Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Your Mileage May Vary

 The Analyst, the gold standard of FCS coverage, ranks the 15 conferences that make up the subdivision (LINK):

1. Missouri Valley
2. Big Sky
3. CAA
4. Southern
5. Atlantic Sun
6. Western Athletic
7. Ivy League
8. Southland
9. Ohio Valley
10. Southwestern Athletic
11. Patriot
12. Northeast
13. Big South
14. Mid-Eastern Athletic
15. Pioneer

Here's the Ivy League capsule that goes with the ranking:

The Skinny: Last year’s veteran-laden league will turn younger. Defending co-champs Dartmouth and Princeton suffered heavy losses, but they usually find ways to reload, and should remain in the title picture with Harvard and Yale.

Projected Postseason Qualifiers: 0 (league only has a regular season)

Fast Fact: By going 17-7 out of league, the Ivies posted a winning percentage above .700 for the third time in their last four seasons.

Green Alert Take: I have no quibble with ranking the Ivy League in the middle of the pack. And Dartmouth and Princeton have indeed shown themselves successful at reloading. What I might take issue with is emphasizing the league's nonconference record given that it doesn't exactly play a very competitive non-league schedule.

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Columbia joins the Ivy League teams that have already started spring practice on Friday. Dartmouth is scheduled to kick off spring ball two weeks from today – with coverage after each session on BGA Premium.

There's been precious little news on the Transfer Portal front but be sure to keep checking back when practice kicks into gear in two weeks because there could be some interesting developments. Yes, that's a teaser. And no, Dartmouth isn't dipping into the portal. Stay tuned.

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In a little bit of actual portal news:

Per his Twitter account Jones has offers from McNeese State, Samford, Texas A&M Commerce and North Carolina Central. The tight end would be a graduate transfer with no more Ivy League eligibility.

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CLICK HERE to sign up for Thursday's Zoom call headlined by interim Athletic Director Peter Roby.

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EXTRA POINT
I read a report this morning about a couple of cars stuck in the mud and abandoned on our old road on the shoulder of Hanover's Moose Mountain. That left a town truck unable to get through, forcing it to back down the road to turn around in order for a tow truck to try to free up the vehicles.

I'm reminded of the time Mrs. BGA and I loaded the kids up in our all-wheel drive car and headed to Massachusetts where I was covering a "home" Dartmouth women's lacrosse game for the newspaper (before the Big Green had artificial turf installed).

It was a Saturday afternoon game and by the time we stopped for a bite of dinner and got back to the Upper Valley my early deadline for the Sunday paper was approaching. I think we were about halfway up our road when we got stuck. Seriously stuck.

Not knowing how long it would take for someone to free our car Mrs. BGA and I talked over our options. Because the paper had already budgeted space on the front sport page for my story, we decided I would trudge the last mile home through the mud with one kid on my back. She would babysit the car and the other kiddo, waiting for help while I wrote my story.

Thanks to Mrs. BGA's understanding I made my deadline and the car eventually got pulled out. I honestly don't remember if that was the time when we left a critical (read: expensive) part of the car in the mud but you get the idea. Living on a quiet dirt road is great in summer, fall, winter and most of spring. That fifth season – mud season – not so much.

Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday as I mucked my way from our Vermont hillside home to my hiking trail before going up the mountain and then mucking my way back home:



True story. I once had a 10-inch high LL Bean boot sucked off my foot in the mud directly in front of our house back in Etna and it disappeared. I had to reach around in the mud with my hand to find it and  somehow wrestle it out.

Lest you wonder why anyone would put up with a couple weeks of living on a mud road, here's the view of Mount Moosilauke we had at sunset that kept me running to the window last night. Click the photo for a better look:

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