Monday, October 23, 2017

Columbia Denouement


Jake Novak's Roar Lions 2017 blog does a good job analyzing the Dartmouth-Columbia game from the Columbia perspective. (LINK)
Kudos to the Columbia Spectator for this in a story headlined, Four reasons why football topped Dartmouth (LINK):
. . . (T)here’s no question that the referees cost Dartmouth at least one more chance at the end zone. On the fateful play, the ball was snapped with 17 seconds remaining. Heneghan hit the ground roughly four or five seconds later, and, perhaps winded by the blindside hit, took his time getting off the turf. With the Dartmouth offense scrambling to get back to the line of scrimmage, there appeared to be confusion among the referees about where to spot the ball, and Dartmouth didn’t even have a chance to snap the ball until two seconds remained. It would have been a long shot, with Dartmouth needing to find paydirt from 17 yards out, but ten seconds is far too long to spot the ball and is inexcusable on the referees’ part.
Here's what I wrote in one of my follow pieces yesterday on BGA Premium:
You’ve already read and heard a lot about the mess at the end of the game. You will probably hear more. If it went down the way the TV cameras reportedly showed, the Ivy League office needs to put out a statement either explaining that what happened wasn’t out of the ordinary, or confronting the issue if there were mistakes made. It won’t change anything but the folks in the Ivy office cannot make believe nothing happened. 
The Dartmouth has a story about the Columbia game HERE.
Columbia gets a nod in a STATS column headlined, Five takeaways from FCS Week 8. (LINK)
The New York Times jumps on the Columbia bandwagon with a story headlined, Columbia Gives Its Neighbors a Football Team Worth Cheering HERE.
Timing is everything. With Harvard next on the agenda, the Crimson website has a story (LINK) about fifth-year quarterback Joe Viviano . . . who has lost the starting job to a freshman.
Sagarin COMBO Ratings (last week in parentheses)
104 - Columbia (123)
112 - Yale (106)
114 - Princeton (142)
122 - Dartmouth (117)
188 - Penn (182)
212 - Cornell (229)
213 - Harvard (216)
241 - Brown (241) 

185 - Holy Cross (172)
202 - Sacred Heart (213)
244 - Stetson (244)

(254 DI teams rated)
And finally, putting the disappointment of the first loss of the year behind them, Dartmouth players turned out to cheer on runners and walkers in the CHaD (Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock) HERO Half Marathon, 5K run, bike ride etc.: