So are you rooting for Yale as the Ivy League representative in the FCS playoffs or do you find it hard to root for the Bulldogs?
Oh, wait. You are in luck. You don't have to choose because in all their wisdom the Ivy League presidents have made the choice for you. They have decided that football players are not worthy of what every other Ivy League athlete playing an Ivy League sport is worthy of doing and that's playing for a national championship.
Green Alert Take: It was strange after Saturday's football game hearing the cheers the Dartmouth women's rugby team was receiving as it won another national championship knowing that when the Big Green won the football title the last two years they were not allowed to do what the rugby team was doing.
Green Alert Take II: There are some people who see women's rugby as an analogue to football. I'm clearly no lawyer, but if that's the case I wonder if some sharp legal minds would see the Ivy League as being in a little Title IX jeopardy on that score? And if it isn't by the letter of the law, it is morally.
Green Alert Take III: What I'd like to see is the rest of the Ivy League athletes stand up for football and perhaps wear arm bands in every NCAA and Ivy playoff, and speak out to the national media about the discrimination against their fellow Ivy athletes. That might just just get the attention of the presidents in their ivory towers.
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Once again this year Dartmouth football fans can choose a proxy team in the tournament. Will it be cross-state rival New Hampshire, which will host Fordham Saturday?
Or maybe old friend Holy Cross, which is undefeated and earned a bye on the opening weekend of the playoffs?
Perhaps you will root for William & Mary, where former record-setting Dartmouth quarterback Brian Mann '02 is now the athletic director. Like Holy Cross, W&M has a bye and will open play on December 3.
Here's the bracket:
The All-Ivy League selections will come out tomorrow and after several years filling out those teams it will be interesting to see how the Big Green fares this year. I'd put the over-under for first-team selections at three.
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Barring a change, there will be a posting on BGA Premium tonight and then the site will go dark as it always has after the final game. As I wrote to several people yesterday, after sitting down at the keyboard seven days a week since Aug. 12, my tank is empty.
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EXTRA POINT
We got our first snow here last week, Killington opened for skiing Friday and it was six degrees here this morning. I've got to say, we got the '84 VW camper put away just in time.
True confession. We lost count of the number of itty bitty back-and-forth turns it took to get it inside yesterday. Some were as little as a foot. Mrs. BGA, who stood alongside the bus giving me hand signals showing how close I was to smashing into things, believes it was somewhere between two dozen and 30. Whatever the number, it was a thrash in a four-speed without power steering. There are dryer sheets spread throughout the bus to hopefully keep the mice out (good luck with that) and it will now rest quietly until the spring.
Here's a look at "Wiffle" in its winter home. And yes, our cars still fit inside with ease. In case you are wondering, we've flirted with having the pop-top camper painted for a few years but have hesitated for two reasons. First, painting it would cost more than we paid for it when we bought it 28 years ago. (Of course, we've also been told it's worth more than seven times what we paid for it back then. ;-)
And second, VW cognoscenti tell us the faded, original paint on a running bus like this actually increases its value. Not that we're about to sell it. But we do have to get some of the encroaching "seam" rust cleaned up.
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| Wiffle is hibernating safely inside for the winter. |
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| Why is it I can get it out come spring in maybe 4-6 turns? |
