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Subject: State Of The League Author: Ivy Inquisitor (No 2024 Ivy Madness?) [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 19:51:09 11/10/24 Sun My recent picks were 3-1 and 1-1 for Ivy Sprint Football. Bringing the total to 25-19 and 9-4 respectively. At this point it seems the Ivy Championship Game will be held at parallel sites- Boston and Hanover. This Saturday will be the final chance for Ivy Football Madness. This can occur if Dartmouth and Harvard falls WITH a Columbia win. The past 15 years the league has had some dynamic QB’s in Billy Ragone, Alek Torgersen, Noloan Grooms, EJ Perry, John Lovett and Jameson Wang. As Wang makes his exit , he’s passing that torch to Liam O’Brien. Yale, Last week’s post I asked the question of Yale: “Will you be motivated to continue your November dominance despite being out of championship contention?” The answer was an affirmative yes. Grant Jordan has done a great job of replacing Nolan Grooms. Brown has found their rocket passer needed to replace outgoing Jake Wilcox with James Murphy. I’m afraid Bruno is now in the same situation as Cornell in plateauing at 5 wins. Princeton now has “clinched” their worst season since 2011. On the positive side they still have some fight left in them. Saturday’s loss proved that. Dartmouth is on course to “host” The league championship in two weeks. But there’re very fortunate for Princeton’s costly mistakes: AJ Barber fumble and Blaine Hipa’s end zone penalty causing a safety. Back up QB Grayson Saunier ran for two touchdowns. Will be become their next QB run specialist? Columbia’s #1 Ivy defense kept them in the game until the 4th quarter. There was no help from the offense. It looked much like 2023. In recent years there’s been several near misses, What will it take for the Lions to win the Ivy League Championship? Cornell’s inconsistencies have been well discussed. This might be the first time to happen simultaneously. When a team scores 49 points it’s implied they will win. The past three years you never know what you’ll get from the Big Red. That is what makes them frustrating and exciting. Harvard’s Charles DePrima has became Princeton’s “John Lovett”. As he played RB, WR and QB. Against Columbia he ran for 75 yards 7 carries, 3 receptions for 59 yards, with a receiving and rushing touchdown. Wideout Cooper Barkate and TE Seamus Gilmartin made vertical plays. But Gilmartin dropped two catchable end zones passes. Cornerback Austin-Jake Gullroy made two interceptions. Penn RB Hosley ran for 192 and Richardson had 141 yards receiving with three touchdowns. That’s usually the highlight not this time because Liam O’Brien made those two stellar performances as a side note. O’Brien had 6 passing touchdowns and one rushing. The Quakers 67 points are the most as an Ivy member and the most overall since 1942. Records fell during the Trustees Cup. As a result, Liam O’Brien will be in line for numerous league and national weekly honors. Since 2022 My question remains: “Why hasn’t Penn inserted Liam O’Brien sooner to see what he’s capable of?” Sprint Football: Penn was upset by Chestnut Hill 12-7 and Cornell lost a hard fought game against Mansfield 49-35. Pennsylvania ends the year at 5-2 and 2-5 for Cornell. This is the best CSFL season for both since 2021. Predictions: CSFL Championship: November 16, 1:00 . Army (7-0) 17 Navy (6-1) 13. Navy has beaten Army the past three championship games. Army is due and it’s at their site. Harvard 31 Pennsylvania 21 -This Crimson will be rightly very afraid of Liam O’Brien. That May case DePrima to get most of the snaps and play clock-eating ball control. Columbia 34 Brown 21 - Columbia is a more complete teams on both sides of the ball. Dartmouth 41 Cornell 24- The Big Green want to “Host” The Conference Championship bad. Yale 28 Princeton 17- This one is the hardest to predict. It’s strange that this game doesn’t have title implications. Yale is more talented. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: To be clear... Author: Go Green [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 21:13:08 11/10/24 Sun Hipa was called for international grounding when he was literally being tackled by two Dartmouth linemen in the end zone. The ref could have easily blown the play dead as "in the grasp." Other than throwing to well-covered receivers and taking his chances, there was absolutely nothing Hipa could do to avoid the safety. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: State Of The League Author: John Harvard (Penn vs Harvard) [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 13:27:58 11/11/24 Mon Apparently Columbia put extra defenders into coverage on a very windy day. This led to a 44% completion day for Harvard's Craig. As Penn statistically has the worst pass defense in the league, Coach Aurich is already anticipating Penn will strategize the same way. This caused Harvard to run the ball more than usualy, with 39 carries for 186 net yards (204 yards before sacks). So, Ivy Inquisitor, I agree that Harvard will try and control and run the ball, but that's because Penn may give that option to them. Wondering if Shane McLaughlin returns? By the way, don't forget that DePrima can throw. He's 5-7 on the season but hasn't thrown in a few games. He did complet 73 passes for 12 touchdowns last season. Beware. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: State Of The League - move the games along Author: RedWin [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 10:02:23 11/14/24 Thu I love Ivy League football as it's very good play with real student athletes. However, the games need to move along a lot faster. I have mentioned this many times on this website, but these spread no huddle offenses actually slow the games down. This season nearly every game I have attended have lasted 3 1/2 plus hours. On Saturday we had some young kids with us who wanted to go to the book store after the game, and it was almost closed when we arrived at 4:50 pm. Sure there are commercial time outs, but also way too many penalties flagged and incompletions stopping the clock over and over. The league and the refs need to move these games along. I can walk 18 holes of golf faster than a college football game. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: State Of The League - move the games along Author: Fear the Quaker [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 10:12:46 11/14/24 Thu Agreed- way too slow !!! High school is even worse in my opinion with the incomplete passes. Shut it off in the last 2 minutes of 1st half and second. Otherwise, run the clock after incompletions. Princeton 24 Yale 23 Brown 31 Columbia 28 Cornell 32 Dartmouth 21 Penn 40 Harvard 24 [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: State Of The League - move the games along Author: Ivy wanna be [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 19:39:25 11/14/24 Thu Brown 28 Columbia 27 Harvard 42 Penn 24 Dartmouth 34 Cornell 21 Yale 49 Princeton 32 [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: State Of The League Author: RedWin [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 11:34:03 11/14/24 Thu I think long games at the college level is why attendance is down. Who wants to spend 3 1/2 hours at anything? Long games are also exhausting for the players and contributes to more injuries. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Depends where you are Author: Go Green [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:04:41 11/14/24 Thu The fans in the SEC don't have any problem staying 3 and a half hours for a game. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: State Of The League Author: Brown Fan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:21:01 11/14/24 Thu I have a son at DIII Carleton College. The football games last 2.5 hours, and the main difference is the lack of endless commercial breaks. On changes of possession, players run off and on the field. Time outs are shorter. The quality of play is below that in the Ivy League, but the games are a pleasure to watch. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Three and A Half Hour Football Games Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 13:00:51 11/14/24 Thu I agree with the posters above who say that 3.5 hours watching a football game can feel too long. The main reasons for 3.5-hour games are, in order of increasing impact: (1) With offenses running the no-huddle hurry up throughout the game, the average game now probably includes 30% more plays than when we were huddling during the Pleistocene Era. (2) The innumerable, interminable commercial breaks. Don't forget the benefits of these two causes: (1) Offenses now know without a shred of doubt that the hurry up puts more pressure on a defense. Everybody runs the hurry up because it works. It's also more fun to watch. It puts a better product on the field. (2) We should be grateful for the commercial breaks. And by "we," I mean all of us who have ESPN+ accounts and can get our full fill of Ivy games in all sports. If I had told you ten years ago that, someday in the future, you would be assured of watching all of your alma mater's football games from the sunny and 72-degree comfort of your couch even if the players were playing in 30-degree sleet in Hanover, you wouldn't have believed me. If I had told you that, after watching your alma mater's game in its entirety, you could then, at a time of your choosing, check in on the critical Dartmouth-Harvard game to watch an amazing Crimson comeback and the following week see whether Columbia could finally get over the hump over same said Crimson, you wouldn't have believed me. If I had told you that you could watch your champion women's volleyball games in their entirety, you wouldn't have believed me. We all hate the commercial breaks, but the commercial breaks make everything else possible. Be grateful for the commercial breaks. There is no free lunch. A few weeks ago, local sports talking head Don LeGreca shouted at full volume on the ESPN radio show The Michael Kay Show, "I can't stand the commercials! When a commercial comes on, I turn the channel!" His co-host Michael Kay quietly said, "Uh, commercials pay our salaries, Don." [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Not grateful for the commercials Author: voy vey [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 09:51:37 11/15/24 Fri I'm not grateful for the commercials, because: 1) I PAY a monthly fee for ESPN+. Commercials belong on free TV. (And keep this to yourself, but if the commercials are needed because monthly fee doesn't fill the Disney coffers enough, I'd gladly pay more to have no commercials.) 2) Half the commercials are Ivy League fluff. I think people watching Ivy League sports on ESPN+ don't need to be persuaded to have a positive opinion of Ivy League sports. Complete waste of time. 3) Completely anecdotal, but it feels like there are more--but shorter--commercial timeouts in these games on ESPN+ than there are on "real" broadcasts. Breaks are often 2 minutes instead of 3, but they seem to be more frequent, thus disrupting game flow more often and creating more downtime for the in-person fans. The NCAA moved to address the increasing run time of games by letting the game clock run after first downs except in the last 2 minutes of a half. But then, they negated much of the benefit by adding a two-minute timeout (more commercials while players stand around...yay!). Timing football games should undergo a major re-think, but we seem to be stuck in a mindset of "it is this way because it's always been this way." Stopping the clock after incomplete passes or out-of-bounds plays was instituted because of the extra time it would take to retrieve the ball from a far-flung location and spot it for the next play, compared to a run up the middle. For decades, we've had dozens of balls available at a moment's notice; there's no longer a need for such stoppages. Injuries, penalties, and the ever-increasing endless replay reviews are the only valid reasons to stop the game clock. There's my curmudgeonly five cents (inflation). Now, get off my lawn, you darn kids. I've got clouds to yell at. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Not grateful for the commercials Author: Quaker62 [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 10:07:03 11/15/24 Fri Regarding your last sentence: Joe Paterno, when speaking to an alumni group about how they can best support the program, said "we need your money, just not your two cents." Same goes for ESPN+ [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Not grateful for the commercials Author: Go Green [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:44:54 11/15/24 Fri Cable stations are not "free tv." And they have commercials. And its even tougher for Dartmouth fans, as we generally get three commercials: Engelberth Construction, the Richards Group, and Ivy fluff. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Not grateful for the commercials Author: voy vey [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:31:38 11/16/24 Sat I consider cable to be in the same realm as broadcast. You're paying for the delivery of channels, individual channel carriage fees are generally pennies per month (excluding ESPN). Streaming, on the other hand, costs much more for one product, more akin to the old cable "premium" channels like HBO, which were commercial-free. For what ESPN+ costs, there's no justification (IMO) for commercials, especially on low-demand content like Ivy sports and other FCS conferences. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Not grateful for the commercials Author: Lion Rooter [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 09:31:17 11/17/24 Sun everything is now monetized - remember NHL hockey - the boards were white -- now ads abound -- even PBS has commercials for pete's sake! Agree it is annoying -- but apparently it costs a lot to field a football team -but I do shudder when the guy with the flourescent mitt comes on the field - it kills momentum. Some people are saying remove ads from the beginning of movies but I remember people booing when a local jewelry store ad came on at the flics. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: State Of The League Author: RedWin [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 09:36:26 11/15/24 Fri I have no problem with modern offenses and commercial breaks, but the refs need to move these games along. In terms of the commercial breaks, keep playing the game and if there is a big play during a commercial break then run it as a replay. Secondly the refs need to move these games along and a running clock in the last two minutes might be a good start. In comparison, I was at a Giants game earlier this year that started at 1:00 pm and we were on the road before 4 pm. Of course our QB is not exactly the next Tom Brady. At least the games move along when we run the football. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: State Of The League Author: Ivy Inquisitor [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 18:05:05 11/15/24 Fri John Harvard: You make a solid case for Charles De Prima’s passing ability. My “State of The League “ post from last week I mentioned that Charles De Prima is a runner that can throw and Jordon Craig is a thrower that can run. Since these two complement each other why aren’t they evenly rotated? Though I love how the Crimson has utilized De Prima as “John Lovett “ at RB, QB and WR. I won’t be surprised if Harvard goes run-heavy with 3-4 Running Backs , with De Prima getting most of the snaps. I can see Jordon Craig used for passing situations. Besides Liam O’Brien Harvard’s defense has to be aware of Hosely and Richardson. As for the offense they have to go up against Penn’s stringent defense line. Besides, Harvard and Penn the other game most interests me is Princeton- Yale. It’s been a while since that game didn’t have championship implications. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: State Of The League Author: John Harvard [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:38:53 11/16/24 Sat Deprima 13-18 and a touchdown. Ran for 122 and passed for 169. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]