There was an absolutely wonderful article on the Rutgers/Princeton game in 1869 in Friday's Wall Street Journal. The entire piece is recommended reading, but if there's one vital paragraph, it's probably the following.
Baseball historians have never been able to agree on the "first" baseball game, but most football historians are on comfortable turf in pinpointing the start of their game with Rutgers-Princeton in 1869. Some have called that contest "primitive football," some describe it as "primitive soccer," and still others as "nascent rugby." In truth, claims can be made for all these descriptions. But as Bob Boyles, co-author of the USA Today College Football Encyclopedia, says: "There are a great many traditions that started on that field in New Brunswick. The kicking factor, the goal posts, the physical contact—the men allowed to run 'interference,' an early term for what we call blocking—that pull that game towards the direction of American football and away from soccer or rugby."
Last week, Beat Visitor posted the exact text of the original 1869 report in the Targum about the game.
I thought that two conference games on Saturday (excepting the Pitt-SU blowout) were rather interesting, for different reasons. Despite starting a 5'7 walk-on at QB, Louisville kept things close at West Virginia. The prime time game between UConn and Cincy was much more exciting. Statistically, Cincy should have won big, but UConn arguably benefitted from a little luck for once. I think that game showed that they're a pretty good team, and should have a better record than 4-5. Cincy, of course, is very good. However, I'm not completely sold on the Bearcat defense. They're overrated a bit based on the opener, which had plenty to do with poor personnel and gameplanning on the Rutgers side of things.
Honestly, I'm not sure exactly where to begin with Brett McMurphy's interview with BE commissioner John Marinatto from last week. What's the purpose of a quote like this?
The costs of travel could become such that an Eastern school that's now in a non-Eastern quote-unquote conference might want to look [and think] 'it makes more sense to be in the Big East.' There could be a shifting around.
Jeremy Ito was expected to see his first ever CFL action on Sunday.
With Tennessee's season in the tank, isn't it time to start Kenny Britt?
There were a couple interesting threads on Rivals last week. I'm not talking about that stupid rumor that won't die, but rather others speculating about what Bob Mulcahy has been up to, and and whether or not RU would ever pay to bring a Boise State in. There's no way to verify what the supposed K-Mac response in the latter thread is accurate, but it seems plausible enough to me. Boise is certainly looking for a big payday to play a road game. If the 2011 schedule is finalized (with, presumably, an unknown FCS team), does that mean the Navy series is still on, despite all the rumors?
I have a mixed reaction to the story about ESPN reportedly plagiarizing Pro Football Talk last week. That shouldn't happen. However, PFT has been quite liberal in its use of stories from other publications, and I don't know if a mere link is sufficient when you're cutting and pasting multiple paragraphs. I'm already inclined against PFT, since they did lift a major story last year from my old blog without giving any credit at all. Taking content is a two way street.
Pres McCormick seems to expect state funding of higher ed to continue its steady decline over the next few years, and I think that's about right, barring any additional infusions of federal funding. Even though a new Governor is coming in, the same state legislature is still in place for the most part.
Rutgers looks to the new SuperHillel facility to help revitalize the College Avenue campus.