Following up on yesterday’s five-year look at Ivy League teams, here are the records of New Hampshire, Fordham and Central Connecticut in the order in which the Big Green will be playing its nonconference opponents this fall:
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It’s happening.
If you thought all Ivy League athletes were going to stay loyal to their schools in this era of college free agency, think again.
• Last year 7-footer Danny Wolf departed Yale after his sophomore season to play at Michigan. The benefit from playing in the über-competitive Big 10? He showed he’s the real thing. A couple of weeks ago he was selected by the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the NBA Draft, earning a $14 million-plus contract.
• Last year running back Malachi Hosley was the Ivy League offensive player of the year as a sophomore at Penn. This year? He’ll be carrying the ball for Georgia Tech, a team expected to vie for the ACC title in the fall.
• Last winter Princeton junior Xavian Lee was chosen unanimously to the All-Ivy League men’s basketball first team for the second year in a row. The do-everything guard will be playing his senior season as a Florida Gator.
• Hard-working Princeton forward Caden Pierce, a former Ivy League Rookie of the Year and the 2023-24 Ivy Player of the Year, made the All-Ivy first team for the second time in a row last season. This week it was announced he’s going to sit out his senior year so he can enter the portal and play elsewhere next winter.
Green Alert Take: Ivy League schools are going to have to make sticking around more appealing for their elite players, or get used to the idea that some of the best are going to move on before their careers are finished.
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Of course, the transfer door goes both ways. Yale showed that a while back with quarterback Dante Reno opting to leave South Carolina and the FBS to play for his father, Tony, in New Haven.
Now it’s Princeton's turn to bring in another FBS quarterback.
Suiting up for the Tigers next year will be QB Wyatt Becker, who graduated high school early to enroll at Utah in January (and practice in the spring) before entering the portal and landing at Princeton. Becker was highly regarded coming out of high school. From an SI.com story (
LINK):
The Utah Utes got the recruiting party started early for the 2025 class, as they were able to land a commitment from 2025 four-star quarterback Wyatt Becker.
The Sierra Canyon (CA) product will now be the centerpiece of their 2025 class.
You read that right. “The centerpiece” of the Utah recruiting class. Becker’s list of offers was impressive: Arizona, Arizona State, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, SMU, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech.
Some of those offers were made even before he started high school.
Green Alert Take: While Princeton got terrific production from Colorado transfer quarterback Blake Stenstrom before he graduated in 2024, there are no guarantees when heralded players come into the Ivy League. The Tigers know that as well as anyone. Remember the QB they brought in who took an official visit to Alabama after committing to play in the Ivy League? He graduated without ever completing a varsity pass.
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EXTRA POINT
We had a good friend up for dinner Monday night and he kindly sent along a few images he made of Griff the Wonder Dog. Here’s one of our 11-year-old friend that can’t help but bring a smile:
Griff will be joining us this weekend at our annual VW bus jamboree in southern Vermont. Although he absolutely loves riding in a car – any car – for some reason he’s no fan of the ’84 poptop camper. He puts up a pretty fair stink getting into it. That said, he loves lounging alongside the bus all weekend, and we have no problem inducing him inside to sleep when we finally turn in at night.
With no internet (or cell coverage for that matter) BGA will be going dark this weekend. Have a good one!
