Should They Or Shouldn't They?

Not much voting going on in the BGA poll over to the left about whether football games should be postponed when the weather is as bad as it was Saturday night. Quality of play aside, consider a report from the local CBS affiliate in New York City that began this way:

More than a dozen football players from JFK High School in Plainview spent the last game of the season, and for seniors the last game of their H.S. careers, in ambulances and hospitals after suffering hypothermia symptoms on Saturday.

That despite the fact that the second half of the game was canceled. Find the story here.

It's one thing to play in the snow, which can be fun for players and fans alike. It's another thing when it is dangerous.

This from last night's BGA premium:

Like other games around the Northeast, the Dartmouth-Harvard game was played in terrible conditions. Teevens said the combination of rain, wind and snow made it the coldest and most miserable he’s ever felt on a college sideline, including his stint at the University of Maine.

Would he be OK, in a similar situation, with shifting the game earlier in the day or postponing it a day in an era of college football when games seem to be played every day of the week? (There was one on ESPN Tuesday night.)

“I would be in favor of it,” Teevens said with little hesitation. “Sometimes television complicates it, but if there is an opportunity to adjust the time? We probably would have been better off if we had played at 1 o’clock as opposed to 6 o’clock in the evening. …

“We saw the end result. There were probably 15 people in the stands. It was what it was. But yes, I would be in favor.”

Added Teevens about playing in driving rain or snow: “It is unfortunate because you don’t see a team at its best. Everything is the same for everybody but it is not what you would like. You would much prefer to play on a clean field with good footing and dry balls and all that.”

•

The WHRB Harvard radio recap of Saturday's game begins this way:

On a night in which each team's running game would play a large role in determining the winner, Harvard delivered perhaps its most physical beating of the year as it ran over Dartmouth 41-10.

•

This week's Gridiron Power Index, which synthesizes various polls and rankings a la the BCS, looks like this:

13. Harvard
21. Brown
66. Yale
T-71. Cornell
78. Penn
98. Dartmouth
104. Princeton
122. Columbia

40. Holy Cross
T-74. Colgate
T-94. Sacred Heart

How good is Harvard? Here's an indication: The Crimson is one spot behind No. 12. New Hampshire. There are 126 teams ranked.

•

The Times Union has a story on longtime Albany coach Bob Ford, who might just have established the FCS cradle of coaches in New York's capital city. Speaking of coaches who have put down roots, the New York Times has a piece on John Gagliardi, the coach at St. John's in Minnesota, who at age 85 has 482 victories.

•

Once again, if you have a question you would like me to ask Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens click here. I'll select five appropriate questions and post the answers on Thursday's BGA premium, with excerpts to be posted later on the blog.