is up on web site here

Kicker Alan Kimball Ivy League player of week for special teams.

The Gridiron Power Index (GPI), the hybrid ranking for FCS and top index indicator of at-large playoff selection has the University of Northern Iowa in the top spot for the fourth straight week. The FCS's largest league, the Colonial Athletic Association is the top ranked conference. The CAA has seven of their teams in the top 25; the Southern Conference placed five; the Gateway Football Conference placed four; the Big Sky and Great West Football Conference placed two each; the Ivy League, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Southland and Southwestern Athletic Conference placed one each.

GPI Top 25
Rank-Team-Total
1. Northern Iowa (1.13)

2. N Dakota St (2.25)

3. Massachusetts (3.00)

4. McNeese St (5.00)

5. James Madison (6.00)

6. S Illinois (6.75)

7. New Hampshire (8.38)

8. Appalachian St (9.00)

9. Delaware (9.25)

10. Yale (9.75)

11. Wofford (10.38)

12. Montana (10.63)

13. Richmond (13.13)

14. Elon (13.63)

15. Hofstra (15.75)

16. E Kentucky (18.50)

17. Grambling (19.75)

18. Youngstown St (19.88)

19. Holy Cross (20.38)

20. Villanova (20.63)

21. Ga Southern (21.50)

22. The Citadel (22.00)

23. W Illinois (23.75)

24. S Dakota St (24.75)

25. E Washington (25.50)

Yale 2-minute drill is up

Mike McLeod was named Ivy League player of the week.


He also remained on the latest version of the Payton Award watch presented to the top player in the division formerly known as I-AA.

Here is the Buchanan Award watch list. A bit surprised neither Bobby Abare nor Brandt Hollander is listed.

Here is the latest Lambert Poll

To be eligible for the Lambert Meadowlands Award, a school must be located in the East or
play half of its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes New York,
New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania , while teams in the bordering states of
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia qualify if half
of their schedule features eligible teams.

ECAC Lambert ChampionshipSubdivision (I-AA) Football Poll
1. Massachusetts 5-1 50

2. Hofstra 6-0 39
James Madison 6-1 39

4. Yale 5-0 33

5. Delaware 6-1 30
5. New Hampshire 4-2 30

7. Richmond 4-2 22

8. Fordham 5-2 13

9. Holy Cross 4-2 10

10. Wagner 5-1 4

Here is the latest Gridiron Power Index (GPI) from the College Sporting News

Yale is 11th.

They also rank conferences. Ivy League is 7th.

Here is school by school in Ivy:

11. Yale (10.75)
30. Harvard (28.88)
54. Cornell (43.63)
72. Brown (54.88)
76. Penn (57.38)
79T. Dartmouth (58.88)
82T. Princeton (60.88)
109. Columbia (77.75)

I was intrigued to see the responses to a recent poll here for favorite road venue in the Ivy League.

Here's one man's opinion.

1. Penn's Franklin Field: Call me old school, but I get chills each time I drive past Franklin Field and my heart races when I walk inside. I'm a brick guy so that's why Franklin Field gets the slight edge over Harvard.

I love the fact the train runs past and the way Weightman Hall is situated beyond the end zone.

Before I covered football, I'd get to Penn early on Ivy basketball weekends (there is no discussion for the best facility for road basketball games in the Ivy), just to sneak a peak inside Franklin Field.

The hike to the press box takes about 10 pounds off (that reminds me, I need to start training Monday), but the view of the Philadelphia skyline is worth the hike.

2. Harvard Stadium: It's like visiting the Roman Coliseum without leaving the states. You have to love the ivy growing on the walls and if you look close enough, it could have doubled as a fortress. There are so many entry points.

What impresses me most is how it is so well maintained.

From the press box you can see the Citgo sign.

3. Princeton Stadium: This is a gorgeous facility worth every penny of the $45 million. Love the press box. After six weeks of open air, tight-quartered press boxes, the enclosed monstrosity with cable TVs throughout is different.

I am a big fan of the Princeton campus and enjoy the fact the Stadium sits right there.

4. Dartmouth's Memorial Field: Hanover was founded for Autumn Saturday afternoons. It smells like football, sounds like football and looks like football. Driving over the bridge and up the hill, through the center of town. Moreso than any campus and any facility, you can imagine it's still 1917 here.

It will be interesting to see if the Floren Field House changes that feel.

5. Columbia's Wien Stadium: Now the field itself is nothing special, but the views .... the views are breathtaking. You can lose yourself gazing out at the Harlem and Hudson rivers.

The atmosphere outside the stadium is pretty good, too. Not certain if it's because there isn't a lot of space for people to spread out, but always seems there are a lot of good tailgates going on.

6. Brown Stadium: Growing up, I had a field adjacent to my yard where we played football and baseball from sunrise to sunset.

Whenever I walk through the neighborhood surrounding Brown Stadium down Hope Street, through the grass field, I can't help but think Brown Stadium could have sat right in the middle of our neighborhood.

I must admit when you first arrive at Brown Stadium, it is deceiving. You think the stadium must be completely enclosed or at least a horseshoe, but it is enclosed on the other side of the concrete entrance by trees and shrubs, which is a gorgeous site on an autumn afternoon.

Brown Stadium has a lot of potential to be even better.

7. Cornell's Schoellkopf Field: Maybe it's the drive, maybe it's the fact I need to look up the spelling of Schoellkopf every time I spell it, maybe it's my fear of heights and the thought of being at the top of the crescent.

Honestly, there isn't a bad venue in the league. It's what makes covering the Ivy League so much fun, and Schoellkopf is no exception.

Tremendous view from the pressbox.

Enjoy the different views at each end zone: trees on one side, building on the other.

Check out this New York Times article about the construction of Schoellkopf.

Found this site while doing research on different college stadiums.

Mike McLeod's 276-yard rushing performance not only broke his own single-game rushing record at Yale Saturday in a 23-7 win over Lehigh, it put him into the lead nationally for average yards per game with 199.

Robert Heller of Division III Waynesburg entered the day averaging 208 yards, but had 130 Saturday. This kid is only a freshman, too. That dropped his average to 195.

Colgate's Jordan Scott (187.60) and Richmond's Tim Hightower (180.40) each had their averages drop today. When averages are that high, they don't stay up there too long, just as McLeod's will surely drop in the weeks to come.

Here's a look at I-A, oops, Bowl Subdivision, entering today.

Yale 2-Minute Drill now online.

Senior kicker Alan Kimball has been named a semifinalist (there's 153 of them for all divisions) for the Draddy Award. Ed McCarthy was one of 17 winners last year.

Okay, shameless self promotion, but hopefully you'll find it entertaining.

Anyone have a comb for that one piece of hair that doesn't want to stay down??

This is for a good cause.

For the eighth straight year the Walter Camp Football Foundation is working with the Yale-New Haven Hospital Auxilary’s Toy Closets Program, asking fans to bring new unwrapped toys and drop them off in the Hospitality Village.

The Yale-New Haven Hospital Auxiliary’s Toy Closets program was developed to provide new, age-appropriate and educational toys to pediatric patients at the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Founded in 1993 by Ann Nyberg, WTNH News Channel 8 anchorwoman, the Toy Closets help insure that pediatric patients come away from their hospitalization with a pleasant memory. In addition, the toys serve as gifts for special occasions such as birthdays and holiday celebrations for hospitalized children.

Pittsburgh connections story.

-- Matt Polhemus should be fine and is expected to play and start Saturday against Dartmouth. He was shaken up in the win over Holy Cross, but there were no lingering effects.

-- Don't be surprised if center Nick Wachtler plays, or even starts this week. Wachtler practiced some last week and is expected to be full go in practice this week. Ty Davis replaced him the past two weeks. Davis came out against Holy Cross but it was because he was sick, not injured.

-- Saturday's game against Dartmouth will be on New England Sports Network (NESN), one of seven games on television for Yale this season.

-- There will be a feature on Mike McLeod in Wednesday's Register. Look for the link. There will also be a very interesting feature about faith and Yale football in Sunday's Register.

-- Yale recruit Alex Thomas of Ansonia High School will be featured in the high school section of Sports Illustrated this week after breaking the state record with 518 yards rushing. He also had seven touchdowns, one shy of state record held by two players, including, ironically, McLeod.

-- Look for a new video feature on our website called "Yale's 2-minute drill," which will appear each Friday. This is new ground for us, and there will be a lot of trial and error, but we're excited to kick it off.

A no-brainer, but McLeod honored by Ivy League as player of week ....

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/article.asp?intID=6200