It was at the start of spring practice in 2005 that I approached newly hired Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens with the idea of covering his program on a daily basis, not for the newspaper where I worked, but on the Internet.
I had come to know Teevens as the beat reporter for the local daily during his first stint in Hanover. We had always gotten along well and he trusted me, even if the first time around I had to ambush him at the Lebanon Airport when he was flying off to New Orleans to be introduced at Tulane. Understandably, he had ducked me trying to keep a lid on that news, but when I tracked him down in the tiny terminal he was as polite and cooperative as he always was – and always is.
When I talked with Teevens about what would become Big Green Alert he told me that the Stanford Bootleg covered his last program in a similar fashion. He promised that I could ask him absolutely anything I needed to ask. In 11 years of doing BGA he's never once backed off that promise.
Granted, I've never been the most aggressive reporter, but BGA is independent and on occasion I've had to ask him a few questions that made me uncomfortable – if not him. In 11 years of BGA he's not once shaken his head and walked past me, even during the 0-10 season. I haven't missed a regular practice in all those years and he has always answered my questions. Every. Single. Day.
With this championship season wrapped up, I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Coach Teevens, his coaching staff, those in the football office and in athletic administration who have allowed me to be a regular presence – maybe even a bit of a nuisance – as they go about their daily jobs. They've been unfailingly helpful and friendly, without exception.
I'd also like to thank the players who see me every day with my clipboard and pens jotting things down, or talking after practice with Coach Teevens while they patiently wait for me to finish so they can speak with him.
Finally, I'd like to thank the generous parents, alumni and fans who subscribe to BGA. I have never even sniffed the number of readers that I thought I had to reach but there are just enough of you that Mrs. BGA – who deserves by far the biggest thank you – allows me to continue to try to make this thing work ;-)
So thanks to all,
-bw-
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Here are the Sagarin Ratings for this week. The sequence of three numbers is preseason, consecutive weeks, and this week in bold.
Ivy League
Harvard 142, 140, 141, 128, 123, 107, 88, 94, 85, 86, 90, 109,
106
Dartmouth 172, 177, 174, 130, 124, 105, 108, 120, 109, 113, 113,
112
Penn 212, 213, 211, 221, 195, 202, 190, 181, 172, 161, 158, 147,
149
Princeton 198, 202, 203, 157, 147, 164, 153, 165, 168, 166, 168, 176,
173
Yale 182, 185, 187, 184, 181, 171, 178, 166, 174, 190, 177, 173,
175
Brown 196, 198, 201, 201, 204, 203, 189, 180, 175, 188, 196, 196,
198
Columbia 240, 242, 239, 233, 237, 228, 220, 232, 227, 217, 215,
219,220
Cornell 234, 233, 234, 231, 229, 225, 230, 234, 237, 238, 235, 232,
233
(253 ranked)
Nonconference Opponents
Sacred Heart 200, 203, 167, 200, 216, 214, 202, 196, 217, 215, 225, 216,
211
Georgetown 225, 234, 225, 225, 221, 222, 209, 215, 208, 205, 205, 209,
216
Central Connecticut 224, 224, 232, 224, 235, 235, 231, 228, 225, 218, 222, 227,
228
Last This Week
Davidson 253
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1. Illinois State
2. North Dakota State
3. Jacksonville State
4. Dartmouth
5. South Dakota State
6. Harvard
7. Northern Iowa
8. Citadel
9. Charleston Southern
10.Southern Utah
17. Penn
31. Yale
41. Princeton
46. Brown
72. Columbia
95. Cornell
67. Georgetown
81. Sacred Heart
97. Central Connecticut
125. Mississippi Valley State
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The NCAA produces something called the Simple Rating System that, well, read how FCS Insider described it when it was introduced:
Beginning with the 2013 football season, the NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee will use the NCAA Simple Rating System (NCAA SRS) as a tool for evaluating teams for selection into the 24-team championship.
The NCAA Simple Rating System (NCAA SRS) is a ranking system used to gauge team quality. Within the NCAA SRS, the rating of a team will be calculated largely by two components: a strength-of-schedule measure (SOS) and a win-loss differential (WL).
A team’s SOS measure is simply the average NCAA SRS rating of that team’s opponents for the season.
A team’s WL measure factors whether or not a game was won or lost; the location of the game (home/away/neutral site); and the NCAA (sub)division of the opponent.
One team’s rating depends on its opponents’ ratings, which depend on their opponents’ ratings, etc., based on the “network” of college football games played each week during the football season.
So, how does Dartmouth measure up in the "tool for evaluating teams for selection into the 24-team championship?" Here's how this year's SRS projected teams for the playoffs (
LINK):
1. Illinois State
2. Dartmouth
3. North Dakota State
4. Harvard
5. Jacksonville State
6. McNeese State
7. Portland State
8. James Madison
9. South Dakota State
10. William and Mry
15. Penn
32. Yale
35. Princeton
58. Brown
83. Columbia
105. Cornell
Impressive, huh? And here's the bracket announced yesterday:
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Missing from the bracket? The No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the SRS, who aren't allowed to continue on because the Ivy League has decided that student-athletes in one sport, and only one sport, can't handle the challenge of combining academics and athletics, or perhaps that they can't keep football in proper perspective.
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Jay Greenberg's fine Princeton Football blog looks at the Dartmouth-Princeton game
HERE.
