Closing In On It

Previews for Lehigh, Monmouth and Merrimack are now up on BGA Overtime. Look for previews of Brown, Columbia and Cornell – all returning their starting quarterbacks – tonight. Princeton and Penn will go up tomorrow, with Harvard and Yale on Friday. Then it's on to coverage of Dartmouth's preseason practice.

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FCS Football Central on SI has a piece headlined Summer Scouting: Top FCS Safety Prospects To Watch In The 2027 NFL Draft and there's a familiar name near the top of the list. Actually, two of them. From the posting (LINK):

• Best Deep Safety: Harrison Keith
• Best Box Safety: Rex Connors
• Best Hybrid Defender: Abu Kamara
• Best Coverage Safety: Harrison Keith
• Best Ball Hawk: Harrison Keith
• Best Run Defender: Rex Connors
• Best Tackler: Rex Connors
• Best Athlete: Abu Kamara
• Best Football IQ: Harrison Keith
• Most Versatile: Abu Kamara
• Most Underrated: Caden Dowler
• Highest Ceiling: Joshua Tarver
• Most NFL-Ready: Abu Kamara

Harrison Keith, of course, is a Dartmouth senior. Abu Kamara is a Yale standout. 

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Speaking of Dartmouth safeties, this is a weird one. Sean Williams, who Harrison Keith referred to during the Ivy League media day as one of his mentors when he was a young player, has been added to the Arkansas roster.

What's that you say? Didn't he participate in a Tennessee Titans regional tryout? Yup.

This is from a lengthy story on 247Sports (LINK):

Williams, 5-9, 190, was a three-time All-Ivy League selection with 11 career interceptions and had a minicamp tryout with the Titans, but the ruling from a Colorado judge allowed him to return to school and transfer to Fayetteville ahead of the upcoming season.

If you can't access that story, you can read more about Williams heading to the Hogs HERE.

Green Alert Take: Just when I start to think the rules about college sports participation can't get any stranger, they get stranger.

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On the subject of grad transfers, this shot of former Dartmouth tight end Chris Corbo is from Georgia Tech's social media with a story headlined, Corbo, Haynes Tabbed As Top-100 2027 NFL Draft Prospects (LINK).

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Dartmouth has announced that NESN (New England Sports Network) will broadcast the Big Green's Oct. 17 football game against Merrimack from Memorial Field. It's part of a three-sport package of Dartmouth broadcasts that includes the women's soccer game against Holy Cross on Sept. 10, and the men's soccer game vs. UMass on Oct. 13. Find a story out of Dartmouth HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
Did I ever tell you that back when it had the gold standard of sports pages, I was offered a job at the Burlington Free Press? For a variety of reasons, I was on the fence about taking the job.

In fact, I was so back-and-forth about the position that, believe it or not, what made up my mind to turn the offer down was learning that I would have to buy a monthly permit to park near the office. I wasn't going to move to Vermont only to have to pay to park like I was in New York City. Not in Vermont!

What made me think about that was reading today that White River Junction is going to have paid parking from now on. With that I realized that depending on how far she is willing to walk, Mrs. BGA is going to have to pay to park when she volunteers as the diabetes educator at the Good Neighbor Health Clinic.

And I wouldn't pay to buy parking for a job that I actually got paid for!

But everything turned out fine, of course. If I'd taken the job up in Burlington, there would have been no BGA, no Mrs. BGA, and you would never have heard of That Certain Dartmouth '14, That Nittany Lion '16 or Griff the Wonder Dog. ;-)

First Previews On Tap Tonight

BGA Overtime will start opponent previews tonight. The tentative plan:

• Tonight: Lehigh, Monmouth, Merrimack

• Tomorrow: Brown, Columbia, Cornell

• Thursday: Penn, Princeton

• Friday: Harvard, Yale

• Saturday: Preseason coverage

If you haven't visited the site or bookmarked it yet, head on over to BGA Overtime today! 

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From Dartmouth social media:

Green Alert Take: While Josiah Green and Delby Lemieux were making their preseason debuts, safety Tyron Herring is '23 is on injured reserve with the Cleveland Browns. Herring was a grad transfer at Delaware for two years after picking up his Dartmouth degree.

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The STATS preseason poll went up earlier this month and now the FCS Coaches Poll is out. Dartmouth is in the Coaches Others Receiving Votes category. Week 1 opponent Lehigh comes in at No. 11 with Yale at 19 and Week 2 opponent Monmouth at 23. Harvard received 14 votes in the poll while Dartmouth garnered eight.

	FCS Coaches	W-L*	Pts	Prev*
1	Montana St. (25)	14-2	649	1
2	Montana	13-2	605	3
3	South Dakota St. (1)	9-5	591	14
4	Illinois St.	12-5	553	2
5	Tarleton St.	12-2	527	6
6	UC Davis	9-4	498	8
7	Villanova	12-3	448	4
8	Rhode Island	11-3	434฿	10
9	Youngstown St.	8-5	428	17
10	North Dakota	8-6	396	16
11	LEHIGH	12-1	359	9
12	South Dakota	10-5	347	11
13	Stephen F. Austin	11-3	313	7
14	ACU	9-5	295	12
15	Tennessee Tech	11-2	294	15
16	Southern Illinois	7-5	231	NR
17	Mercer	9-3	189	18
18	Austin Peay	7-5	186	NR
19	YALE	9-3	164	13
20	Southeastern Louisiana	9-4	160	19
21	Lamar	8-5	133	21
22	UT Martin	6-6	123	NR
23	MONMOUTH	9-3	105	20
24	Northern Arizona	7-5	67	NR
25	South Carolina St.	10-3	63	25
	* Final 2025 poll
	Others Receiving Votes: Richmond, 31; Southeast Missouri St., 27; Valparaiso, 23; Alabama St., 21; East Tennessee St., 21; Western Carolina, 20; Idaho St., 15; HARVARD, 14; Central Connecticut St., 12; Furman, 12; Jackson St., 11; Chattanooga, 9; Eastern Kentucky, 9; UIW, 9; UT-Rio Grande Valley, 9; DARTMOUTH, 8; Elon, 7; William & Mary, 7; Holy Cross, 6; Wofford, 5; Prairie View A&M, 4; Northern Colorado, 3; St. Thomas (Minn.), 3; New Hampshire, 2; Central Arkansas, 1; McNeese St., 1; San Diego, 1; Stony Brook, 1.

	STATS	W-L*	Pts	Prev*
1	Montana State (57)	14-2	1,425	1
2	Montana	13-2	1,328	3
3	South Dakota State	9-5	1,266	13
4	Illinois State	12-5	1,231	2
5	Tarleton State	12-2	1,100	6
6	UC Davis	9-4	1,063	8
7	Rhode Island	11-3	1,048	11
8	Villanova	12-3	1,008	T4
9	Youngstown State	8-5	946	18
10	North Dakota	8-6	945	14
11	LEHIGH	12-1	826	10
12	South Dakota	10-5	783	9
13	Stephen F. Austin	11-3	773	7
14	Tennessee Tech	11-2	594	16
15	Abilene Christian	9-5	579	12
16	Southern Illinois	7-5	509	25
17	Austin Peay	7-5	440	NR
18	YALE	9-3	418	15
19	Southeastern Louisiana	9-4	392	19
20	Lamar	8-5	380	24
21	Mercer	11-3	306	17
22	MONMOUTH	9-3	200	22
23	UT Martin	6-6	144	NR
24	South Carolina State	10-3	107	21
25	Northern Arizona	7-5	103	NR
	* Final 2025 poll
	Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): Idaho State 100; Western Carolina 75; HARVARD 72; New Hampshire 61; Alabama State 59; Jackson State 48; Southern Utah 27; Prairie View A&M 25; West Georgia 25; UTRGV 20; Richmond 15; ETSU 12; Elon 11; Southeast Missouri 10; William & Mary 9; Delaware State 7; Drake 7; Furman 6

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Do with this what you will, but Bill Connelly's College Football SP+ power-rating system is out. It is "based primarily on efficiency, while adjusting for opponent strength and tempo."

Green Alert Take: Huh?

Anyway, here's how it ranks Ivy League teams:

Yale 133

Harvard 146

Dartmouth 164

Penn 186

Brown 213

Princeton 216

Cornell 222

Columbia 235

Find the full rankings HERE. 

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EXTRA POINT
When I first went to the Dartmouth athletics page today I got this message using the Safari browser:

Error 15

dartmouthsports.com

2026-08-18 12:14:32 UTC

What happened?

This request was blocked by our security service

I've been visiting that page every day for the past, oh, 20-plus years, and never saw that before. If I did something to mess things up, I don't know what it was. If I did something to fix things up, I don't know what it is. All I know is it's working again.