We're Baaaaaaack!

The Great Move of 2018 is complete (although there are a few odds and ends that need to be addressed). We are spending the summer in a wonderful, solar-powered tiny house. It's not the kind you've seen on wheels and I'd argue with a 20-foot cathedral ceiling it's not that tiny, although the ever-patient Mrs. BGA might say different. Stay tuned for a picture or two in the coming days along with a few anecdotes from a pretty crazy final week or so on Moose Mountain. In the meantime . . .

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The venerable Lindy’s magazine has published its Ivy League football prediction for the fall and the BGA's Lehigh Valley correspondent (who really should be an adopted member of some class) has sent it along:

1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Dartmouth
4. Penn
5. Princeton
6. Columbia
7. Brown 
8. Cornell

Green Alert Take: Like the Street & Smith predictions posted here earlier, this oughta get people talking ;-)

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STATS has ranked the FCS conferences. Conferences of particular interest are italicized (LINK):

1. CAA
2. Missouri Valley
3. Big Sky
4. Southern
5. Southland
6. Ivy League
7. Big South
8. Northeast
9. Patriot
10. Mid-Eastern
11. Southwestern
12. Pioneer
13. Independents

Here’s what STATS had to say about the Ivy League:

The Ivy League was turned upside down last season and the result is an even deeper title race this year. Strong play at quarterback is imperative. Defending champ Yale is the team to beat, but rival Harvard is highly motivated after a subpar season. Just about everyone else except Brown is in the title conversation.

About the Patriot League:

A better season than a year ago has to be a definite. Colgate was the only team to finish with a winning record after Lehigh entered the playoffs with a 5-6 record and was dispatched in the first round. In non-league games, Patriot teams were a mere 3-13 at home. Defensive improvement was needed across the league, and outside Lehigh and Fordham, it occurred.

And the Pioneer:

In nonconference games last year, the league was 4-20 against Division I opponents and 11-0 against sub-Division I teams.

Green Alert Take: Good for the Ivies. Shocking to see the Northeast ahead of the Patriot League but given how the Patriot League fared last year it's hard to argue. The Ivy League's growing association with the Pioneer Football League is certainly good for the PFL. For the competitive image of Ivy football? Not so much.

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Athlon has a story under the headline, Dominating Defensive Players by FCS Conference in 2018. (LINK) Here's the Ivy League selection:

Nick Miller, Penn, LB, Sr., 5-11, 215 

The runner-up for Ivy League defensive player of the year is coming off the most tackles (a league-high 104) by a Penn player in 20 years. He was one of eight FCS players to share the national high with four fumble recoveries, and he did so in the fewest games (10). 

Two More to Fear: Princeton defensive lineman Kurt Holuba and Dartmouth linebacker Jack Traynor

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Athlon also had a piece headlined Top 10 FCS Quarterbacks to Watch in 2018. (LINK) The only Ivy Leaguer to get a mention was Princeton's John Lovett, the touchdown machine returning for a fifth year after missing last fall recovering from surgery.