Overlapping

Snow? Are you serious?

A week ago, this area was bashed by something that is known as "Superstorm Sandy," since "Hurricane Sandy" wasn't good enough to sum it up. There are still nearly a million people without power in the region, and that was before the Nor'easter came by and dropped snow on the Jersey Shore, New York City and of course Princeton.

TigerBlog hates snow. He prefers sun, warmth, lacrosse - all the things that make spring and summer great.

Snow is not his favorite by any stretch. Nor is winter in general, though he can deal with cold temperatures way better than he can with snow.

The stuff that came down yesterday was the heavy, wet variety. It wasn't supposed to stick, though in the end it added up to two inches for the general area.

It's not a huge total. Still, it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

TB read someplace that this is the first time in the history of this area that there was measurable snowfall this early in two consecutive years, after last year's late October blizzard.

On the other hand, last year's storm represented basically all of the snow that this area would get for 2011-12. Should the two inches that fell yesterday be the end of snow for this season, TB would be fine with that, though his sense is that that won't be the case.

So what's next around here? Well, how about perfect weather?

A look at the 10-day forecast indicates sunny skies, no precipitation and temps back in the 60s. Happily, that means, among other things, that the snow won't be around here very long.

Of course, how is the weather supposed to know what season is it at this time of the year? Is it fall? Is it winter? Is it both?

You certainly can't tell by looking at the athletic calendar, that's for sure.

Between tomorrow and Sunday, Princeton will have 16 teams who will be competing as the overlap season is at its peak. It's like fall foliage, only a few weeks later.

Some sports, like swimming and diving, basketball and wrestling, will be starting.

Others, like women's soccer and field hockey, will begin NCAA competition.

The overlap time brings with it all kinds of challenges for athletic administration, athletic trainers, everyone. With so many teams in so many places, it's not easy.

Even simple things like radio become issues.

Princeton is at Yale in football and Buffalo in men's basketball Saturday at noon. Obviously, both games cannot be on the same radio station at the same time, so it'll be football with a lot of basketball updates.

College basketball didn't used to play games until Dec. 1. Now, Princeton's men and women will play six games each in November.

Almost all of this weekend's events are on the road, but there is a home hockey ECAC weekend, the first of the season, as Cornell is here tomorrow night and then Colgate Saturday at 4.

As far as the biggest events this weekend, there is the football game, as Princeton tries to clinch at least a .500 season and stay mathematically alive in the Ivy League race while playing in a series that dates to 1873.

And there are the two NCAA events.

The women's soccer team is at West Virginia Saturday night in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Princeton played WVU, in its first season in the Big 12, in the 2008 NCAA tournament, falling 2-1 in a game played at Virginia.

The Tigers come into the tournament at 13-3-1 and with 11 straight wins.

The field hockey team plays at Virginia against Drexel and then, should the Tigers win, against the winner of Virginia and Iowa. Second-seeded Princeton has as good a chance as any team to win the whole thing, but then again, all it takes is one bad bounce here or there to change things completely.

Seasons that are winding down. High pressure games. Opening days. Home openers.

It's what this time of year is all about here at Princeton.

It's not supposed to be about snow.