It's A Date

TigerBlog Jr. has a friend who plays lacrosse at Babson College.

TigerBlog finds him to be a nice young man, certainly the kind of young man you'd let your college daughter date.

So imagine TB's surprise to hear on the radio yesterday a report about which colleges were named as the ones whose alums are the best and worst to date. The criteria, TB believes, had something to do with the percentage of first dates that led to second dates.

The report was compiled by an online dating site.

Anyway, the No. 1 college for the worst alums to date? Babson.

Who knew?

That wasn't the only shocking part of the story. Guess who was No. 9? Princeton University.

What?

No. 2 was the University of Chicago. No. 3 was Rutgers.

Oh, and the school with the best percentage of first dates that turn into second dates? TigerBlog will give you a hint - Princeton plays this school in football tomorrow.

Yup, it's Colgate.

Perhaps this suggests that Colgate produces ultra-polite, considerate alums, while Princeton produces mean-spirited, who-cares-about-you alums. This bodes well for a football game, no?

What in the world are the people from Babson doing on their first dates, by the way? They can't all be ugly and dull, right?

What are they talking about? Its website boasts of being "Top Ranked For Entrepreneurship Programs." That would seem like a good ice-breaker. "Hey, when I was a junior, I started my own hedge fund and then invented an app."

Maybe they overdo it?

As for Chicago, what about those alums? Are they all sitting around brooding on their first dates about city corruption, traffic and the fact that the school bailed on the Big Ten all those years ago?

What is a Chicago alum went on a date with a Babson alum? That would be doomed from the start. They'd probably throw food at each other and start swinging.

And how could people not want to go on a second date with a Princeton alum? Surely their parents would want them to, if nothing else: "What? You have a date with someone who went to Princeton? That's great. I can't wait to tell all of my friends." Is that really followed by: "Give them another chance. I already told everyone."

What are these alums saying? "So I spent my sophomore summer in Thailand, and of course I was in South America my junior summer doing research for my thesis."

Seriously, Princetonians. You have to do better.

You can't just sit there talking P-Rades, Reunions and Eating Clubs. You have to branch out a little.

And please tell TigerBlog that you're not wearing your Reunions jackets on first dates.

If you're a Princeton alum with a first date this weekend, here's a good subject to bring up. Casually mention that Princeton won the CAANJ Cup again.

CAANJ - the College Athletic Administrators of New Jersey - awards its cup each year to the top overall athletic program in the state for Division I/II, Division III and junior colleges. Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux accepted the award yesterday at the CAANJ annual meeting and award luncheon.

The cups are awarded through a points system that credits conference standing and national championship participation, though that will change next year, when the final Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings will be used.

In addition, there are also six student-athlete of the year awards, one male and one female for each of Division I/II, Division III and juco. The award combines outstanding athletic achievement with a minimum 3.50 grade point average.

Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe was the DI/II women's winner. Ratcliffe, the NCAA hammer thrower champ, couldn't be there because of her class schedule, so women's track and field assistant coach Brian Mondschein accepted the award, which is an engraved clock. Looking at it, Mondschein told the audience: "Julia will never see this," which drew big laughs.

The biggest award that CAANJ presents is the Garden State Award, a lifetime achievement award given to an administrator or coach who has served in the state of New Jersey with distinction.

This year's winner was Gary Walters, the former Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton. He spoke to the audience of mostly Division III and junior college administrators, coaches and athletes about the current divide between the Power Five conferences and the rest of those in the world of college sports and said that the ones doing  it right - the ones who were concerned with student-athlete welfare, experience and education - were the ones in the room.

As for TigerBlog, yesterday marked the end of his two-year run as the president of CAANJ. His replacement is Shannon Ventre from Brookdale Community College.

So there's your CAANJ update.

Now, Princetonians, you are set for your dates.

Try not to mess them up again.