Monday, September 16, 2019

Game Week At Long Last

The Dartmouth has a preview of the Big Green football team that has All-America corner Isiah Swann describing the team's style of play this way:
"Just big, tough, nasty, physical football."
The Sagarin ratings have been updated after the real world's Week Three and Harvard is the biggest mover among Ivy League teams, dropping eight places. That pales in comparison to the cliff Colgate fell off. Here are this week's rankings with the previous week in parentheses:

114 Princeton (116)
137 Dartmouth (139)
150 Yale (153)
158 Harvard (150)
190 Penn (189)
200 Columbia (199)
215 Cornell (212)
230 Brown (232)

207 Colgate (147)
253 Jacksonville (252)
254 Marist (243)

There are 256 teams ranked with 2021 Dartmouth opponent Valparaiso last.

Dartmouth, by the way, is a 34-point favorite over Jacksonville per Sagarin's ratings.
Here's the rest of the Ivy League schedule in Week One:

Brown at Bryant (0-3)
Columbia at Saint Francis (2-1)
Cornell at Marist (1-1)
Harvard at San Diego (0-2)
Penn at Delaware (2-1)
Princeton hosts Butler (1-2)
Yale hosts Holy Cross (1-1)

Green Alert Take: I'll have a little fun Friday with Fearful Forecast, the BGA Premium posting predicting the games each week. Stay tuned to see who gets the nod in Princeton's titanic showdown with Butler, which on Saturday lost to NAIA Taylor University, one week after outlasting NAIA member Indiana Wesleyan in overtime. ;-)
If you are of a certain age the phrase "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" may resonate. If not, CLICK HERE.

That famous Saturday Night Live catch line came to mind after I clicked through yet again on the link for the Ivy League football record book. Here's hoping it's updated before the start of the season. I'll let you know.
And finally, finally, the Ivy League season is upon us.

Dartmouth returns to the field today for a rare Monday practice (less rare than in the past with two Friday games this fall). As always, there will be a story posted on BGA Premium tonight, although the move to 4 p.m. practices combined with the move of BGA world headquarters to the hinterlands of Vermont means stories will be posted later than they have been going up.

Again, a Tweet on the otherwise-silent Big Green Alert Twitter feed will, uh, Alert you that the story has been posted.

If you are new to this electronic neighborhood, you can learn more about BGA and/or sign up for BGA Premium here.