Town Topics, "Princeton's Weekly Community Newspaper Since 1946," does a solid job covering football and was able to catch up to coach Bob Surace for a few thoughts out of Saturday's 20-17 loss at Dartmouth. Among other things, Surace told the outlet (LINK):
"We only punted once all game. All of the things that you need to do to beat Dartmouth we did other than the two turnovers, and we weren’t great in the red zone.”
And . . .
“We have had some commonalities in our different games that we have lost; we have to be better in situational football. Dartmouth fumbled a couple of times and we weren’t able to get on them. Losing the turnover battle creates more challenges. Statistically you could go to the Harvard-Dartmouth game and our game, and when you look at yards and everything, there is not a whole lot of difference. Harvard won by 21 (31-10 on November 1) and we lost by three, the difference was situational football and the turnovers. We have a lot of youth playing and we are just making a few mistakes on all three sides of the ball. In the one-score games, they haunt you.”
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A column on the Analyst site headlined No Smooth Sailing: Scenarios That Could Change the FCS Playoffs includes this (LINK):
Seventh-ranked Harvard (8-0) is going to the playoffs at either 10-0 or 9-1, and it might even be fine for an at-large bid even if it loses to Penn and Yale in the next two weeks. The Crimson’s decisive win over Dartmouth (6-2) basically decides any head-to-head tiebreaker the selection committee would need if both teams finished 8-2.
What’s unique is Dartmouth has the stronger resume than Yale, including a head-to-head win over the Bulldogs plus victories over New Hampshire and Central Connecticut State. But Yale (6-2), whose best win is over Penn, has more of an inside track to the playoffs than Dartmouth as a win at Princeton would set up a home game against rival Harvard for the Ivy’s new auto-bid.
It’s a precarious scenario for Dartmouth because three Ivy bids aren’t happening. Even two would change the field in a dramatic way from the past.
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As noted in this space last week, FCS bracketology was of no real interest until this year for Ivy League coaches, players and fans. That changed with the conference finally allowing its football teams to advance to the postseason. Here are two possible bracket outcomes:
HERO Sports has Harvard as a nine seed and includes this (LINK):
Bubble Teams Left Out
Ordered from the best chance to make the bracket out of this group to the worst chance.25. Austin Peay
26. Northern Arizona
27. DARTMOUTH
28. New Hampshire
29. William & Mary
30. Southern Illinois
HERO has Harvard opening against Villanova with the winner going on to face Monmouth, which last Saturday was soundly beaten by New Hampshire.
FCS Football Central on SI has Harvard as a seven-seed and includes this (LINK):
Bubble Teams Left Out:
Southeastern Louisiana
DARTMOUTH
Southern Utah
New Hampshire
William & Mary
Austin Peay
Lafayette
Southern Illinois
FCS Football Central offers this as a first-round game:
Central Connecticut State at No. 13 Rhode Island (Winner at No. 4 Lehigh)
And this as a second-round game:
Illinois State at No. 10 North Dakota (Winner at No. 7 Harvard)
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This week's Sagarin Ratings among all DI teams with last week's rating in parentheses:
98 Harvard (91)
138 Yale (138)
157 Dartmouth (152)
198 Penn (177)
186 Princeton (196)
213 Brown (213)
199 Cornell (220)
231 Columbia (234)
153 New Hampshire (165)
196 Central Connecticut (212)
250 Fordham (239)
Sagarin has Dartmouth favored over Cornell by 10 points.
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Massey Ratings of only FCS teams with last week's rating in parentheses:
7 Harvard (7)
29 Yale (27)
30 Dartmouth (28)
51 Penn (39)
54 Princeton (68)
68 Cornell (74)
74 Brown (71)
87 Columbia (89)
Massey has Dartmouth defeating Cornell, 31-20, with 84 percent confidence, and Dartmouth handling Brown, 31-24, with 71 percent confidence.
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EXTRA POINT
I really can really relate to Charlie Brown and that football in my quest to see the Northern Lights. They are right there and I just know I'm finally going to see them and then . . . nothing but air.
That Certain Dartmouth '14 (who could be back at work at Bryce Canyon National Park for the first time in over a month depending on a vote) shared this photo of the Northern Lights and stars from her dark-sky Utah outpost:
And That Certain Nittany Lion '16 notes that there are, "Facebook posts from all over the Upper Valley of people seeing the northern lights almost as bright" as this one.
One of these days . . .
