ELynah Forum

Tracking how schools we dislike intensely are faring in the 2026 NCAA D-1 basketball playoffs. Thursday 3/19 on opening day the 1-seed Duke came within 6 points of being upset by 16-seed Siena, the Siena outside Albany in case there are multiples. Each of the four regions has seeds 1 to 16.

This has me thinking of what's the highest (academic) ranked team to make the tournament, to survive to the second (Sweet 16) and third (Final Four) weekends. 14-seed Penn plays 3-seed Illinois 9:25 tonight.  I regret to inform you that 8-seed The Ohio State is already ousted.

In the tournament this year: Penn, Michigan, Vanderbilt, Virginia, UCLA, Villanova, Illinois, Lehigh (a first-four team; they play in to be one of the cannon-fodder 16-seeds and did not make it). Who else? No Stanford, finished tenth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  MIT plays D-III.

Quick rundown on filling time in Lake Placid before and between games. And it's exciting that with Quinnipiac sidelined by Clarkson, it will be quite competitive for the games. (NCAA RPI has Q 11th with Dartmouth 8th, Cornell 9th, Princeton 23rd, Clarkson 34th) I've written more deeply on this in previous years (see the 2025 thread).

If you had trouble finding lodging for 2026, yeah, sucks, there's the FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals in town Thursday to Sunday. Sucks. You will find something. And if you're a little bit crazy, you could even do LP as a day trip since the title game is 5 pm. 

About dining and drinking, most all you want is on the main drag in LP, Main Street, which runs south to north, with the Olypic Center / Herb Brooks Arena at the south end. Best parking for the rink is just south of the rink, it's free, go where the guys with safety vests point you, not a scam. Five-minute walk.

As you walk north along Main Street, the water on the right is Mirror Lake not Lake Placid (that's beyond the northern tip of Mirror Lake). Lot of shops, restaurants, coffee shops. All in the span of about a mile. In the past, the arena lets you leave between games to get something to eat and in addition to pizza nearby, there are

• Wiseguys, the sports bar in town. Lots of TVs, good-enough food. In recent years service has been impacted by difficulty in getting staff. You'll wait a few minutes, not a half-hour. Sometimes the game referees dine there. Be nice to them. They're only assholes during the game. And they may be judging Cornell next year, too. From the rink, walk downhill (south) and when you pass the Olympic speed skating oval, turn right
• Lake Placid Pub & Brewery. Good food, great beer, some brewed on site. Walk south almost to the end of the speed skating oval, left on Mirrow Lake Drive, one short block in. Big, darkish downstairs pub, 2 floors above that is better for dining. There is a gorgeous deck in summer. It has a sibling, Big Slide Brewery & Public House, about a mile out of town on Route 73 heading toward LP Airport / Keene, they are transitioning to Mexican fare and I assume that means upscale Mexican. Been there 3-4 times, always good food after a sometimes lengthy wait; they have outside seating and they keep it open even in the shoulder months.
• Big Mountain Deli & Creperie. Fabulous lunches and breakfast but not dinner (site says closes Saturday 5 pm but I thought it was 3. Crowded. Now the best place for breakfast with the closing of the ...
• Downtown Diner. Classic diner, lots of Cornell fans found the place, had a great conversation with some of the family of Andy Iles '14, our All-Ivy goaltender. Alas, it closed in January 2026.
• Saranac Sourdough. Really good sandwiches, eat in or take out. About a mile out of town, turn left where Main Street bears right. Breakfast (great if you have a car) and lunch til 2 pm, 12 noon Sunday. Good food for the victorious ride home Sunday. 2126 Saranac Ave.
  Mirror Lake Inn. Continue north on Main Street as the road curves right around the lake. Walkable. On Mirror Lake. Nice decor inside, a great deck outside were this summer. We used to own the land the MLI sits on but post WWI they thought it was overvalued, and sold (correction, I married into the family).

Anyplace downtown not mentioned, the food is okay at minimum, else they go out of business.
Time to kill Saturday during the day? Drive south out of town on Route 86 and follow the West Branch of the Ausable River to Wilmington, where Whiteface Mountain (ski area) is. Or drive 25 minutes to Saranac Lake, larger than LP, picturesque downtown. (Just driving around Mirror Lake is a great 10 minute detour, see the recent mini mansions at the top end of Mirror Lake now that it was discovered by Wall Street bros circa 1990. 

Excellent chance to build on the season's best game, Friday's xxx5-1xxx 6-1 takedown of Quinnipiac. We only beat the Tigers 2-1 five weeks ago at Lynah, bit they were riding highish back then, 7-4 ECAC vs. 10-8-1 and fighting for the final first-round bye. Going in, ECAC points, every team with 19 of the 22 league games played:
Quinnipiac   44
Cornell      41
Dartmouth    41
Harvard      32
Princeton    32
Union        30
Others       27 down to 16

If Cornell earns 1 point of the 9 available in the final 3 games, we get the first round bye.  First, we have to take care of the Tigers tonight. We also can hope for a Q stumble against Colgate, @Dartmouth or @Harvard. Princeton closes @Harvard, @Dartmouth.

Was looking at ECAC stats, for want of nothing better before the two Colgate games. I saw we have climbed to one point shy of first-place Dartmouth and we have a game in hand. I see two Dartmouth sophomores are 1-2 in scoring whereas of the top 24 scorers (six-way ie for 19th) we have only Jonathan Castagna (T-5), also Xavier Veilleux and Ryan Walsh T-19. I looked up Hayden Stavroff, the curent points leader, and, jeez, he's only a sophomore, and do those eyes have the same look as our current FBI leader? BTW, Kash Patel says he's a big North Dakota fan.

Sorry to interrupt the rash of Russian troll-posters in this section but, this is what Google AI recalls of Dan Lodboa '70 in the 1970 national hockey championship game against Clarkson. The box score has zero details for the third period. This is when Lodboa scored a natural hat trick (no other goals in between) in 5 minutes to break a 3-3 tie. Cornell won 6-4.

2026 men's lacrosse regular season thread

No Syracuse in 2026 (Orange do play Princeton). Ranked opponents as of pre-season poll: 3 Princeton, 8 Duke, 9 Penn State, 10 Richmond, 12 Harvard, 19 Albany, HM Denver, HM High Point.  This sucks: Likely game to determine home field for Ivy lax tournament, is RS game March 21 at Princeton, same weekend as ECAC hockey finals in Lake Placid. If the football poobahs keep Harvard-Yale football as the finale, why not same for Cornell-Princeton lacrosse? (Quote: "Well, that's different.")

Date   Time   At   Opponent   Location
Regular Season
Feb 14 Sat  1PM         @Albany    W11-10
Feb 21 Sat  12MT        @Denver   
Feb 24 Tue  6:00        Hobart   
Feb 28 Sat  12:00       Richmond
Mar 07 Sat  TBA         @Penn State    
Mar 14 Sat  12:00       Brown    
Mar 21 Sat  TBA         @Princeton
Mar 28 Sat  3:30        Yale
Apr 04 Sat  TBA         @Penn
Apr 11 Sat  2:00        Duke @LIU Brookville
Apr 13 Mon  12:00       High Point
Apr 18 Sat  TBA         @Dartmouth
Apr 25 Sat  12:00       Harvard
-----------            
Ivy League Tournament   4 Teams
May 1 Fri      @#1 Seed Ivy Lax Tournament Semis   
May 3 Sun      @#1 Seed Ivy Lax Championship   
-----------
NCAA Tournament  18 Teams
May 03                  Selection show
May 09 Sat              First round play-in (2 games)
May 16 Sat      Quarterfinals @ Hofstra, Shuart Stadium
May 17 Sun      Quarterfinals @ Newark DE, Delaware Stadium
May 23 Sat      Semifinals @ UVA Scott Stadium (61,500)
May 25 Mon      Final @ Scott Stadium
Video: All RS games ESPN+ except Denver, Penn State (probably BTen), Duke         

Facebook Reels post by Amalfi Aviation, a new and upstart private jet transporter. They are big on bravado. Fun to watch up to a point.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1276015440402249

I was thinking, did Connor Buczek get shafted and not win the Morris Touchstone Award as the D1 men's coach of the year? Because I heard nothing about the 2025 award. But ...

This is a USILA award and like Paul Masson ("We will sell no wine before its time" ), they don't rush things. ND's Kevin Corrigan won back to back COTY awards the last two years but it was announced around Thanksgiving.

Paul Masson wine kept slipping in reputation in the current century. (Lawrence M. Fisher, NYT 1990:  "While many consumers know them - who can forget Orson Welles's breathy incantation of 'We will sell no wine before its time' for Masson - they lack cachet." )

Cornell has won 5 COTY awards, better than  Hopkins, Navy, Penn, Maryland (4 each): Richie Moran 1971, 1987, Dave Pietremala 2000, Jeff Tambroni 2009.

Orson Welles 1978-81 Paul Masson ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSs6DcA6dFI

NY Times article says Syracuse, riding a record wave of Class of 2029 applicants, may have been too stingy doling out financial aid. Too many admits chose elsewhere. And then Syracuse had to offer generous discounts post-May 1 to get desired candidates to decommit elsewhere. Not surprisingly, nobody at Syracuse is available for comment. The school currently stands at #73 on the US News ratings. NYS has 11 of the top 100 spot, led of course by Cornell at #11. Writer Ron Lieber said some last-minute offers amounted to $200,000 over the four years.

Plus they got knocked out of the NCAA lax tournament.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/your-money/syracuse-merit-aid.html?unlocked_article_code=1.O08.bEE1.GmwFKvhe1Vdd&smid=url-share

#1 Cornell (home team) vs. #5 seed (seeding numbers not nec. ranking)
12 noon, Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, ESPN2
2:30 pm, lessee Princeton, no, Syracuse vs. Maryland
Seating chart: https://www.gillettestadium.com/patriots-seating-chart/.  How cool, one of the gates is the "CVSHealth Gate," maybe I can pick up my atorvastatin refill on the way out.

Three of the four coaches are Cornell people:
* Cornell, Connor Buczek '15 MBA '17, on staff since 2015, HC 2020 - present
* Penn State, Jeff Tambroni, Hobart '92, HC at Cornell 2001-2010 (109-40), 8 NCAA tournaments, 3 seconds away from 2009 championship, 15th year at Penn State, 8 NCAA appearances including last 3
* Maryland, John Tillman '92, HC at Maryland 2015-present, champion 2015 and (2022) 9-7 over Cornell
* (Syracuse) Gary Gait, Syracuse, 2022-present

I do not know which end Cornell attacks in which quarter. You call the ticket office, they dunno or say all the seats have good views. Probably the best way to find out is to have Pete Hegseth talk about it on his mobile.

Cornell is the smallest of the four schools in the final four, to there might be increase demand for tickets. Against that: Gillette Stadium (Foxboro; Patriots) holds 68,000, the biggest semifinal turnout was 52,000 in 2007, in Baltimore, with Cornell, Hopkins, Duke, Delaware. Penn State fans have to drive 430 miles to Gillette, Maryland fans have to drive 420 miles to Gillette vs. 30 miles in 2007 to the Ravens stadium. And it's gonna rain. You will not be locked out of tickets. Typically the final draws less than the semis, though in 2009 enough Cornell and Syracuse fans rallied to bump the fnals attenance +5,000 but still 25,000 seats less than full.

As I understand it, there is / should be free parking across Route 1 from the stadium, Others may have better info.

Compared to the Ivy tournament, NCAA first round and quarterfinals, the NCAA gets stuff about how much you can bring in. God forbid you bring a camera bigger than an iPhone, or a water bottle.

What's with all the hate for Princeton? Everyone has a matrix of who you love, who you hate, who you don't care about. But I think we ought to support our league if we believe we the other schools have some common ground, like our belief in taking over the world via LBOs.

One hierarchy:

• My school (rah! Cornell!)
• My league (people like us but ... maybe includes a school that rejected us)
• A school a child attends or works at (Go St. Lawrence! Son is the women's hockey trainer.)
• The state of my school (Cornell, Syracuse, Army all bring credit to the Empire State, also the state with the most lax players) (Obviously, some people hate most on in-state rivals: Alabama-Auburn, maybe Cornell-Syracuse.)
• The state I grew up in / live in / where our kids grew up (in NJ, I'd rather have Rutgers or Princeton win than Maryland)
• Schools with athletics budgets under $100M a year
• Schools that are academically similar (Go Northwestern, Go Stanford, Um maybe Go Duke).

If Cornell and Princeton were in the final four, that'd be a powerful statement to HS lax players who might be thinking about NIL money, such as it is today that the Ivies are as good a place to play as anywhere.

Is this the face of the new breed of Celtics fan? Gold chains? It is a long way from the fans who who applauded Russell, Cousy, Havlicek, Bird, Parrish.

Hobart beat Utica, 2-1 in overtime, to win the Division III men's hockey championship, March 30. Three championships in 3 years. The 2-seed Statesmen got a first-round bye in the 14-team tournament, then beat Trine U (of Fort Wayne (Angola), Indiana) 3-2 in OT, #4 SUNY Geneseo 2-1 in the semis, and #6 Utica 2-1 again in overtime for the title. At the Utica University Nexus Center (2022, 1200 seats).

New York State-heavy tournament: Hobart, Utica, Geneseo State (which beat West 1-Seed Aurora), Hamilton, Oswego State.

Division 2 men's hockey is down to one league and no longer has a national playoff.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/icehockey-men/article/2025-03-30/hobart-wins-2025-ncaa-diii-mens-hockey-championship

4/20/25: Most recent updates on this msg at top.

The NcAA released its first pass at the top ten teams apparently using the same criteria as picking the 18 teams that make it (there are a pair of play-in games). https://www.ncaa.com/news/lacrosse-men/article/2025-04-19/ncaa-di-mens-lacrosse-committee-reveals-top-10

NCAA D1 Lax C'ttee First Top 10 Ranking (through games weekend of 4/16)
Rank Team        Record
1 Cornell        10-1
2 Maryland 10-2
3 Princeton 9-2
4 Penn State 9-3
5 North Carolina 9-2
6 Harvard        9-2
7 Army West Point 10-1
8 Ohio State 11-2
9 Syracuse 9-3
10 Notre Dame 6-3
If this was the tournament bracket ranking Sunday May 4 and if the NCAAs played to form, the final four in Boston could be 1. Cornell vs. 4. Penn State, and 2. Maryland vs. 3. Princeton.

The RPI via LocrosseReference Pro has Cornell third, this after Saturday's (4/19/25) games. https://pro.lacrossereference.com/rpi-d1-men?t=epxlwifospeivmd
1.  Princeton
2.  Maryland
3.  Cornell
4.  Penn State
5.  ND
6.  NC
7.  Duke
8.  Syracuse
9.  Ohio State
10. Harvard
...
12. Richmond
19. Yale
21. Dartmouth
26. Denver
28. Lehigh
29. Penn (long drop from ILT winner 2024)
35. Brown
51. Hobart
...
77. (last team) Hampton 0-1

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Earlier material:
"Selection Sunday" is May 4. No time announced yet for selection show:

NCAA championship info from the horse's mouth: https://www.ncaa.com/championships/lacrosse-men/d1/road-to-the-championships#:~:text=Selection%20Show%20%7C%20May%204%2C%202025,will%20be%20announced%20May%204.

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Earlier material:

Section for discussion of NCAA possibilities, actual selections, and who got screwed. It starts off with this: Early bracketology from Inside Lacrosse. This is the April 4 first edition. See graphic below from IL.

It has Cornell 7th, Princeton 2, Harvard 5 because ... without enough data points, or inferencing from lax gurus, IL falls back to RPI.

Um, #1 ranker Maryland just got took down by 6-6 Rutgers. #3 Notre Dame was beaten by Syracuse, which is considered a wildcard right now.

Per IL, the criteria the NCAA uses:

* Strength-of-schedule index.
* Results of the RPI:

Record against ranked teams 1-5; 6-10; 11-15; 16-20; 21+.
Average RPI win (average RPI of all wins).
Average RPI loss (average RPI of all losses).
* Head-to-head competition:

Results versus common opponents.
Significant wins and losses (wins against teams ranked higher in the RPI and losses against teams ranked lower in the RPI).
Locations of contests.
Additionally, input is provided by the regional advisory committee for consideration by the Division I Men's Lacrosse Committee. Coaches' polls and/or any other outside polls or rankings are not used by the committee for selection purposes.

The top eight teams will be seeded and separated in the bracket, the remaining eight teams will be placed geographically. In making bracket assignments, the closest geographical consideration will be used as well as the ability to separate conference opponents during the first round of competition.

The NCAA Men's Division I Championship Committee
Chair, Northeast Region: Matthew Colagiovanni, Rutgers
Northeast Region: Randy Mearns, St. Bonaventure
Southeast Region: Nick Gannon, Drexel
Southeast Region: Kip Turner, Virginia
West Region: Danie Daluisio, Ohio State

Inside Lacrosse April 4 first-pass bracket:

Damn shame about the fine young players of Duke losing a late double digit lead to Houston and falling by three in the NCAA men's basketball semifinals. In the second half Houston didn't lead until the last 20 seconds. Nothing like allowing Houston an 11-1 run in just over a minute and a 7-0 run inside 15 seconds. Player of the year Cooper Flagg missed the go-ahead shot with 8 seconds left. Final, 70-67.

This caused me a pair of sports-PTSD-related Cornell flashbacks flashbacks: Big Red up 9-6 on Syracuse in the 2009 lacrosse title game, still up 9-8 with :03 left, lost in OT. And the 1973 NCAA semifinal hockey in Boston Garden, up 5-2 on Wisconsin early in the third period, Badgers tied with :05 left, and we lost in OT. I almost sympathize with the Blue Devils. Almost.

It hurts more when you're there in person.

Here's what to do in Lake Placid for the ECAC weekend. I posted on this a year ago (below the rule) and here's a bit more for 2025:

To locate yourself (see map below): The Lake Placid Olympic Center / Herb Brooks Arena is at the south end of Lake Placid (pop. 2,500, 10,000 in summer) and there is pretty much one street, Main Street that runs north from the arena. To the east is Mirror Lake (Lake Placid is the big one, just beyond the north end of town). To the west of Main Street, the terrain slopes up quickly and by the time you're halfway up the sidestreets, it's residential.

There is plenty of free parking within a five-minute walk of the rink. There are guides (people) who'll show you where to go. It's not a long walk, really. If you need (all directions are relative to the rink):

• Best sports bar, Wiseguys. (See below; most have not changed in years.) Lots of TVs, okay food, I believe they have ESPN+. 1-1/2 blocks south (downhill) of the rink, on the corner.
  
• Best sandwiches. Big Mountain Deli. About 5 minutes north on the lake side. Closes around 3 pm.
  
• Best hotel ambience (so to speak). High Peaks Resort, the end of Main Street before it curves left and heads toward Saranac. They have a really nice outdoor patio one floor up but seem reluctant to open it in the afternoon even if it's sunny and warm in March.
  
• Best brew pub Lake Placid Brew Pub. Walk south (right on Main) to Mirror Lake Drive, the first left, then about 100 yards. Decent pub food, fabulous beer list, know for its Ubu Ale.
  
• Sunday or Saturday breakfast. Downtown Diner, about 3 blocks south of the rink. You may run into some hockey player parents or grandparents there.
  
• Nice dinner out (like if Cornell isn't playing Saturday). Lisa G's, 6125 Sentinel Rd, Lake Placid, NY 12946, about a 15-minute walk from the rink, you may want to drive. Around two decades now, still pretty good.
  
• Adirondackiana furniture, gifts, scented candles. Adirondack Decorative Arts & Crafts, about 2 locks up from the rink. Makes you feel like you're shopping for one of the Great Camps of the 1890s. Nice source for the hats that say ADK on the front except now (dumbing down of America) recent hats add the punch line on the side, "Adirondack Mountains, Lake Placid, NY."
  

I believe the rink still lets you walk out (get a hand stamp), go find a slice of pizza or burger nearby, then come back fro game 2. What the LP food stands lose in business, the townspeople make up, and it keeps them going.

There are plenty of other shops / restaurants in town, plus gifte shoppes in case you left your wife / GF / kids behind.
If you have time to kill in the daytime, follow any of the roads/streams out of town. You'll see some spectacular snow melt speeding up the streams.

About housing: There is always room in town or within 10-20 minutes, plus it's easier to find versus in 2000 before phone hotel-searches. Five minutes outside LP (or Saranac), much of the lodging is vintage 1970s motel, two aluminum chairs in front of each room, but it is a place to sleep.

Cornell U. has an outpost on the outskirts of Lake Placid, the Uihlein Sugar Maple Research Field Station,  518-523-9337 or maple@cornell.edu or 157 Bear Cub Ln, Lake Placid, NY 12946, call to  make sure they're open. Maple syrup may be a bit cheaper elsewhere, but this is Ivy League maple syrup.

If you drive west out of town through Saranac Lake and then west on Route 3, you'll find the Raquette (Lake) River Brewing, great big tasting and hanging-out room, food from hot trucks outside. At this point you are about a third of the way to St. Lawrence / Clarkson. There are also a couple brew pubs a half-mile to mile out of downtown on Route 73 South heading toward Keene / Keene valley.

A couple places use international staffing. This is not a political thing, but: Nobody gets rich, young international guest workers come in from countries like the ones Melania came from or Russia is bombarding. Service is not always in their lexicon. Still, you ought to tip well. Some of the kids are NYS teens / early adults who are just getting by in crappy cars and struggling to pay for community college tuition; their version of the American dream isn't as bright as ours. Help them out.  (I am still annoyed that in an LP pizzaria a couple summers back, we order a large pie, half pepperoni, half mushroom and our guest worker informed us, "Nyet, is not possible." )

Below I listed some restaurants Gwen and I like (her family dates to the 1800s in LP).

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2024 post >>>

Here's what to do in Lake Placid this weekend with Cornell in the ECACs. Before you go: Bring a pair of snow brushes and extra windshield washer fluid. Will not reach 30 all weekend. Snowy Saturday, 5"-8", Lake Placid can handle it no problem.

For visitors, Lake Placid is effectively one street wide, a half mile long: Main Street, the greenish line. (the map points north.) The LP Olympic Center and 7700 seat Herb Brooks Arena marks the southern end of downtown, the yellow circle. Just below the circle is the Olympic speed skating oval and LP HS. Where it says "~parking," that's about where you'll be pushed to park, it's not that far, I don't believe they charge, everybody is friendly because Nobody Gets Rich Working in Lake Placid. Don't yell at them and tip well. Gwen's family has been there since circa 1850 and one relative said the only good jobs in ADK are teacher, snow plow operator and now prison guard.

Most every place to eat is casual and the food is okay. I recommend (walking directions are relative to the rink):
* Best sports bar that holds a crowd, Wise Guys, Main and School Street, just south of the rink/speed skating oval. Lots of TVs in case you want to watch basketball. I've seen the refs there after the game. Be nice.
* Best breakfast, Downtown Diner, ran into Andy Iles' family there a decade ago. 2-3 blocks south of where the skating oval ends.
* Best brew pub, Lake Placid Brew Pub. Walk south 2/3 of the way toward the end of the skating oval, left at the Mobile station onto Mirror Lake Drive, walk one block plus, just before the Hampton Inn. Pretty decent food.
* Best sandwich shop, Big Mountain Deli & Creperie, 2475 Main St, about halfway up Main Street on the right (Mirror Lake) side. Go for lunch or breakfast; closes 3 pm.
* Best sandwich shop (need a car), Saranac Sourdough, 2126 Saranac Ave # 1. At the top of Mains Street, curve left onto Saranac Ave., 6/10 mile on the left. 'til 2 pm, noon Sundays. Run by people who are kin to the alt / sixties / Moosewood-of-Ithaca style, but they do serve sandwiches with meat. Love the place.
* Best (only) big hotel sports bar / pub, Dancing Bears at the High Peaks Resort (nee Hilton for the 1980 Games). Friendly, food is okay to good, holds a lot of people, service was variable last summer (harder to get guest worker visas last couple years) and understaffed at times.
* Live music: Smoke Signals and Zig Zags Pub, both halfway up Main street on the lake side.

A lot of restaurants have changed hands in the past decade, new ones take their place, more Asian fare now. I've never had a terrible meal in LP, relative to price.

If for some reason you need winter gear (like it's colder than you think, or you forgot gloves), EMS on Main Street has people who know their stuff.

As of two years ago, LP Rink let you get a hand stamp and walk out between games, get a drink and burger, see some of the basketball tournament, wander back in. I don't believe MSG lets you do that; instead they put up the facial recognition cams.

Need something else to do? There are a couple small distilleries to tour and taste. Our favorite is Gristmiller Distillers in Keene, 20 minutes southwest of LP on Route 73. Plus small breweries

Wish I could do that even one day of my life. Which with 40 million people would have about 50 electoral votes.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1970949523426443

We had a city pond a half-away in Rochester with winter skating and a warming hut. Cobbs Hill has been closed since 1991, victim of changing winter temperatures and the growth of indoor rinks. So this lives on in our theoretical 51st state.

Maybe Cornell football gets good in time for Ivy League football to play in the FCS competition. There is a glimmer of hope for Ivies to play in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs:

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/11/1/ivy-league-considers-football-postseason/
https://www.thedp.com/article/2024/11/ivy-league-football-fcs-playoff-penn-athletics

Haven't seen anything on this yet in the Daily Sun. So, see this in the Harvard Crimson. (I am curious to why The Crimson had to get a quote from a Brown football player to cover the odds of an Ivy school doing well in the playoffs:

Quote from: Jo B. Lemann and Tyler J.H. Ory, Harvard CrimsonThe tradition of The Game — the much-anticipated faceoff between Harvard and Yale — could also be affected as the rivalry matchup always comes as the season's last game.

Approval would allow Ivy teams to compete for a national title in the FCS, the second-highest level of college football.

In an October interview with The Crimson, [Harvard Athletic Director Erin] McDermott said there "was some talk" regarding the proposal within the Ivy League. "We'll see," McDermott said.

Ultimately, the final decision would be made by the Ivy League presidents — though it would also need the approval of the athletic directors, including McDermott.

[Brown senior quarterback Jake] Willcox noted that the top two Ivy League teams are usually ranked in the top 25 nationally. In the final FCS poll of 2023, Harvard received six top-25 votes. Undefeated Dartmouth is currently ranked the 22nd best FCS team nationally.

The FCS dates to 1978 and a four-team playoff. It's now 24 teams with eight first-round byes, so the winner plays 3 or 4 games. The championship is now in early January in Texas. The playoffs bump against finals but no more than exams for spring sports such as lacrosse. FCS winners have included Ivy competitors in other sports: Villanova, Delaware and UMass (since upgraded to pure D1 FBS). North Dakota State (9) and South Dakota State (2) have won 11 of the last 13 titles.

Here's the best story so far on how Name Image Likeness money trickles down, and it is trickle-down as in, "When the horse eats, so too shall sparrow." It's in the  Washington Post (10/21/24), headlined "The hidden NIL economy of college sports." Some top lines:

* The majority of NIL payments are small-money deals — less than $500, and often much smaller.
* "Private companies can bankroll publicly funded sports programs with little scrutiny."
* Most public schools contacted by the WaPost provided scant information even though public universities are keeping supposedly public records.
* The majority of NIL money goes to men but there are exceptions such as LSU gymnast Dunne.
* Some decent-size payments went to non-stars that were connected to fame. Deion Sanders' son Shedeur has a Google/KFC deal apparently worth $400,000. His daughter Shelomi (11 minutes total playing time at Colorado) may have been the unnamed Colorado player who got $42,500.
* How much did Caitlin Clark make at Iowa, a public thus public records school? Iowa did not provide records.

Aside: Many of the major newspapers are aghast at how much money college athletes are making. But that's because they focus on the Texas quarterback, Duke forward, and Livvy Dunne. People like that, the outlier high-earners. That's what I'm reading in the New York Times from a quote-real NYT reporter (not Athletic writers who eat and breathe sports). One of the Times reporters profiles himself as "writing about how the intersection of money, power and sports impacts our culture." I took the "intersection of" thing off my bio around 2010.

A bit late, but nevertheless: Ned Harkness named to the Lacrosse coaches hall of fame. https://cornellbigred.com/news/2024/8/23/two-mens-lacrosse-faces-named-to-2024-imlca-hall-of-fame-class.aspx

Context: The Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLAC) Hall of Fame existed since 2015 and an inaugural-year inductee was Richie Moran, 257-121 as a head coach, 3 NCAA titles in his first decade. No brainer.

Harkness is the second IMLAC Cornell inductee. His lacrosse record: 147 wins, 27 losses and 2 ties in 16 seasons at RPI and Cornell, .841.

Also honored this year: Howie Borkan '81, "Bob Russell Contributors Award" recipient.

There is a separate Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Takes a long time to get in. I think you have to be closer to dead than to your playing years. It looks as if the youngest Cornell inductee is Tim Goldstein '88, in 2007. The most recent inductee is Bob Shaw '72, in 2023.