College Fantasy Football

     Notwithstanding the craziness of baseball as we head into the last week of August and Labor Day, college football is at hand once again. The big boys in the FCS & FBS start play next week as do a lot of Division III schools.

     There will be a number of intersectional rivalries and there will be some regional affairs. I took stock of the schedules of many of the top tier schools and some more well-known programs. I let my fertile imagination go and I have come up with a list of contests that have gone by the wayside with conference realignment or some colleges opting to play on the highest levels of the sport while others remain at a level most acceptable to them. I hope that, with the games I would like to see and those that are lamentably of a bygone era, you have some fun too imagining what I am discussing.

     The one standout game in my childhood involved the two teams who played the first intercollegiate football game:  Rutgers and Princeton. A staple leading off the football season and largely played at the bigger Palmer Stadium on the Princeton campus, the Tigers routinely dominated the Scarlet Knights. Ivy League football back in the 1950's and '60's was a pretty good brand of football. Independent Rutgers, before it started to build up its campus in the late 1960's, simply could not attract the caliber of player/student that Princeton could. Which was more desirable: a Princeton degree which was surely the equal of Harvard and Yale, or a Rutgers diploma from a state school?

     In the 1970's, RU started the climb into big time football. Princeton had been there and done that long ago. My recollection was that the mismatches that they thrived on in the series were no longer there for Princeton and in an effort to provide safety to its players, the series ended.  Princeton cited the difference between scholarship athletes that Rutgers had and the tradition of non-scholarship athletes that the Ivies had collectively set out.

     Thus, in 1980, the last game between the long-time rivals was played, resulting in a predictable RU win. The series ended with the Tigers on top, with a 53-17-1 record (largely due to the game only having been played at RU an amazing 13 times overall). There was no animosity between the schools and some sadness.

     The RU-Princeston rivalries continued for a while in other sports--soccer, lacrosse, wrestling and basketball. They still wrestle each other occasionally, as Rutgers is now a top 20 team in that sport. But that is it as far as competition goes between the two rivals separated by under 25 miles.

     What I lament is the loss of the series in men's basketball. Playing alternate years at home, that series has now sadly ended with RU's commitment to the Big 10 schedule, a desire to play lesser teams to garner wins and an intra-state rivalry with Seton Hall borne from their shared days in the Big East Conference. Princeton won the final game in 2013 and holds a commanding 75-45 lead in the series.

     Talk of Rutgers and Princeton meeting on the gridiron in 2019, 150 years after their first battle was nothing more than talk. In fact, close to the November date when, 150 years after it all started, Princeton will meet perennial Ivy League foe Dartmouth at Yankee Stadium.

     Something will be done in 2019 in college football to commemorate the anniversary. Sadly, that is all that can be done.

     In ascending to the higher level of play, RU also stopped playing long-time rivals Lafayette and Lehigh. Columbia and Colgate also have left the schedule. I am glad that RU has a yearly meeting with Penn State, even if the scores continue to be lopsided in the Nittany Lions' favor. In 20 or 30 years, the yearly meetings with Michigan and Maryland will have a feel of its own. It just won't be like Rutgers-Princeton. For fun (and hopefully a win) RU could schedule Delaware periodically as it did in my childhood, instead of Texas State. Playing nearby Monmouth next year is a 1 game deal.

     Speaking of Penn State, they have rivalries with everyone in the Big 10 because they are good. Built in rivalries are with border schools like Maryland, Rutgers and Ohio State. But what is missing on an annual basis are games with another border state rival--West Virginia--and in state rivals like Pitt and Temple. Pitt is playing Penn State again--through 2019. But in 2020, the series is once more dormant.

     Sure, it is colorful and interesting to bring in other schools to pad the records. But playing the teams closest to you for the longest time and then no more leaves a void.

     Michigan and Notre Dame renew acquaintances this fall. A long history of playing each other fairly regularly has been relegated to every once in a awhile. Michigan has Big 10 obligations and Notre Dame has a tie in with the Atlantic Coast Conference. Such is the trend of college football--you can only play 4 to 5 non-conference games per season and they are carefully picked to insure national rankings and  better bowl games with the wins that should pile up.

     Playing long-time rivals has meaning. I look at Texas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns stayed with the Big 12 Conference while the Aggies abandoned a lot of long-standing rivalries to join the bigger and "better" Southeastern Conference. Still, these heated rivals should have found a way to continue playing each other notwithstanding conference tie-ins. Georgia and Georgia Tech do. So does Florida and Florida State. Louisville and Kentucky meet annually. Tulane and LSU could have found a way to keep playing each other. These games mean a lot to the fans. The University of Miami against the University of Florida seems to be ripe for renewal; I absurdly wish that Miami could semi-regularly play Miami University from Ohio...

     Somehow Navy and Notre Dame get it right and continue to play; it is a bit more competitive now that Navy is fielding very good squads. I would have liked to see Maryland and Virginia play, but too much acrimony was built up once Maryland fled the ACC for the riches of the Big 10. Both schools finally came to their senses and are playing in 2023. Good for them. Maryland and Navy?? In my dreams, I guess. And UVA is playing a series of games in the next couple of years with Virginia schools VMI, Richmond, Old Dominion, Liberty and William & Mary. Virginia Tech is doing much of the same. Kudos to them.

     Colorado and Colorado State still square off and that seems to be in jeopardy. The Battle of the Brothers involving Utah and Utah State ended in 2015, with no plans to restart the games. Nor is BYU meeting Utah.

     Speaking of Colorado, I miss the Big 8/12 rivalries which they had with the likes of Nebraska, the Oklahoma schools, the Kansas schools and Iowa State. Oklahoma-Nebraska was a staple due to the conference, but now they have gone their separate ways. Texas A&M had a number of in-state games end when they joined the SEC. Arkansas versus Texas ended when the Razorbacks went to the SEC.

     I am such a traditionalist that I miss SMU-TCU and I missed Boston College playing Holy Cross, even if the latter makes no sense since BC is in the big time with the ACC while Holy Cross' program is more attuned to small colleges in the Patriot League. Someone must have read my mind, as BC and HC play each other in 2018 and 2020 (tell RU and Princeton about that!).

     The old Yankee Conference is long forgotten. Some remnants remain with New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine. However, Connecticut and Massachusetts have joined the big boys. For old times' sake, they can restart their rivalry. Plus I hope that BC and UMass continue to play each other, now that they are supposed to be on more equal footing; they seem to be scheduled on and off through 2025. Because in-state opponent UNH has had too much success at the FCS level, Dartmouth has scheduled new (easier?) opponents with the exception of Army in 2022.

     I even long for San Jose State and Stanford, two close in proximity opponents, meeting each other. Why is Stanford playing San Diego State, UC Davis, UCF, BYU, K-State, Vanderbilt and, incredibly, William & Mary, instead of the SJSU Spartans? Plus no Rice and Houston football since 2014? They are in the same city!!

     While I was at Franklin and Marshall, they were in a hiatus with their longtime rival, Gettysburg. G-Burg felt they were more suited to play in the Middle Atlantic Conference University Division with Delaware. Rutgers, Temple, Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell. They found that being swamped weekly as not a good thing and Gettysburg reunited with F&M and Dickinson in the Centennial Conference, where they belong.

     As long as the landscape of college football stays this way, the past can only be a glimmer of the future when thinking of old rivals. Does anyone recall the 8 year run of the Boardwalk Bowl inside of the Atlantic City Convention Hall between the Merchant Marine Academy and Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener)?  Thankfully there is the Secretaries Cup series, a fixture since 1949, when Kings Point and the Coast Guard Academy meet.

     Until more of the old gridiron battles resume, I have my memories and dreams to go on.