The Crystal Ball

Worth Reading?

It's early July, and that means it's time to check the college football preview magazines for their 2007 season predictions.

Unfortunately, a lot of magazines that used to do some material on the Ivy League don't bother anymore. And the most valuable of them all, Phil Steele's, is one of those without anything more than the Ivy League schedules.

I also used to like the Sporting News preview issue because it often featured some funny writing and nice pictures. But it dumped Ivy coverage about 8-9 years ago.

But perhaps the loss in quantity has been replaced by a little upgrade in quality. Athlon's Eastern College Preview Issue, (Ivy content not available online), includes what I thought was an excellent preview by Trenton Times reporter Craig Haley.

Here's how Haley picked the Ivies this year:

1) Yale

2) Penn

3) Harvard

4) Princeton

5) Cornell

6) Columbia

7) Brown

8) Dartmouth

Street & Smith's preview issue put Steve Silverman on the Ivies, (I think Steve writes for some internal Princeton publications), and his analysis seemed a little less in depth, but still good.

Here's how he sees it:

1) Yale

2) Princeton

3) Harvard

4) Penn

5) Cornell

6) Columbia

7) Dartmouth

8) Brown


Jake's Take: First of all, buy the issues if you can because you're not going to find as much written about Ivy football offline until next year.

But I think it's highly foolish to pick the league before training camp starts. There are more than 3-4 key players league-wide who are coming off injuries and we really won't know where they are until then.

But they both do a much better job than a lot of the publications of the past when it comes to listing each team's strengths and weaknesses. Yes, there are some errors and omissions, but not many. These guys know the league pretty well.

Now let's talk about where they're picking Columbia. I'm not angry to see us chosen for 6th. Picking Columbia for last is really a default position year after year for these guys, and by not picking us 8th or even 7th, it's obvious they see something different this time around. It's a significant upgrade no doubt about it.

Haley points out our big improvement on defense, but I think he worries too much about the graduating seniors. Silverman notes our big time momentum.

I don't want to give away my own very lengthy predictions due out in about 6 weeks, but I think both of these guys are on the money by choosing Yale to win the league.

Tad's Progress

I have one slight alteration to make on Tad Crawford's first CFL game for the British Columbia Lions Thursday night at Toronto. He did indeed get a tackle on special teams. So Tad is "on the board" as they say. Tad and the Lions have their home opener this Friday night against Edmonton.

For Junkies Only

I hesitate a bit before posting this link, but I can't help myself. Check out this very extensive list of football and basketball video files compiled by some Penn fans. I find some of the old video especially interesting, even though it's almost all Penn highlights. The idea that I can see Don Jackson throw a pass at Franklin Field in 1970, even if it is an interception, is great. And you gotta love the very thick New York accents of just about every Penn student broadcaster from the 70's and 80's.

The video of the old Columbia basketball gym from the 1953 game, (the final shot is of Jack Rohan heaving a ball downcourt), is also great to see. I especially liked seeing our chubby all-male cheerleading squad.

And if it's any consolation, the highlights from the CU-Penn football games from 1995 and 1996 may be ugly, but we ended up winning both of those contests.

And it's great to hear and see the sounds and sites of Ivy football from years past. If similar video and audio files for Columbia highlights exist anywhere, it would be great to see them.