Looking Ahead

Quick notes from Dartmouth's first two 2026 opponents, but first . . .

Huge congrats to good friend Mike Mahoney, moving on from his longtime role as director of athletic communications at Penn to become Senior Associate Commissioner of the Atlantic 10. (LINK) 

Green Alert Take: That's a huge loss for the Ivy League, and a huge win for the A-10.

Green Alert Take II: Sure would have been great to see the New Hampshire native return as the athletic communications director at Dartmouth, where he earned a degree in English and then spent six years learning the SID business under Kathy Slattery.

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Per a Lehigh release, the Big Green's Sept. 19 opener at Goodman Stadium will be a noon kickoff. The theme for the Mountain Hawks' fourth game the season will be Family Weekend.

Green Alert Take: The original plan had been an O-Dark-30 start for a game-day drive from Vermont down to the Lehigh Valley, but the early kickoff more likely means a Friday overnight with relatives about an hour east of Bethlehem.

For the record, Dartmouth's last three games against Lehigh were all in Hanover. The Big Green last visited Bethlehem on Sept. 28, 1996, coming away with a 21-14 win before 11,325 at Goodman.

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FCS Football Central on SI has a piece headlined 2026 CAA Football Preview: Contenders, Sleepers, & Key Storylines that offers a look at Week 2 opponent Monmouth HERE.

The overview lists the Hawks with transfers from Syracuse, Temple, UMass, Delaware, Richmond, Penn, Lafayette (2), Holy Cross and Charleston Southern and includes this:

Returning Significant Contributors (OFF): 6

Returning Significant Contributors (DEF): 9

Projected Returning Significant Contributors by position:

- QB (1)
⁠- RB (1)
⁠- WR (2)
⁠- TE (1)
⁠- OL (1)
⁠- DT (3)
⁠- EDGE (1)
⁠- LB (3)
⁠- S (1)
⁠- CB (1)

In case you were wondering (which I was ;-), here's an explanation of Returning Significant Contributor  from the site:

"Returning players who played over 200 snaps last season were labeled as returning significant contributors. An exception was made for players who suffered season-ending injuries, who would have been starters or major contributors if they were healthy." 

Green Alert Take: The Dartmouth statistics page does not include snaps so I can't work up similar numbers for the Big Green. How significant the "Returning Significant Contributors" are is up for debate, but it would be interesting to see how the numbers break down for Dartmouth and the other Ivies if FCS Football Central on SI follows through and does a breakdown of Ancient Eight teams.

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Graduate transfer corner Patrick Campbell '26 gets a mention in a Virginia Cavaliers on SI piece headlined Ranking Virginia football's 3 deepest position groups heading into 2026. Per the story, Campbell is joining the second-deepest room on the roster. From the posting (LINK):

After suffering at the cornerback position last season . . . the team added Patrick Campbell from Dartmouth, Omillio Agard from Wisconsin, Justin Ross from Navy, and Jacobie Henderson from Rutgers in January.

This talented group of newcomers joins Donavon Platt, Jam Jackson, Ja'Maric Morris, and Josiah Persinger to form one of the absolute deepest cornerback groups in the conference heading into 2026. . . . .Platt, Jackson, Henderson, and Agard are probably the top four, but we've been hearing great things about Morris and Campbell this offseason as well.

Ranked as the third-deepest room on the UVa team is defensive end, where the Cavaliers have added two more Ivy League products. Joining the team for 2026 are Yale's Ezekiel Larry and Columbia's Justin Townsend.

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EXTRA POINT
With our windows offering 180-degree views of the White Mountains, and no one able to see into our house from the road or nearby homes, there's no need for curtains here at our Vermont hillside home. We do, however, have wood blinds in upstairs bedroom windows that face south.

Those wood blinds are pulled down and closed maybe just a handful of days all year. With the temperature climbing into the 90s, today is one of those days when the blinds are down. Hopefully they keep the upstairs from getting too hot.

As for the lack of curtains, if you go back in history, it's appropriate to these parts. The internet says of New England Puritans: "Elaborate drapes or anything that significantly obscured the interior of a home could be seen as socially inappropriate, even rude, because it violated the cultural expectation that one’s life should be lived simply and transparently before both neighbors and God."

Or maybe, like us, they just wanted to enjoy the views. ;-)

How About That!

It's July 1 and you know what that means? It means that as of today we can say, "Dartmouth football returns to campus next month to begin the 2026 preseason."

In case you are wondering, the Big Green's first official practice will be August 22.

BGA plans to be there for the opening practice for the 21st time in 22 years – the only exception being 2020 when you-know-what happened and the season was canceled.

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 You can get your own Delby Lemieux '26 Minnesota Viking jersey HERE.

The former Dartmouth offensive lineman's old teammate Josiah Green '25 is currently trying to make the Tampa Bay Bucs and while there's a jersey with his name on it HERE, it isn't the 96 that is his listed number on the current team roster, but rather a 0.

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Speaking of former Dartmouth players in the pros, on Monday we posted a link to a video with Flo Orimolade '17 talking about his anticipated return to the Calgary Stampeders after an Achilles tear last September. Here's what he had to say after his first game back:

Click HERE to watch the interview.

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Dartmouth has begun the search for what used to be called a sports information director. Find the job listing HERE.

Green Alert Take: Let's hope they get someone onboard before long so we can learn a little more about the first-year players who are reporting next month, and check out an updated 2026 roster. And so things like program's official website's recruiting map – which includes four coaches no longer with the program – will be updated.

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Incredibly sad news out of Monmouth University, Dartmouth's opponent in its Sept. 26 home opener. Louis DiRienzo Jr., introduced during the offseason as the team's first-year defensive coordinator, has passed away unexpectedly at age 34. The university has a release HERE.

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Last Sunday you read in this space about Ohio State football offering a roster spot to a safety whose Baylor School (Tennessee) teammate and very close friend just so happens to be the top running back prospect OSU is recruiting. The gist was that the Buckeyes were offering the former as a way to lure the latter to Columbus.

A poster on Xwitter who purports to have inside information believes that, instead of heading for the Big Ten powerhouse, the player is actually headed this way (LINK):

Per sources: Jordan Darren Djila has committed to Dartmouth. The Ivy League school has strong ties with Baylor. Education is more important to his family than football.

Find the 247Sports page for the player in question HERE. 

Green Alert Take: The player has not posted anything about choosing his college destination and college coaches are not allowed to discuss his recruitment by NCAA rule, so your guess is as good as mine until the player goes public with his decision.

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Speaking of Ohio State, there's a story under the headline Another school is copying our tactics to try and steal away a very good player that has me gritting my teeth. Not about what is in the story, but about the headline.

Although it's commonly used, the expression "try and," is one of my peccadilloes. It should be "try to steal away," not "try and steal away." One of my favorite fiction authors uses "try and" all the time, and it is fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

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EXTRA POINT
Did you know that on this day in 1963 the United States Postal Service introduced the Zone Improvement Plan? You may know it better as the ZIP Code. Something I did not know: The first three digits in your ZIP Code (in my case 050) indicate the part of the country where the mail is headed, and the final two numbers (in my case 85) the specific post office or delivery zone.

And just because . . .

The first two numbers of the +4  identify a specific group of streets or block, and the second two the side of the street, a particular building, or in my case, our post office.

Now you know. ;-)

On Another Front

Today's theme is . . . wait for it . . . lacrosse.

Oh yeah. And football, of course.

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Forbes has s story under the headline Premier Lacrosse League Raises $100 Million In Series E Funding Round that begins this way:

The Premier Lacrosse League, which was founded in 2018 by brothers Mike and Paul Rabil, has raised $100 million in Series E financing.

And here's why that matters:

Mike Rabil, a former Dartmouth football player and veteran entrepreneur, would not disclose the league’s valuation following the latest round, but he said its value has increased since the PLL’s Series D round in 2022. Mike Rabil serves as PLL’s CEO, while Paul Rabil is its president. Paul Rabil was an All-American lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins University and a former star in the PLL and Major League Lacrosse, which the PLL merged with in 2020.

And . . .

“I believe in building something that outlasts me, and Paul does, as well,” Mike Rabil said. “How do you build a forever brand? If you look at the top four sports leagues, most of them have been around for 100 years-plus. The PLL may be very successful when Paul and I are no longer on this Earth, so we need to think long-term."

Rabil '06 was a 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive tackle and team captain for Buddy Teevens II. Find his old Dartmouth bio HERE.

Green Alert Take: True story. Interviewing Mike Rabil when he played, I asked about his dreams for the future. He spoke about lofty entrepreneurial goals, and then quietly added he would like some day to be successful enough to settle down and run a small restaurant honoring his Lebanese heritage. I think he'll have that opportunity if he still wants it. ;-)

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Mike Rabil's former football teammate Ryan Danehy '06, has been named offensive coordinator for the Ohio State lacrosse team. From a release out of Columbus (LINK):

A native of Billerica, Mass., Danehy graduated from Dartmouth in 2006. A four-year starter for the Big Green lacrosse team, he posted 84 points (73g-11a), including four (3g-1a) in the program's first NCAA tournament appearance against Syracuse in 2003. He also was a long snapper for the football program.

Danehy was a three-year letterwinner on the gridiron. 

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The preseason FCS top 20 from the Sporting News College Football Magazine courtesy of a faithful BGA reader features two Dartmouth opponents:

1. Montana State
2. South Dakota State
3. Montana
4. North Dakota
5. Illinois State
6. Villanova
7. Tarleton State
8. Rhode Island
9. South Dakota
10. UC Davis
11. Youngstown State
12. Lehigh
13. Stephen Austin
14. Yale
15. Tennessee Tech
16. Abilene Christian
17. Southeastern Louisiana 
18. Lamar
19. Austin Peay
20. South Carolina State

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An entity called Stacker, which describes itself as "a team of journalists, technologists, and storytellers on a mission to empower the world's publishers and help brands build lasting authority through earned reach," has rated what it calls the 50 best colleges in the US, based on data. The fine print suggests that data includes "academics, admissions, finances, and student life." Your mileage may vary, but Dartmouth people can't complain about being ranked No. 5 in the nation. Find the story HERE.

The Top-10

1 MIT
2 Yale
3 Stanford
4 Harvard
5 Dartmouth
6 Columbia
7 Vanderbilt
8 Princeton
9 Cal Tech
10 Rice

Also . . .

11 Brown
12 Penn
21 Cornell

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EXTRA POINT
Here was the $1,600 Jeopardy clue last night in the category College Towns:

No one even rang in.

For the record, Mrs. BGA and I ran the category. ;-)

We Know That Guy!

Click HERE to watch interview.

Defensive lineman Flo Orimolade '17, who suffered an Achilles tear in September, returned to action with the Calgary Stampeders. Orimolade finished with four tackles, including a sack, as the Stamps earned a 41-33 victory over the BC Lions.

A 3DownNation details his injury and return in a pregame story HERE.

BGA Take: Is there a more appropriate name for a website than 3DownNation? ;-)

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The Michigan Chronicle has a story headlined Cass Tech Graduates Head to MIT, Princeton and Dartmouth that features 6-foot-1, 180-pound defensive back Emory Jones, who arrives in Hanover in August. From the story (LINK):

Jones said his guidance counselor encouraged him to consider the long-term value of an Ivy League education. Cass Tech head football coach Marvin Rushing also helped him navigate recruiting and evaluate which university would support his development as both an athlete and student.

Their guidance pushed Jones to look beyond the excitement of an athletic offer and consider the education, financial support and professional opportunities attached to each school.

Jones said Cass Tech staff members told him he is the school’s first athlete to attend an Ivy League institution. He sees the distinction as an opportunity to establish a path for students coming behind him.

“It means a lot to build that kind of status and put a light on my school so that other kids can come after me and do the same thing,” Jones said.

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EXTRA POINT

The final total from yesterday's PGA Tour event in Cromwell, Conn.: 28,000-plus steps on That Certain Nittany Lion '16's counter. All that and no champion until the morning because darkness left Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland tied after 18 holes. We watched their dramatic 18th hole directly behind the pin among a loud, proud and hilarious group of Norwegians in the States for the World Cup.

We left here at 4:50 yesterday morning and arrived back here at 12:35 a.m. today. That's almost a 20-hour day, made even longer by a drenching rain late in the afternoons. I went from trying to find shade to avoid the heat as we walked the course to being bone-chillingly cold after getting soaked from head to toe. It was, to say the least, a memorable day.

Good Deal

Wide receiver Daniel Haughton, who continued to lead the Dartmouth football team as a captain after having his season ended last fall by injury after just two games, is a late addition to the Furman football team as a graduate transfer. (LINK)

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The complete list of FCS quarterbacks working the Manning Passing Academy this week:

Grayson Saunier – Dartmouth

Ean Rodrigue – Nicholls

Justin Lamson – Montana State

Jerry Kaminski – North Dakota

Nathan Hayes – North Dakota State

Chris Parson – Austin Peay

James Murphy – Brown

Braxton Thomas – North Carolina A&T

Andrew Body – Alabama State

Cash McCollum – Weber State

Kyle Lowe – SE Louisiana

This is interview with Saunier from last year's Manning Passing Academy with worth a look:

 

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The Analyst has a story under the headlined Perfect 10: Patriot League Additions Fuel a Power Shift in FCS Football suggesting that what was once considered the Ivy League's sister conference has strategically recovered from hard times to become one of the top leagues in the nation with the addition of Villanova, William & Mary and Richmond, and the emergence of Lehigh and Lafayette.

From the story (LINK):

While increasing from seven to 10 football members in the last two years, the PL hasn’t just sought out adding any program to bolster the numbers, it’s added the right teams – bolstering with rivalry and quality academic institutions while not losing geographical continuity of the membership.

And . . .

That seven of the 10 teams have appeared in the playoffs since 2022 reflects how the league profile is strong. Enough so that the Patriot League is poised to be one of the deeper conferences in the FCS and have multiple playoff qualifiers regularly.

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Illinois' News-Gazette has a piece headlined Illini Legends, Lists & Lore: Edward Hall that details the arrival of the Dartmouth alum as the school's first director of athletics and third head football coach on this date in 1892. (LINK)

The story notes that after a successful run at Illinois, Hall stepped down to attend ...

Harvard University’s law school, earning an undergraduate Bachelor of Law degree. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1896 and briefly practiced law in Scranton, Pa. Two years later, he moved to Boston and became a partner at the firm of Powers, Hall & Jones. Hall served as vice president of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1913-1917. During World War I, he served as business director of the Student Army Training. . . . In 1919, Hall became vice president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in New York City. He retired in 1930 at the age of 60.

And . . . 

For 27 years, Hall also stayed involved with college athletics as a member of the national football rules committee, eventually replacing Walter Camp in 1906 as director of that governing body. After a rash of fatalities in 1905, the collegiate game came under fire from administrators and President Theodore Roosevelt. That hastened guidelines for proper conduct and the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Many revered Hall as the “savior” of the game.

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EXTRA POINT
Tomorrow, That Certain Nittany Lion '16 and I will be going to the PGA's Travelers Championship near Hartford, Conn. Rather than posting up at one hole, TCNL'16 prefers to walk the course throughout the day, checking out different groups at all 18 holes. You may remember what happened at the tournament a year ago. Me? I'd rather forget it. (If you need a refresher, click HERE and scroll down.)

Keeping in mind the goal for TCNL'16 is always to see the first group off, and the last group in, it makes for an incredibly long day. It doesn't help that it starts and ends nearly 200 miles south of here and it's not an overnight trip. That being the case, I'll see you again Monday morning. ;-)

New Names

Buckle up because a few new names are coming your way. ;-)

Among a handful or so rising seniors announcing for Dartmouth recently is 6-foot-6, 210-pound quarterback Webber Marx of Concord (N.H.) St. Paul's School. Marx chose Dartmouth over Yale, Penn and Cornell, as well as offers from Syracuse, UConn, Toledo, Rhode Island, Holy Cross and Fordham.

Marx tore his ACL in his final game last fall and had the injury repaired on Dec. 11. He hails from Wellesley Mills, Mass., and is the son of a Princeton alum.

Hezekiah Davis, a 5-10, 185 running back from Tampa Jesuit High School, has chosen Dartmouth over offers from Harvard, Yale, Brown and Columbia as well as Coastal Carolina, Navy, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Liberty, Richmond, Rhode Island, Holy Cross, Lafayette and The Citadel.

Oliver Costello, a 6-5, 285 offensive lineman who blocks for Marx at St. Paul's, picked Dartmouth over offers from Penn, Brown and New Haven. He's from Plymouth, Mass.

KJ Sims, a 6-3, 192 defensive end from Seckinger High School and Buford, Ga., is headed to Dartmouth after considering offers from Kennesaw State and Morehouse.

Announcing for Dartmouth earlier this spring was quarterback Richmond Saunier, brother of Big Green starting QB Grayson Saunier. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: See something about a Dartmouth commitment? Send a link along. And if you have corrections regarding players headed this way, let me know in the contact form off to the right.

Green Alert Take II: While the next recruiting class is starting to take shape, still no official announcement about the class that will be arriving in two months. Disappointing.

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EXTRA POINT
Like many of you, more and more I've found myself tuning our "smart" TV to YouTube for highlights, news, entertainment, commentary and how-to-videos. But I've always been annoyed by clickbait thumbnails that tease me into videos that I wouldn't otherwise watch, and then fail to deliver on what the thumbnail promises.

Fortunately, YouTube has tapped into AI and for a lot of videos it now has an "Ask" button that allows viewers to get a pretty good summary of the video, or quiz the bot regarding the "tease" in the thumbnail. Don't tell YouTube but it might have outsmarted itself. As a result of that functionality I'm dodging a lot of YouTube videos – and the commercials that make the platform profitable – because I can get the answers I need without wasting time watching them.

How About That?

Grayson Saunier didn't have the flashiest numbers in the Ivy League last year but per a story posted on the FCS Football Central On SI site, the Dartmouth quarterback is deserving of national attention this fall. The site has a piece headlined Summer Scouting: Top FCS QB Prospects To Watch In The 2027 NFL Draft, that features capsules on six quarterbacks and Saunier is one of the six.

The six QBs profiled:

Ty Pennington (Northern Arizona)

Justin Lamson (Montana State)

DJ Williams (Southern Illinois)

Grayson Saunier (Dartmouth)

Jordan Cooke (Idaho State)

Chase Mason (South Dakota State)

Here's what the writeup included about Saunier:

Height: 6021

Weight: 209 lbs.

2025 Stats: 183-of-279 passes for 2,143 passing yards, 9 passing TDs, 7 INTs, 413 rushing yards, 11 rushing TDs (10 games)

Strengths

• Good overall athlete

• Quick throwing motion

• Effective on rollouts

• Displays toughness as a passer and runner

• Good anticipatory thrower

The story includes six more quarterbacks in the "Sleeper QB Prospects" category, and Brown's James Murphy is included on that list. 

Find the full story HERE. 

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HERO Sports continues its countdown to the season with the "best" player wearing the uniform bearing the number of the days until the first FCS game, and a seventh Ivy Leaguer (and eighth Dartmouth opponent) makes the cut. The outlet's chosen No. 64 is 6-foot-3, 290-pound Princeton offensive lineman Barrett Eddlemon.

Here's the list of Ivy Leaguers and Big Green opponents recognized to date:

96: Yale DT Jaylin Tate
86: Cornell TE Ryder Kurtz
85: Columbia WR Titus Evans
79: Lehigh OL Aidan Palmer
77: Harvard OL Spencer Doan
75: Penn OL Luke Sacchetti
71: Harvard OL Thomas O'Brien
64: Princeton OL Barrett Eddlemon

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EXTRA POINT
We had nine acres of land at our house on the shoulder of Moose Mountain. We have only six acres here, but there's a big difference. Our property at the last house was mostly wooded. Here on our Vermont hillside, our property is mostly open. I haven't measured it out, but I'd guestimate we have about two acres of lawn here, and four acres of field.

For the first half dozen years here I dutifully mowed all six acres with my small electric tractor. Given that the field part is uneven – filled with ruts and potholes that were no fun to hit with a tractor that has almost no suspension – it took hours to cut over a couple of days. When I finished it looked almost like a lawn, at least from a distance, but I finally decided the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

This year I am still mowing the two-acre lawn, but I called up a local with a real tractor to cut the field down. He did the first of two cuts earlier this week, and will do the second in late August. Our field doesn't look like a golf course anymore, but looks instead like what it was before this house was built. A field.

Watch And Then Read

Not to bury the lede – which is the NCAA approving a five-for-five eligibility model for student-athletes  – but you'll probably enjoy this more. It's a highlight video of incoming Dartmouth quarterback Jack Cannon, who won 2025 Jersey Sports Zoneman Trophy for leading Holmdel to its first section football title in New Jersey.

Cannon receives the trophy HERE.

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And now for the big story of the day. Chris Vannini of The Athletic summed it up thusly via Xwitter (LINK):

- Five years of eligibility, no redshirts or extensions 

- Clock starts at 19 yrs old or college enrollment (whichever is earlier) 

- Exemptions for pregnancy/military/mission

Direct from the NCAA under the headline Division I adopts age-based eligibility model (LINK):

The Division I Cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved a sweeping overhaul of eligibility rules for student-athletes, permitting Division I student-athletes up to five years of eligibility if they enroll in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday. The new rule streamlines a significant portion of the Division I rule book by eliminating season-of-competition limits, sport-specific eligibility and redshirt rules, and eligibility extension waivers."

And . . .

The rule change will be effective for all prospects initially enrolling full time in college in fall 2027 or later. 

For students enrolling full time in college for the first time in fall 2026 and current student-athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year, Division I schools will apply the previous rules (allowing four seasons of competition within five years) or the age-based model, whichever results in the most favorable outcome for each individual. 

From an AP overview story (LINK):

Eager to lessen the chaos of the transfer portal era and court fights with players trying to extend their careers, the NCAA approved a new eligibility model for Division I athletes on Tuesday that will allow five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

And . . .

The five-in-five language also is included in Senate legislation intended to address numerous concerns across college sports and comes after a wave of lawsuits from athletes seeking to extend their college careers and ability to earn money through revenue sharing and name, image and likeness deals. Still to be seen is whether the new rules will withstand legal scrutiny alongside the existing challenges. 

Another Associated Press story under the headline The NCAA changed its eligibility rules. What does that mean for transfers, rosters and playing time? actually includes a quote from an assistant lacrosse coach at Dartmouth.  From the story (LINK):

“I think it’s the NCAA’s way of keeping college sports as amateur as possible with the chaos that is the NIL era. It will be good for sports like lacrosse where post-grad and redshirt years are less common than in football,” said Kelsey Fee, an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Dartmouth. “It will open up the portal to a new slew of craziness with kids looking to use their fifth year.”

Fee said she also thinks the shift will bring an excitement to recruiting that hasn’t been felt in recent years.

Green Alert Take: It's curious that an AP writer would chase down a quote from a random assistant coach in the Ivy League, which likely won't adopt the five-year eligibility rule unless the courts somehow get involved.

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During the spring I asked Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle for his thoughts on the five-for-five initiative. The Big Green has had one football player who I was told sat out the rest of one season specifically to maintain a potential redshirt, and both McCorkle and Buddy Teevens before him have said they promised to work with players under the old rule to enable them to have a final year as a grad transfer.

Here's what appeared on BGA Overtime during the spring when the five-for-five discussion  was heating up:

The NCAA has been looking at – and may soon pass – an eligibility rules change that would allow players five years to play five seasons. The expectation is that would put an end to players petitioning and getting the OK to play after spending six or seven years in college.

If passed, the rule would allow Ivy Leaguers to play four full years, get their degree, and then play a final season at the FBS level should that possibility be offered. Currently, Ivy players have to play no more than four games in one of their seasons to recover that year elsewhere. Increasingly, that has forced players and coaches around the Ivy League to have difficult discussions about limiting playing time for players hoping to eventually grad transfer.

McCorkle gives the potential rules change a solid thumbs up.

"It would help us because we couldn't have to make those tough decisions," he said. "We don't have to worry about messing the kid up by playing him more than four games and costing him that year.

"But the part you worry about is, OK, now you give them five years, is it going to be six next? It's like the playoffs. You start off letting 12 teams in, then it's 16 and what next? But hey, I think it would be great for us, for sure."

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EXTRA POINT
On our recent road trip to the Outer Banks, Charleston and Savannah, Mrs. BGA and I played the license plate game. You know the one. How many different state plates can you find?

Two thoughts occurred as we played the game.

First, it is astonishing how many different plates one state can have. Florida, I'm looking at you. It turns out the Sunshine State has 100 or more plates, and that made the game much, much more difficult. You'd think you found a missing state only to discover it was yet another version of the Florida plate. (LINK to different Florida plates.)

The second thought: License plate frames from dealers or those celebrating colleges or causes have gotten bigger and more intrusive, so much so that a lot of them obscure the state name entirely. That doesn't help playing our game, and you would have to think it isn't appreciated by state troopers trying to "run" the plate of a moving vehicle. Speaking of which, the plates had to be on a moving vehicle to count in our game.

So there you have it, my rant on license plates.

What's that? You are wondering how the game finished, are you?

We ended up seeing 47 states and the District of Columbia. The missing states: Hawaii, Nevada and North Dakota.

For the longest time we were also missing Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming. Interestingly we collected Idaho and Oregon within about five minutes of each other on one of our last days on the road. Wyoming was the last state we added, although I have to take Mrs. BGA's word for it because I didn't see that one.