Annual Report

The last Princeton game of the 2011-12 academic year was held on May 13, when the men's lacrosse team lost to Virginia in the NCAA tournament.

The first games of the 2012-13 academic year will be on August 31, when the men's soccer team, women's soccer team, field hockey and women's volleyball teams all start their seasons.

That's a span of 109 days, which means the 55th day would be the halfway point between the end of  games from last year and the start of games for next year. That would have been July 8th.

If you go by the absolute last day of competition from 2011-12, then that would have been the NCAA track and field championships on June 9.

Going by that, then the halfway point between the actual end of last year and the start of next year is tomorrow, July 21.

Today, of course, is July 20, which happens to be the anniversary of the day man first walked on the moon, something that happened 43 years ago today. In TigerBlog's opinion, no other accomplishment in the history of mankind measures up.

Anyway, since we're essentially halfway between last year and next year, it's only fitting that the 2011-12 annual report is off of TB's to-do list.

Each year, the OAC puts together its section of the annual report, which TB assumes goes to the University president and trustees and other high-ranking members of the administration, though he's not really sure who actually reads it all.

Perhaps he can do what a friend of his did in college, which is to put the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner in the middle of a paper to see if the professor noticed, which legend has it at least, he did not.

The annual report includes all kinds of information on the Department of Athletics, including items like number of recreation permits sold, who won the intramural championships, how the club teams did and such.

The OAC part is mostly a compilation of information from the previous year as it relates to athletic success.

There is a two-sentence summary of each of the 38 varsity sports, taking time not to mention any specific athlete's name so as to not leave anyone out.

There is the record of each team against each Ivy opponent, as well as the cumulative record against each Ivy opponent. There's a listing of where each team finished in its league, its overall record, its league record.

There's the overall record of every team combined.

And of course the Ivy League all-sports points standings. Unofficial, of course.

Added all up, Princeton played 619 games in the 2011-12 season and had an overall record of 357-248-14. That's a winning percentage just below 59%.

By gender, the women went 181-115-5, while the men were 176-133-9.

The most successful season was the winter, when Princeton went 157-75-11.

Any year where a school's teams win nearly 60% of their games is a good one. The fact that it doesn't stand out shows the remarkable level of consistency that Princeton's overall program has maintained.

 At the same time, as they say, past performance does not guarantee future earnings.

In this case, every year is its own challenge. Each year has its own highs and lows, and there is nothing etched in stone for the next one.

The annual report is a last time to look back at the year just completed.

So is the halfway point between that year and the next one.