The same folks predicted Sacred Heart would defeat Dartmouth by 21 points last week at Memorial Field. That may well be the most ill-informed prediction of the year by anyone, anywhere who is supposed to have a clue about FCS football.
That out of the way, here's the BennettRank Top-10:
1. North Dakota State
2 Dartmouth
3 Eastern Washington
4 Idaho State
5 Princeton
6. James Madison
7. UC Davis
8. South Dakota State
9. Illinois State
10. Missouri State
Green Alert Take: You did read the intro to those rankings, right?
Hero Sports also gives it a shot at ranking recruiting at the FCS level. No fewer than four of the top 15 incoming running backs right now are headed to Ivy League schools (including No. 5 to Dartmouth) and another is ticketed for Bucknell per Hero. (LINK) Hero also as three of the top 10 committed defensive linemen headed to Harvard. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: Rankings like that are nothing more than clickbait based largely on self-reported "offers" and I guess I'm as guilty as anyone for putting up these links.
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Find Columbia's game notes HERE.
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As is the case with all games at an Ivy League stadium this fall, the Columbia-Dartmouth game will be streamed online via ESPN+. It also is a late addition to the SportsNet NY (SNY) lineup. SNY will simulcast the stream on select satellite and cable systems. Check your local listings.
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While the 5-0 Dartmouth team has largely avoided injury this fall it's been a different story for 3-2 Columbia as the Spectator notes in its preview of Saturday's game headlined, Football looks to overcome mounting injuries in Homecoming showdown against dominant Dartmouth.
The story notes that no fewer than 17 Columbia players have missed at least one game because of injury this fall and that Ronald Smith will join the list this week. Smith and Josh Wainright, already out for the year, made up one of the most dynamic 1-2 receiving punches in the FCS.
The story notes that no fewer than 17 Columbia players have missed at least one game because of injury this fall and that Ronald Smith will join the list this week. Smith and Josh Wainright, already out for the year, made up one of the most dynamic 1-2 receiving punches in the FCS.
Also from the story in the Spectator:
As fantastic as Princeton looked in its game at Columbia, Dartmouth may be the Lions’ toughest test to date. It leads the Ivy League in most conceivable defensive statistics so far . . .
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The Harvard Crimson's weekend preview includes this about the Dartmouth-Columbia matchup:As Dartmouth travels to Robert K. Kraft Field, situated beautifully at the mouth of the Hudson River, it aims to improve to 6-0 ahead of next week’s tilt against Harvard. Not sure you even need me to make this pick, but I’ll hand it over anyway.
Dartmouth by 21
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Thanks for all of the questions you've shared for tonight's BGA Premium story. There's still time so if there's a question you'd like me to ask coach Buddy Teevens as your proxy, be sure to send it along.To send along a question, CLICK HERE to address an email to BGA with the subject line, QuestionsForCoach.
I'll select a sampling of submissions and post the coach's answers on BGA Premium tonight. For those of you who are not subscribers, I will make the Q&A available on Monday.
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Argh. This is the second attempt at doing BGA Daily this morning. I hit a wrong button and lost the entire thing just before I was about to post it. This is one of those days when I start to wonder if this morning routine is worth continuing . . .
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And finally, here's what we woke up to this morning:
