Poll Musings

With the Ivy League media poll in the books there are stories posted on team websites for Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Cornell in addition to Dartmouth. If Brown, Columbia and Penn posted anything I missed it.

Down in New Jersey they note, "Princeton has won three of the last seven Ivy League football championships and is now favored to make it four of eight." Out in Ithaca, meanwhile, they remind us, "The Big Red has surpassed its preseason predicted finish in five of the last six seasons, including in 2019 when it was picked to place seventh only to tie for fourth, its first top-half conference finish since 2006."

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FCS guru Craig Haley uses the poll as the impetus to offer his opinion on the Ivy League allowing players to use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA but requiring the players to withdraw from school for a year, semester or quarter to be eligible. He sees that as antithetical to Ivy League ideals:

.@CraigHaley on the Ivy League preseason:

Preseason Poll
1. Princeton – 113 points (8 first-place votes)
2. Yale – 104 (6)
3. Dartmouth – 88 (1)
4. Harvard – 87
5. Penn – 61
6. Brown – 52
7. Columbia – 44 (1)
8. Cornell – 27 pic.twitter.com/8W8NrjLi5i

— FCS Football (@FCS_STATS) August 9, 2021

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Not surprisingly given the last several years, the annual CBS Sports story picking the best Division I football team in each state has Dartmouth reigning supreme in New Hampshire. (LINK)

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While Dartmouth is still a dozen days away from its first practice, Game 1 opponent Valparaiso is almost midway through its first week of preseason camp:

The boys are back 👊🏼

Practice 3️⃣ in the 📚 #ThirtySix💯 pic.twitter.com/qZXKuIwg0e

— Valpo Football (@valpoufootball) August 9, 2021

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Speaking of Valparaiso, the Crusaders school is set to announce its new mascot today.

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The Analyst, formerly known as STATS Perform, formerly known as The Sports Network, has revealed its first poll of the 2021 season and there is no Ivy League team in the Top-25, or among the 44 schools that received votes.

Of interest in the "Others" category are Oct. 16 opponent New Hampshire (32nd) and Sept. 25 foe Sacred Heart (37th). Also of interest are Holy Cross (34th), Samford (35th) where Seth Simmer '20 is a grad transfer, and Albany (38th), where Caylin Parker '20 is a grad transfer.

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EXTRA POINT
I think Jeopardy James Holzhauer's Tweet urging the gameshow to pick Joe Buck as permanent host so he’ll have to give up sportscasting was brilliant. But having watched Buck’s first go at Jeopardy, I think he may be less annoying in the press box than on the venerable quiz show. For what it’s worth, my top three picks to replace Alex Trebek would be Ken Jennings, Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik, who I had never heard of before Jeopardy. I'd also be OK with Aaron Rodgers.

I’d be disappointed if Katie Couric or LeVar Burton got the call but would almost certainly have an extra half hour each night to do something else if Dr. Mehmet Oz was picked.

For what it's worth I'm still waiting for one of the news outlets reporting on Holzhauer's Tweet to connect his affinity for the Chicago Cubs with the dart he threw at Buck, who is closely associated with St. Louis and the Cardinals, archrivals of the Cubbies.