets won the world championship in Indianapolis.