Did you know that, even though they are not playing, Ivy League football teams are included in the weekly Sagarin Ratings? Me neither. But pull up the ratings HERE, and there they are.
This is how the computer guru ranks the Ivy League, and for good measure, the Patriot League:
112 Princeton
124 Dartmouth
146 Harvard
155 Yale
184 Penn
206 Columbia
213 Brown
222 Cornell
And the Patriot League:
183 Holy Cross
197 Colgate
219 Lafayette
232 Bucknell
233 Lehigh
238 Georgetown
And Dartmouth's nonconference opponents:
131. Towson
249. Marist
New Haven (Division II – No ranking)
Green Alert Take: The Sagarin Ratings have always been a mystery to me. Now more than ever. ;-)
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From a story in Worcester Business Journal under the headline, Columbia Tech partners with MVP Robotics on football tackling dummies (LINK):
MVP was first used on students at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.
Green Alert Take: Ouch times two.
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From a Yale Daily News story (LINK):
After over three weeks of limited in-person athletic activity in Phases I and II, Yale Athletics is reverting to Phase 0 until at least Oct. 21 after six members of the Yale men’s hockey team tested positive for COVID-19.
And:
“Right now we can’t do anything,” Yale football quarterback Devyn Suggs ’24 told the News. “Can’t lift, can’t practice, so we are back to doing stuff on our own –– bodyweight workouts by ourselves. We can’t go to the gym or to practice or anything like that, so we have to basically go back to Phase 0 and then hopefully go back to Phase 1 next week.”
The YDN has a second story under the headline, Yale Athletics reverted to Phase 0 Tuesday. Where do the other Ivies stand? From the story (LINK):
Harvard and Dartmouth are in Phase II, while Brown and Cornell currently occupy Phase I. Yale joins Columbia, Penn and Princeton in Phase 0.
The story notes that Penn has no students on campus, Columbia is entirely remote and Princeton is almost entirely remote.
That story includes the following from Rick Bender, Dartmouth's sports information director:
“The Dartmouth Athletics Reopening Task Force has been working diligently since March to return our student-athletes to some level of athletic activity in accordance with Ivy League and College policy as well as state and federal guidelines. We were able to begin Phase I activity in late September after successfully completing the College quarantine period. Programs began transitioning to Phase II after satisfying our internal criteria for Phase I.”
“Right now we are excited that we have been able to resume any level of skill instruction and sport-related activity."
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Sports Illustrated has a story headlined, NCAA Proposal Says Transfers Will Be Granted Immediate Eligibility (LINK) that begins this way: "Athletes can soon transfer schools and play immediately."
From the story:
The latest change could reverse a long-standing rule adopted NCAA wide in the early 1960s, one that originated more than a century ago when a group of Ivy League schools agreed to a one-year sit-out provision for players transferring among them. Under the current policy, players can transfer freely and play immediately in all sports except for baseball, basketball, football and men’s ice hockey.
Green Alert Take: Although it hasn't been enforced to the degree it was in the past (See Fields, Justin, Ohio State) the rule has been that FBS football players who transfer to another FBS school have to sit out a full year. That has not been the case when players transferred down from the FBS to the FCS. The guess here is that FCS schools will see significantly fewer impact transfers with the proposed rule change.
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The local Valley News has a story picking up on whispers about Dartmouth's Hanover Country Club potentially reopening nine holes on the Lyme Road side of the gully. From the story (LINK):
A group backing the 121-year-old golf course and Dartmouth College officials confirmed on Tuesday that discussions are ongoing over a proposed nine-hole version of the facility. Both sides declined to go into deeper details, citing the sensitivity of the negotiations.
And . . .
Alumnus Luke McLaughry delivered a proposal in late July to restore Hanover as a nine-hole track, employing the current seventh through 15th holes. The plan also called for returning HCC’s practice area east of Lyme Road to activity and leaving the land from the country club’s other nine holes, as well as its four-hole practice course, available to the college to develop, if needed.
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EXTRA POINT
When we lived on Moose Mountain there were many mornings this time of year when I'd walk the Wonder Dog under crisp, clear blue skies and look down on Hanover thinking, "They are driving around down there with their headlights on and no idea what a beautiful day it is."
Why? Heavy fog off the Connecticut River often lingers well into the morning.
Instead of a mountain we live these days on a pretty fair hill, and once again look down on the Connecticut River valley, albeit from the other side of the river. I was reminded about what it's like for people down in the valley earlier today when I had to drop the VW bus off for inspection in town.
I pulled out of our driveway a little after 6 a.m. with an astonishing gallery of stars sprinkled across the clear sky and within a couple of minutes I had a death grip on the steering wheel hoping not to drive off the road in fog as thick as cotton candy. When I got back home after trading the VW for my Honda Fit, which was inspected yesterday, I shot a picture that shows the difference between where we live and town. As I write this the folks down under the white fog clouds still don't know that it's a bluebird of a day ;-)
