The Ivy League football preseason football poll is scheduled to be released Aug. 3 and the conference preseason media day is slated for Aug. 10. Thanks to Craig Haley of Opta Analyst for digging up the dates.
Green Alert Take: As someone who has been covering the Ivy League closely for longer than I care to admit and who might have a decent grasp of the Ivy football landscape, I was a voter in the poll as far back as the late '80s (or was it the early '90s?). For the first time last year I was not one of the two media members selected by Dartmouth to vote in the poll. I have no quarrel with that, but have to admit I found it curious.)
Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Haley also lists one more date that Dartmouth followers have to hope is worth marking on their calendars. The opening round of the 2026 FCS playoffs is Nov. 28.
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Danny O'Dea, who transitioned from running backs coach at Dartmouth to recruiting director a couple of years ago, gets a well-deserved nod from Mike Farrell, widely recognized as "the Godfather of college recruiting:"
And speaking of recruiting, remember the placekicker from Hanover High School BGA blogged about just yesterday? Turns out he already has a Big 10 offer from Iowa. (LINK)
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Rocco Gasparro, who served as assistant director of sports information at Dartmouth from 2001-03, has been named Senior Director of Communications for the All State Sugar Bowl after spending the last 23 years at the University of Louisville. (LINK)
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YesPress, which bills itself as delivering "Breaking news, bold profiles and stories of companies shaping our world," has a piece on Cirkul, the company founded by former Dartmouth safety Garrett Waggoner '13 and quarterback Andy Gay '14. Find the story HERE.
While the Cirkul story has been well told since the company hit it big, this chart from YesPress offers up an easy-to-digest outline of how it got where it is today:
2010
Waggoner and Gay meet on the Dartmouth football team. The powder-in-a-bottle frustration begins.2016
Cirkul is founded around the cartridge-and-dial concept.2018
Product launches after the founders rent a Tampa warehouse and assemble cartridges by hand.2021
$30M Series B led by AF Ventures. TikTok flavor taste-tests start going viral - mostly by accident.2022
$70M Series C led by SC.Holdings lands a $1B valuation. Cirkul launches nationwide in Walmart.2023
Becomes one of Walmart's fastest-selling home-division products; expands into Canada via Walmart2025
Rolls out new beverage brands and 50+ flavors; named Official Hydration Partner of i9 Sports.
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A very special old friend sent along an email yesterday wondering if Ben Rice '22, has the record for most single-season home runs by an Ivy League graduate* in major league history. It turns out that last year he broke the record of 22 set by Princeton alum Will Venable with the San Diego Padres in 2013. Rice finished with 26 home runs, a number he matched with a home run for the Yankees last night.
* Lou Gehrig attended Columbia but did not graduate.
And speaking of Rice, not only is he headed to the All-Star game, but he'll be in the home run derby. Find a story under the headline Yankees' Ben Rice headed to first home run derby — and he's bringing a special guest HERE.
Spoiler Alert: The special guest is his father Dan, a former pitcher at Brown, who will throw to him in the Derby.
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EXTRA POINTTuesday evening concerts on the green have started in the town just south of us. Griff the Wonder Dog very much enjoyed being my footstool during the performance. What I think enjoyed even more was having his ears scratched by my foot. ;-)
