Thumped Or Edged?

TigerBlog apologizes if you've seen this one someplace else.
He didn't do this himself. Instead, it was emailed to him by former Princeton radio voice John Sadak:

Princeton beat Harvard, 39-34; Harvard beat Yale, 34-24; Yale beat Georgetown, 24-21; Georgetown beat Wagner, 13-10; Wagner beat Colgate, 31-20; Colgate beat Lehigh, 35-24; Lehigh beat Liberty, 28-26; Liberty beat Stony Brook, 28-14; Stony Brook beat Army, 23-3; Army beat BC, 34-31; BC beat Maryland, 20-17; Maryland beat Temple, 36-27; Temple beat South Florida, 37-28; South Florida beat Connecticut, 13-6; Connecticut beat Louisville, 23-20; Louisville beat Florida, 33-23; Florida beat Texas A&M, 20-17; Texas A&M beat Alabama, 29-24


Roll Tigers?

Of all the scores on that list, the most important was Stony Brook over Army, which made the transition from FCS to FBS.

You could stick Dartmouth's or Penn's win over Princeton at the front there as well. In fact, you could have Dartmouth's win over Princeton and then Sacred Heart's win over Dartmouth and then on and on, with a school that beat Sacred Heart. Maybe it could eventually get to Division III.

Of course, with all due respect, TigerBlog thinks Alabama would probably beat Princeton.

Peter Farrell, the women's track and field coach, is a Notre Dame alum. After his Fighting Irish were pasted by the Crimson Tide, he took it in stride, saying that the food at his house was good but the game wasn't.

The big question debated yesterday in the OAC was whether or not it was better to be Notre Dame and get blown out in the big game or be Georgia and be much more competitive, only to lose a heartbreaker.

Georgia, you might recall, fell to Alabama 32-28 in the SEC title game. The game ended when the Bulldogs were driving and could have spiked the ball late but instead threw a short pass that ended the game at around the five-yard line when it was caught with no timeouts remaining.

Had Georgia won that game, then it would have been Notre Dame's opponent in the BCS championship game. And, judging by the way that game went, it's like that Georgia would have won that game.

Instead, the Bulldogs played in the Capital One Bowl, defeating Nebraska.

So what's better?

Thumped like Notre Dame or edged like Georgia?

TigerBlog has seen both sides of it.

Take the 2000 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game.

Princeton lost that one 13-7 to Syracuse in a game that the Tigers were never really in. Two years later, Princeton lost to the Orange 13-12. In between, by the way, the Tigers beat SU in the 2001 final.

TB remembers 2000 as a year that the team was fortunate to get to the final. He remembers 2002 as a year that maybe one got away.

The one loss that stings the most in all of TB's years at Princeton was the 1998 NCAA men's basketball second round loss to Michigan State, in a game that was tied with a minute to go. That one really hurt.

On the other hand, there's also the realization that the game was special. So was the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown game obviously (TB doesn't count that one because he wasn't at it).

So is it better to be part of a game where it's almost forgotten when it's over, or is better to live with the hurt that lingers essentially forever?

TB would rather lose a tough one.

TB also asked TigerBlog Jr. what he thought, and he said he'd rather win the game than lose big or small.

Ah, to be young.