Season Wrap Redux

With the 2021 Ivy League football season over and BGA Premium going dormant until spring (after tonight) non-subscribers can access the Premium story from championship Saturday without needing to sign in by clicking HERE.

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Dartmouth sports has posted a longer highlight package from Dartmouth-Brown:

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With the postgame a scrum down at Brown we never got to hear from Bears coach James Perry or any of his players regarding the game. A few thoughts from a story in the school's Daily Herald (LINK):

Head Coach James Perry ’00 attributed the decision to go for it on fourth down several times to his team’s broader analytics-based strategy. “We’re going to go for it on all fourth and ones,” he said. 

And . . .

The game plan, according to (wide receiver Graham) Walker, was to attack Dartmouth’s “conservative” defensive scheme, something Brown succeeded at early on but struggled with as the game progressed. “We came out with the intention to put together some long drives, taking what the defense gave us,” he said. “We did a really good job of that first half. We missed the opportunity … in the second half.”

And . . .

Coach Perry came away impressed with the quality of his Dartmouth opponent. “We knew they were a championship team. They played like it today (and) they really played like it all season,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a great challenge (and) we knew we were going to have to play extraordinarily well. At times we did, (but) as the game wore on, some of the things that make them as good as they are obviously showed up.” 

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We all could have dug this up but kudos to Craig Haley for doing the legwork on the number of championships and most recent:

20 - Dartmouth (most recent, 2021)

18 - Penn (2016)

17 - Harvard (2015)

16 - Yale (2019)

13 - Princeton (2021)

4 - Brown (2008)

3 - Cornell (1990)

1 - Columbia (1961)

And I'll add a couple more. Championships since 2000:

8. Harvard

8. Penn

5. Princeton

3. Dartmouth

3. Yale

2. Brown

0. Cornell

0. Columbia

Championships since 2010:

4. Princeton

4. Penn

4. Harvard

3. Dartmouth

2. Yale

0. Brown 

0. Cornell

0. Columbia

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For those who worry that the Ivy League champion would be pummeled in the opening round(s) of the NCAA playoffs, this is from the FCS playoff bracket:

FIRST ROUND

Saturday, Nov. 27

Sacred Heart (8-3) at Holy Cross (9-2), noon

SECOND ROUND
Friday, Dec. 3

Sacred Heart-Holy Cross winner at No. 5 seed Villanova (9-2), 7 p.m.

And here's what it SHOULD look like:

FIRST ROUND

Saturday, Nov. 27

Sacred Heart (8-3) at Princeton (9-1), noon

Holy Cross (9-2) at Dartmouth (9-1), noon

SECOND ROUND

Friday, Dec. 3

Sacred Heart-Princeton winner at Holy Cross-Dartmouth winner, 7 p.m.

Green Alert Take: Very good chance Dartmouth and Princeton win those games and have a rematch. How awesome would that be? And yeah, I know the second around is supposed to pit an unseeded team against a seeded team, but play with me here.

Green Alert Take II: Hey Ivy League presidents, are you proud of yourselves?

Green Alert Take III: The day will come when the lawyers get involved. I'm no Title IX expert but I find it interesting that women's rugby, the female analog of Dartmouth's male football program, can go on and beat Army to win a national championship while men's football isn't allowed to compete. (LINK)

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From a Harvard Magazine story about the Crimson's win over Yale (LINK):

You can say that the Crimson had victory stolen at Princeton and thus should be the real Ivy co-champs, 2021. Many of us will persist in saying it. But that bitter disappointment should not obscure the resolve shown thereafter. Tim Murphy and his team should hold their heads up high.

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Old friend Don Brown, who got his coaching start here in the Upper Valley at Hartford High School and then at Dartmouth, is headed home to Massachusetts to take over as head coach of the woeful UMass football team. Donnie led the Minutemen to the 2006 FCS national championship. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: Don is a terrific coach, a players' coach, but he's not a miracle worker and that's what UMass needs. (Actually, it needs to move back to FCS.) But it's a good move for Brown, out of his element the last year in Arizona and returning to familiar ground. But for a misstep by Yale he would have been in New Haven for the last however many years and be wrapping up a legendary stint with the Bulldogs.

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EXTRA POINT
Just before settling in to work on BGA Daily this morning I went out and plugged in my car. With my last drive down to Hanover on tap this afternoon I found myself thinking about the number of times I've made that trip since early August and the fact that not one time have I stopped at a gas pump. I don't miss it.