What Game?

TigerBlog was walking around outside of Dartmouth's Memorial Stadium last Saturday, prior to the Big Green's football game against Yale. 

Or was it against Yale?

TB was there for Princeton-Dartmouth field hockey, and he was dressed as you might expect — in orange and black. He walked over to the football stadium to say hello to his longtime friend and colleague Justin Lafleur, who oversees Dartmouth's athletic communications efforts.

As he made the short walk, he went past lots of pregame tailgaters. And why not? It was a perfect fall afternoon. There was even a group of 70-something men who were playing a modified version of musical chairs and asked TB to take a video of them. 

The game went better when TB informed them that there were six of them and six chairs, which defeats the basic premise of what they were trying to accomplish.  

Several of the tailgaters he saw made reference to his Princeton gear, with some good natured "Go Tigers!!" and one or two "Boos" mixed in. 

At one point, he walked past some Yalies who were enjoying their burgers and beverages when one said "Princeton? What are you doing here?" TB responded that he was there for the game, which drew the response of "what game?" 

To that, TB said "Princeton-Dartmouth football starts soon. What are you guys doing here?"

He said it with such conviction that for a moment, the Yalies thought that they were at the wrong game. 

If you're looking for Princeton Football this weekend, the right place to set up your tailgate is in Providence, where the Tigers will take on Brown tomorrow. Kickoff is at noon. 

The Ivy League football regular season reaches its midpoint this weekend, after which all eight teams will have played two league games and three non-league games and have five league games in five weeks to go. Also, TB has to write "regular season," since there will be at least one Ivy team in the postseason this year. 

This weekend's other league matchup has Penn at Columbia. 

There are three unbeaten teams in the standings, with Harvard at 2-0 and Princeton and Penn at 1-0 each. Cornell is 0-2, and Brown and Columbia are hoping to join Yale and Dartmouth at 1-1 after this weekend.  

Of course, this game is the first of two straight between Tiger head coach Bob Surace and a former offensive coordinator of his. This week it'll be James Perry of Brown; next week it'll be Andrew Aurich of Harvard. 

The league race affords no time for sentimentality, of course. Each win is big, and each week changes the shape of what comes next.

Princeton and Brown have put up similar offensive numbers, with the Bears' averaging 1.5 more points per game (27.5-26.0) while the Tigers gain 2.2 more yards per game (338-335.8). Brown does a little more on the ground, and Princeton has a slight edge through the air. 

Is there a stat that jumps off the page that sums this up? How about rushing yards allowed per game.

Does this suggest teams that have similar numbers: Brown and Princeton both allow 131.3 rushing yards per game. 

One difference is that Brown went 3-0 in its non-league games, while Princeton went 1-2. The Bears would gladly trade two of those wins (even the win over No. 10 Rhode Island) to be 1-0 in its Ivy schedule, which opened with a 41-7 loss to Harvard. 

Princeton comes into this one after a home loss against Mercer, another Top 20 team. Princeton's lone Ivy game was a come-from-behind 17-10 win over Columbia.

Josh Robinson, a freshman wide receiver for the Tigers, has own the last two Ivy Rookie of the Week awards. Robinson had two catches for 26 yards in the first two games and now has 10 for 133 yards in the last two, but you don't need any stats to tell you that he's already a good one. You can figure that out just by watching. 

Jackson Green caught his team-best second touchdown pass in the game last weekend. Those two, along with Charley Rossi and Roman Laurio, have established themselves as a pretty solid, deep group of receivers for Princeton's rotating quarterbacks Kai Colon and Blaine Hipa.  

It's a big one in Providence tomorrow.  

Kickoff is at noon.  

Both Sides Of The Atlantic

Okay, Riccardo Fantinelli's recent travels are way more impressive than the ones that TigerBlog and the Princeton field hockey team recently completed. 

This is from the X feed of a college golf website:

Respect to Riccardo Fantinelli of @princetongolf. The Senior from Rome, Italy finished up at the Eisenhower in Singapore on Sunday (shot level par, T28), flew 14 hours to London, caught a connecting flight to Edinburgh and was on the tee on the Jubilee Course at just past 10am on… pic.twitter.com/ps8gCv4K8v

— Clippd_Scoreboard (@Clippdscore) October 14, 2025

Yeah, that's impressive stuff. On the other hand, he did have 14 hours on the flight to London to study for that midterm, right? 

In all seriousness, that's some big-time dedication to school and sport. If you want to succeed at the highest levels of both, there is no better choice than Princeton. 

Fantinelli and his Princeton golf teammates, male and female, have spent the week in Scotland, competing at the St. Andrew's Links Collegiate. Where would you more like to play if you're a golfer? 

And where would you more like to hit a shot like the one that Fantinelli did here: 

Absolute beauty from @princetongolf's Ricardo Fantinelli on No. 15 at the Old Course. 🤌 pic.twitter.com/dSZfbVj1UN

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) October 15, 2025

That was just about perfect, no? 

The Tiger men defeated Cal to win the team championship early yesterday, a day after Reed Greyserman shot a six-under final round to win the individual title. 

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Meanwhile, back on this side of the Atlantic, it's another busy fall weekend ahead for Princeton. 

The Cornell women's volleyball team will be in Dillon Gym tomorrow night at 7 in a matchup of the top two teams in the Ivy standings as the league schedule reaches its midpoint. Cornell is the lone Ivy unbeaten at 5-0, followed by Princeton at 4-1 and Brown and Yale at 3-2. 

The Big Red, who last won an Ivy title in 2006, swept the Bears and Bulldogs a week ago in Ithaca. In fact, after opening its league season with a win at Columbia (who is at Dillon Gym Saturday at 5), Cornell has played its last four at home. 

Princeton won at Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend. TigerBlog hadn't checked the score yet when he walked past two tall women who were wearing "Dartmouth Volleyball" gear last Saturday morning; he thought better of asking them who won. 

The match tomorrow will decide if Princeton and Cornell are tied for first or if Cornell has a two-match cushion through six league dates. 

The top four teams in the league meet up in the Ivy tournament for the league's automatic NCAA bid. 

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The men's soccer team is still No. 1 in the RPI after its 1-1 tie at James Madison Tuesday night. The Tigers return home to face Columbia Saturday at 4. 

The Ivy League standings show Princeton at 3-0-0, followed by 2-1-0 Cornell. It's fairly balanced after that with four weeks of league games to be played, as Penn, Brown, Yale and Dartmouth are all within two points of each other in the race for the four Ivy tournament spots. 

Harvard and Columbia are both 0-2-1 in the league. 

On the women's side, Princeton is in Hanover to take on Dartmouth in what goes without saying is a big game. With the women one week ahead of the men, there are only three games to go in the league, and all will impact the Ivy tournament field. 

Princeton got a huge win last week at home against Cornell, evening its league record at 2-2-0. There are five teams within three points of each other, with Harvard with nine points, Dartmouth with eight and Brown and Columbia with seven.  

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The field hockey team is back home to continue its stretch of four games in nine days with games against Cornell tomorrow at 4 and Monmouth Sunday at noon. 

The Tigers are now ranked sixth in the coaches' poll and fourth in the RPI after the big 3-2 win at defending NCAA champ Northwestern Monday, ending the Wildcats' 15-game winning streak. Northwestern, by the way, stayed No. 1 in the coaches' poll. 

One of the hardest things to do in sports is to win the game after a big win. The challenges this weekend are big: Cornell is 9-2 on the season and Monmouth has an RPI of 12. 

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This isn't completely a fall weekend. The women's hockey season begins with two games at UConn, tomorrow at 2:30 and Saturday at 1. 

This season marks the debut of Courtney Kessel as the Tiger head coach. 

The ITA men's tennis regional comes to Princeton this weekend, as well as the Princeton Invitational for men's and women's cross country. The men's water polo team continues its trip to California for fall break.

The complete schedule can be found HERE. 

The Road Trip

United Airlines Flight 2362 had just pushed back from its gate at Chicago's O'Hare Airport Monday night when the pilot announced that the flight to Newark had been delayed. 

Instead of wheels up, it would now be nearly an hour of sitting on a remote part of the tarmac. For the group of 29 that made up the Princeton field hockey travel party, you would think such news would have been met with annoyance. 

After all, the Tigers were headed home after a very, very long weekend, one that saw the team leave the Caldwell Field House parking lot at 7:45 am Friday morning. Now it was Monday evening, and what was to have been a late-night arrival back in Princeton had suddenly become an early-morning one. 

This is the kind of situation that leads to annoyance and frustration.

Instead, an impromptu team party broke out, with laughing, storytelling and the kind of banter that comes from a close-knit team like this one. Two little girls ventured back to talk to the players. A man who had just run the Chicago Marathon and then found himself seated in the middle of all of this kept saying "you guys are great" over and over. 

Annoyance? Hardly. Not with this group.

Besides, with the way this trip had gone, who actually wanted it to end? 

Princeton field hockey had itself quite a four day weekend, didn't it. By the time the bus rolled back into Caldwell, the Tigers had been together through a long bus ride to New Hampshire (with a stop at Amherst College for a practice session), a hurried bus ride to Boston, the flight to Chicago, a homecoming party at the house of one of its players in Wilmette and then the long and delayed trip home. 

There were meals, hotels, miles and miles on buses — pretty much all spent singing, laughing, teasing (the good kind) and mostly just enjoying the time together after midterm week. 

There was also the matter of business. Princeton had two games to play, and both would turn out to be big wins, with 120 minutes of field hockey that saw the Tigers never trail at any point. 

It started Saturday with a 4-0 win at Dartmouth in a game in which freshman Caitlin Thompson scored her first two career goals, including one 58 seconds into the game for the fastest goal by a Princeton player in 74 games. 

It ended Monday in Evanston, when Princeton defeated top-ranked Northwestern 3-2, ending the Wildcats 15-game winning streak, a run that included last year's NCAA championship. What proved to be the game-winning goal came from Beth Yeager, making her the sixth Tiger ever to reach 50 goals, and goalie Olivia Caponiti made it stand up with big saves on three penalty corners in the final 30 seconds. 

The wins were big. The greater experience is what they'll all remember. 

You can draw a straight line from the on-field performance to the camaraderie and team-first mentality that comes from trips like the one this team just had. It's a stretch to say that it's the reason Princeton took down the No. 1 team in the country because of how much fun everyone had the night before at sophomore Izzy Morgan's house. 

You need the kind of talent Princeton has as well, but you also need to be, literally and figuratively, all on the bus together. This can be challenging for a team that has nearly a 50-50 split between American players and international players (10 from England, one from Germany), and yet every conversation, every interaction, is a mix of the two accents. 

There are no cliques. There's only one large group of Tigers. 

TigerBlog had a front-row seat for the entire trip (or, in the case of the flight home, a 35th row seat, after his 37th row seat on the way to Chicago). The team culture is evident, starting with head coach Carla Tagliente and associate head coach Dina Rizzo, with assistant coaches Pat Harris and Pattie Gillern. They set high standards. They are competitive. They are driven to win.

And they also are driven to make the experience a fun one. They laugh along with their players when the time is right. They perfectly balance two hugely important dynamics: when to be serious and when to have fun.

If you can figure that out, you can have weekends like the one just passed. 

When the plane finally got back to Newark, there was nobody with those red flashlights to guide the plane to the jetway. The wait for someone to show up? That was 50 minutes. 

Again, nobody seemed to mind. TigerBlog was in Seat 35F, by the window. Sophomore Pru Lindsey, who is having a breakout season, sat next to him, in the middle. The two delays enabled her to watch the entirety of "Gladiator," a movie she'd never before seen. 

The lesson? Enjoy the moments, without worrying about the other stuff. 

If you can get enough people to buy into that kind of attitude, you can have weekends like the one Princeton field hockey just did. 

Another Win

So here's a fascinating quote:

“I wish Coach [Trent] Dilfer the best and thank him for his class, tireless work and commitment during his tenure at UAB. While his efforts did not translate into a winning record, each young man who played for him will be a better person as a result.” 

This was the quote from Alabama-Birmingham Director of Athletics Mark Ingram on the school website. Knowing how quotes end up on school websites, TigerBlog would suggest that this quote went through several versions before it was approved. 

Is there anything that sums up where FBS football is right now? Yes, winning is obviously important, hugely important. Everyone doesn't get a trophy.

And yes, coaches on the FBS level know what they're signing up for when they take the job. You just had to look at the headlines this weekend to see how ruthless the profession is.  

Didn't someone get fired over the weekend who took his team to the College Football Playoff semifinals a year ago? Yes, he did. Didn't another one get fired who was in his second year coaching at his alma mater and had every mechanism to be successful yanked away? Yes, he did too. 

Still, "each young man who played for him will be a better person as a result?" Doesn't that have to at least buy you until the end of the season, and maybe at least another one?

Oh, and speaking of "buy," put the word "-out" after it and those numbers become staggering.  

TigerBlog was also struck by the fact that Dilfer — a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the Ravens — was fired with a two-year record of 9-21. 

Hmmm. Want to know whose first two years as a Division I head coach saw him have an 8-21 record? 

That would be a certain Bill Tierney in his first two years at Princeton. Yes, lacrosse isn't FBS football, but still — isn't there something to be said for allowing coaches to grow and develop into the position? Tierney certainly did, right? 

There will always be a long line of coaches ready to sign up for this, knowing that the financial rewards can be life-altering. On the other hand, what's the message? It's "win at all costs or be fired." 

Oh well. From TB's perspective, it just makes it harder to enjoy college football at that level.

And that's all he'll say about that for now. 

Besides, the Princeton men's soccer team won again. That's better than all of FBS football put together.  

This time, it was a 2-0 win over Cornell in Ithaca in a matchup of the only two perfect Ivy teams. The Tigers are now 9-1-0 overall, 3-0-0 in the league.

What's more, Princeton has shut out four straight opponents and seven of its last eight. Through 10 games, Princeton has given up only three goals. That's pretty good stuff. 

When was the last time Princeton men's soccer had four straight shutouts? That would be back in 1980, when Princeton defeated Harvard 2-0, tied Penn 0-0 and then beat Rider and Delaware 4-0 each.

By the way, the time before that was the last three games of 1953 and first in 1954. If you want four straight in the same season, then you go all the way back to 1942.  

The last time there were seven shutouts in eight games? Also 1942, when the Tigers actually had eight shutouts in nine games. Penn was the only team to score against that team, in a 5-2 Princeton win, and the Yale game to end the season was a 0-0 tie. 

Princeton is on the road tonight at 7 to take on James Madison. After that will be the next Ivy game, at home against Columbia Saturday at 4. 

Princeton continues to be ranked No. 1 in Division I in the RPI. The new coaches' rankings come out today; Princeton was ninth last week.

After the Columbia game will be a home game a week from tonight against Bryant. That will be the No. 1 RPI team against the current No. 3 RPI team. Who's No. 2? Vermont. 

For now, Princeton is alone atop the Ivy League standings, with a win over the only team within three points. 

The Old Course

So here's a question for you: According to the website "oldest.org," how many of the 10 oldest golf courses in the world are located in Scotland? 

While you think about that, TigerBlog will tell you that 1) he never heard of this website until he started researching the oldest golf courses and 2) it's addicting. 

In fact, about five hours elapsed between when TB wrote the first sentence and then the second sentence, since he was clicking on one "what is the oldest" list after another (okay, that's an exaggeration of sorts). 

For instance, did you know that Schweppes is the oldest soda in the world (dating to 1783)? Or that Crosse and Blackwell is the oldest food brand in the world (1706)? Any guesses on where the oldest restaurant in the United States is? That would be in Newport, R.I., where the White Horse Tavern was established in 1673 (they weren't taking online reservations back then). 

And what is the oldest surviving roadside attraction in the U.S.? Hint — it's in New Jersey. 

Okay, to answer the first question, of the 10 oldest golf courses in the world, there are 10 located in Scotland. The oldest is the aptly named Old Course at St. Andrews, which dates to 1552. King James II, though, banned the sport through a parliamentary act in the 16th century, and that ban lasted for 40 years. 

Why did he do that? Here's one note TB found:

The king believed that golf, along with football, was taking time away from practicing archery, which was crucial for national defense. The ban was part of a broader effort to ensure that every able-bodied man remained proficient in the use of the bow and arrow, a weapon that could turn the tide in medieval warfare. Despite the ban, golf continued to be played clandestinely, and its popularity grew, leading to its eventual acceptance and formalization. The ban is often cited as a quirky historical footnote in the evolution of golf, which later became a national sport in Scotland. 

Of course, James II died at the age of 29 when one of his own cannons exploded next to where he was standing. He became, apparently, his own personal 19th hole.  

The reason TigerBlog brings all this up today is because the Princeton men's and women's golf teams are currently in Scotland for their fall break. Even better, they're competing in the St. Andrews Links Collegiate, which teed off this morning. 

You can watch the event today, tomorrow and Wednesday on the Golf Channel from 9 am to noon Eastern time. 

This is from TB's colleague Chas Dorman, who is there to report:

The opening two rounds will be played at the Jubilee Course and the final round will be contested at the Old Course.

The format for the tournament includes 36 holes of stroke play in the first two rounds, with an individual champion crowned for both the women and the men. In addition, the first two rounds will determine seeding for the Championship and Consolation Matches on the final day at the Old Course. Joining the Tigers in the field will be Cal and Michigan State as well as the hosts from the University of St. Andrews. Previous champions include Arizona (women) and Northwestern (men) in 2024 and North Carolina (women) and Vanderbilt (men) in 2023. 

It's also possible that Chas will be hitting a golf ball or two during his time there. Such a trip would have been wasted on TigerBlog, who, as you probably know if you've been reading, is awful at golf.  

On the other hand, TB does love history. And who couldn't love to see where it all started, even if it had to be hidden from the King? 

How cool does this look: 

Unpacked at @TheHomeofGolf and went straight to the course.

Gorgeous day to be out alongside @Princeton_WGolf and prepare for the St. Andrews Links Collegiate starting Oct. 13 on @GolfChannel! pic.twitter.com/KJz3jbtyOU

— Princeton Men’s Golf Team (@princetongolf) October 11, 2025

And the oldest surviving roadside attraction in America? That would be the great Lucy the Elephant in Margate, which was built in 1882. At least that's what oldest.org says. If you've never checked out Lucy, she's a pretty imposing lady. 

Also, if you're in Margate to see Lucy, stop by the Downbeach Deli. Get the brisket.  

Bingo

TigerBlog would like to tell you a story about his own personal integrity. 

First, though, here's a very, very, very old joke:

Q: How do you get nine grandmothers to yell [insert graphic expletive here]?
A: Get one grandmother to yell "BINGO."

This is funny stuff.

Okay, back to TB's integrity, which ties into more fun with Bingo. 

Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack, in addition to being a serious administrator and a very competitive and dedicated Princetonian, is also a huge believer in having what he calls "forced family fun" at his departmental staff meetings. The most recent example of this was yesterday, when the department staff gathered in Jadwin Gym. 

This month's edition of "FFF with John Mack" featured a modified version of Bingo. In this case, each staff member was issued a card with five rows and five clues on each row, and the point was to check off the words in the clues if they were said during the meeting. 

To win, your card had to have a "T," something that Mack needed to explain in a little more detail than should have been necessary. No, a "T" couldn't be lying on its side, for instance. 

At one point, Mack called up Deputy AD Chris Brock to give an update, during which time he could have simply riddled off the clues he needed to win. The same was true with Evan Feinstein of the marketing department, who ended his update by saying "Happy Halloween," given that he needed "Halloween" for his card. 

TigerBlog's "T" was almost complete, missing only "100 wins." This was an obvious reference to Princeton head football coach Bob Surace, who recently picked up career win No. 100 (he now has 101, with 83 at Princeton and 18 from Western Connecticut). 

Ah, but Coach Surace wasn't there, so when John Mack had the slide congratulating Surace up on the Jadwin video board, he never actually said the words "100 wins." He just pointed to it. 

TB took this as a sign that he could not cross off that square, since he is a stickler for the exactness of the rules. 

As such, he did not call out "Bingo." And as such, he wasn't one of the five winners — but he could hold his head up high, knowing that he had done the right thing. 

And with that, it's on to Princeton Football. 

Surace goes for win No. 102 overall, and No. 3 on the season, when his Tigers host Mercer tomorrow, with kickoff on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium at noon. 

Of course, the first question TB has is whether or not the Mercer players realize that Princeton is located in Mercer County. Located in Macon, Ga., Mercer University was founded in 1833 by Jesse Mercer, a Baptist leader, as opposed to Mercer County, which was named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer, who died at the Battle of Princeton in 1877. 

The Mercer Bears who come to Princeton are ranked 19th in the FCS and are 4-1 on the season, having followed a loss to Presbyterian on Aug. 30 with wins over Wofford, the Citadel, East Tennessee State and Samford a week ago. Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson was the school's male athlete of the week after the game against Samford. From the release:

A product of Rolesville, N.C., Atkinson matched a 6-year-old school record with five touchdown passes in the nationally-ranked football team's 45-21 win over visiting Samford. The first-year signal caller threw for a season-best 365 yards on 22-of-35 passing with no interceptions, while also adding a 2-yard rush as well. 

The Bears also had a no-contest against UC-Davis when a tight game in the fourth quarter was suspended and never finished due to lightning. That game was played on Aug. 23. What else was that day? Princeton's first practice.  

Princeton is now in Week 4, having certainly found its groove the last two weeks, with wins over Lafayette and Columbia after a Week 1 loss to San Diego. It'll be all Ivy League games for the Tigers after this one, which still figures to be an exciting, interesting matchup. 

Mercer brings a strong defense, one ranked sixth in the FCS against the rush, as well as second in tackles for loss and fourth in team sacks. Atkinson has been on a tear all season, completing 72 percent of his passes (fifth in the FCS), with 23.8 completions per game (third in the FCS), 292 passing yards per game (second), 13 touchdown passes (seventh) and a 174.3 passing efficiency rating (eighth).

On top of all that, it's the first time Mercer will be at Princeton, and there's always something special about seeing a different uniform. 

It'll be a challenge, and it'll be a perfect day for it. 

Kickoff is at noon.  

Midterm Week

This is midterm week at Princeton. 

Do you know what TigerBlog remembers about taking midterms way back when? Absolutely nothing. 

He's pretty sure he took them. How else to explain diploma they ended up giving to him? 

He does remember that the class schedule book — online, what was that? — listed the dates of the final exams for each class, and he did like to schedule classes that had earlier rather than later finals. Midterms? No memory, at least nothing specific. 

He does remember the blue books that he'd have to cram with answers to tests. He also remembers being a much bigger fan of essay questions rather than multiple choice or true/false or anything like that. He considered essay questions to be tests of what you knew, as opposed to the others, which were tests of what you didn't know. 

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The Princeton men's soccer team has moved into the No. 9 spot in the coaches' poll (and No. 1 in the more-important RPI). 

The Tigers will finish exams and head to Cornell for Saturday's game, which starts at 4. This one is a big one, with Princeton at 8-1-0 and Cornell at 7-1-1. Both are 2-0-0 in the Ivy race, something no other team can claim.

Cornell has played nine games and has scored three or more goals in seven of them. Princeton has played nine games and allowed three goals — that's three goals total. 

Only North Carolina State allows fewer goals per game than the 0.33 Princeton does in Division I. Only Duke, Delaware, Lindenwood and Portland average more goals per game than the Big Red (2.67). 

If you're wondering, there are 220 Division I men's soccer teams.  

These kinds of matchups fascinate TigerBlog, the kind that match a team with a lockdown defense against a team that scores in bunches. He should start to track which team does better in these situations.

That's just a subplot though. Obviously with the start its had, Princeton is looking beyond October in the big picture. There's no looking ahead for anyone in the immediate moment, of course. 

Saturday at 4. Make sure you watch it on ESPN+. 

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There are six schools who are ranked in the top 20 in both the Division I men's soccer and Division I field hockey polls. Can you name them? 

TigerBlog will spot you Princeton, No. 8 in field hockey and the aforementioned No. 9 in men's soccer. Why else would he have mentioned it, right? 

He'll give you a few paragraphs to think of the answer.

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The field hockey team, by the way, is at Dartmouth Saturday and then at Northwestern Monday. TigerBlog will be the team photographer for both. 

He can pretty much guarantee you he won't be taking any pictures as good as this one, snapped by Camryn Ley (a recent graduate of the College of New Jersey, where she played field hockey) at this past weekend's men's lacrosse scrimmages (that's freshman Thatcher Bernstein who went airborne):

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The Princeton women's volleyball team also heads to Dartmouth and then Boston. While the field hockey team will be stopping at Logan Airport for the flight to Chicago, the women's volleyball team will stay in town to face Harvard. 

The Ivy women's volleyball season is in its infancy, with three matches down and 11 to go before the league tournament, which will determine the NCAA tournament bid. Cornell, at 3-0, is the lone unbeaten, with Princeton, Brown, Yale and Harvard all at 2-1. 

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The women's soccer team is home against Cornell Saturday, with kickoff at 1. The Tigers are in the fight for the Ivy tournament spots, currently tied for fifth with the Big Red. 

There are four games remaining in the league, with 12 points still out there to be had. Dartmouth is in first with seven, with a three-way tie between Harvard, Brown and Columbia with six. Princeton and the Big Red have three each, so the math on this one is obvious.  

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And the trivia answer is: 

In addition to Princeton, you have Virginia (No. 2 field hockey/No. 8 men's soccer), Maryland (12/15), Rutgers (14/18), Duke (9/7) and Michigan (11/13).

The Wolverines, by the way, feature Patrick O'Toole, the younger brother of former Princeton Roper Trophy winner and current member of the NYCFC of Major League Soccer Kevin O'Toole.  

A Place To Call Home

You know what is one of the worst feelings in modern times, something that those who came before us could never imagine? 

You know. It's that feeling when you finish binging a show that you really, really liked. 

It creates a very bittersweet emotion. You're so invested in what happens and how it's going to wrap everything up, while at the same time you are dreading the end. 

This just happened for TigerBlog, who finished the 67-episode run of an Australian show called "A Place To Call Home." It definitely has "Downton Abbey" vibes to it, with an old-money aristocratic family clinging to its estate (Ash Park, in this case) while the world around all of them changes. 

This show is set in the 1950s and mixes in some pretty intense themes, with the main character of the show a Holocaust survivor, several members of the local community still working through their own traumas and a gay community at a time when it was illegal.

It also has one of the absolute most villainous characters you'll ever see in any movie or show (and hopefully not in real life). Her name is Regina, and unlike TB's late, great Aunt Regina, she is not sweet and loving in any way. 

TB watched the first two seasons on BritBox, home of most of the TV shows he watches. This time, though, the show was first cancelled after its second season, and Season 2 ended with all of the loose ends tied up. And then? 

It was picked up by a different network, which first filmed a different ending to Season 2 and then had four more seasons after that. TB had to subscribe to Acorn TV to watch the rest, but it was worth it. 

So now what to watch? Well, he'll find something on BritBox or Acorn. He always does. 

Of course, with 10 players from England on the Princeton field hockey team, TB has a front-row seat to something of a British reality show. The episode this past Friday was a great one. 

The Tigers played six of their first seven games this year at their own place to call home — Bedford Field — but they are now in a stretch of four straight road games. It began with a 2-1 win at Maryland two Sundays ago and then continued with another 2-1 win, this one at Yale Friday night.

Up next will be an interesting road trip, with a bus ride to Dartmouth for a Saturday afternoon game and then a plane ride to Chicago, where a game with No. 1 Northwestern awaits Monday. 

Princeton is currently ranked eighth in the NFHCA coaches' poll and sixth in the RPI.

It's certainly a fun group to be around. Here's an example:

The team went up and back to Yale Friday, with a 5 pm start time in New Haven. The team got back onto the bus for the ride home around 7:45, or shortly after the Princeton-Columbia football game began on ESPNU.

The team would end up rolling into the Caldwell parking lot (the place it calls home) around the time the game ended. In between, TB sat in the third row of the bus with the game on his laptop, while a large group of the players gathered around another one in the back of the bus. 

From his seat, TB could hear a mixture of English accents who were asking questions about the rules of football and American accents who were explaining. One of the highlights came after a fair catch on a punt, which led to this actual exchange:

English accent: Why didn't they tackle him on that punt?
American accent: Well, if you know you're going to get tackled right away, you can raise your hand and then they can't hit you if you catch the ball.
English accent: Whose idea was that? 

It was like that for pretty much the entire ride back. At one point, TB asked one of the English players if she liked American football, and she said that it moved too slowly for her. She also added that her family consists of big rugby fans. 

The P.S. of the story is that TB ran into Princeton head football coach Bob Surace Monday and told him the story. Surace's response: "That's okay. I don't know the rules to field hockey either."

Well played, Coach Surace.  

Staying Current

Okay, kids, how many of you can identify this? 

And for the rest of you, when was the last time you used one?  

This little bit from the Museum of Used To Everywhere But It's Shocking To See One These Days was known as a "pay phone." When TigerBlog was a kid, you would put a dime into that little slot on the top left, and you'd be able to make a telephone call. 

Eventually, that went up to a quarter. And then came the calling cards, which allowed you to dial a 16-digit number and then the number you wanted to call and have the call billed to your account.  

Somehow, TB and everyone in his age range and a few decades younger managed to get all the way through childhood without being tethered to a cell phone at all times. You can argue, correctly, that smartphones have made significantly positive contributions to society, and you can also argue, correctly, the opposite. 

When TB sees a pay phone, it takes him back to when he was covering high school sports and would have to call in to the newsroom if there was a looming deadline. He'd actually have to dictate his story to someone on the copy desk, and if you've never tried doing that off the top of your head, it's not easy at all. 

Jadwin Gym used to have, if TB is remembering correctly, four pay phones, two on each side of the lobby. There were also these things called "phone booths;" if you don't know what that was, look it up. 

Ah, those were the days. And with that bit of nostalgia, TB segues into some current events. 

Speaking of which, currently the Princeton men's soccer team is still the No. 1 team in the RPI. That's No. 1 in the entire country. 

Here's a question for you: How many of the top 11 teams in the current RPI are from Power 4 conferences? If you said "three," you'd be correct: No. 2 Virginia, No. 7 Stanford and No. 8 Indiana. There's a bit of an asterisk there, since West Virginia is No. 5, but it competes in the Sun Belt in men's soccer.

The rest of the top 11 has No. 3 Vermont (America East), No. 4 Bryant (America East), No. 6 High Point (Big South), No. 9 Portland (Big West), No. 10 San Diego (Big West) and No. 11 Georgia Southern (Sun Belt). That's pretty fascinating. 

As an aside, Princeton will host Bryant on Tuesday, Oct. 21.  

Princeton improved to 8-1-0 with a 1-0 win over Brown at home Saturday, a shutout that earned Tiger goalkeeper Andrew Samuels his third straight Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week Award. Samuels and his Princeton defensive teammates have allowed only three goals all season.

Next up is Cornell, who is 7-1-0 overall and the only other 2-0-0 Ivy team besides Princeton. That game will be Saturday at 4 in Ithaca.

The world of Princeton Athletic current events also includes Pru Lindsey of the field hockey team, who was named the Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Week. Lindsey scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the Tigers' 2-1 win at Yale Friday night in the team's only game last week. 

Lindsey's goal was her first of the year, and it also ended up on SportsCenter as the No. 9 Play of the Day Saturday morning. That's pretty good stuff for the sophomore from Nantwich, England (her hometown defies today's theme as it dates back to the Roman era).

Princeton is at Dartmouth Saturday and then Northwestern Monday. Princeton is currently No. 6 in Division I RPI, while Northwestern, the defending NCAA champ, is No. 3 (though unbeaten at 10-0).

Another current note: Princeton freshman Josh Robinson was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week after his four-catch, 73-yard effort in the Tigers' 17-10 win over Columbia in its Ivy League opener. Robinson had two catches in the first two games combined. 

If you watched the game, you certainly wondered who No. 86 was. Turns out it was Robinson, who came to Princeton from Tampa, Fla., and Carrollwood Day School, whom he helped to three district titles while also running track.

Princeton will host No. 25 Mercer Saturday at noon.  

What's Your Pick?

The No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams in the AP preseason college football poll are no longer ranked. 

That would be Texas and Penn State by the way. When is the last time neither of those two was ranked?

Penn State nine days ago was unbeaten and thinking national championship. Then the Nittany Lions lost 30-24 in two OTs to unbeaten Oregon, at home. Okay, Oregon is a legit national championship contender. 

What followed was shocking. Penn State flew across the country to take on a winless UCLA team, one that had just fired its head coach and was in complete chaos. And what happened? 

UCLA 42, Penn State 37. 

Congratulations go out to TigerBlog's colleague Andrew Borders, a proud UCLA alum. 

Meanwhile, the Arch-Manning-will-roll-to-the-Heisman-and-No.-1-pick thing has ground to a halt as well. Manning hasn't been bad, not by any means. He just hasn't been otherworldly. Or maybe the expectations have been too insane. 

Manning, in his first full year as a starter, has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,151 yards, with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. Is that good? Is that good enough? 

Ah, college football. Do you know who is ranked fourth? That would be Ole Miss, which has had a few other Mannings as quarterback through the years. 

As for Princeton Football, the Tigers opened their Ivy League schedule Friday night with a 17-10 win over Columbia on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. Columbia led 10-0 after the first quarter before the Tiger defense clamped down. 

Columbia had 147 yards in the first quarter and then 168 for the next three quarters combined. That's an average of 56 yards per quarter for the last three. 

Here is Columbia's drive chart: 

FG, TD, punt, interception, interception, half, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, end of game

That's great defense. And it's the two interceptions that TigerBlog would like to mention now.  

One of those two picks is probably the greatest single interception TigerBlog has seen from a Princeton defender. It was perfectly timed, wildly athletic, momentum swinging and pretty much any other superlative you want to mention. 

The only problem is TB isn't sure which one he thinks it was. 

There was the Marco Scarano interception, the one where he came over the top of a Columbia receiver to steal the ball, without committing pass interference in the process. That play made SportsCenter's top 10 plays of the day.

Yes, but then there was the one from A.J. Pigford. This one came after the Tigers, still down 10-0, had come up short on a fourth-down play at the Columbia 2 with three minutes to go in the first half. The Lions then got a first down, so it was looking all the world like at worst it would be a 10-0 game at the break.

Instead, Columbia attempted a pass that was thrown from its end zone, and Pigford timed it perfectly, tipping it and then diving to control it at the 1. Asher Weiner punched it in two plays later, and it shockingly it was 10-7.

It stayed that way into the fourth quarter before Ethan Clark finished an eight-play, 71-yard drive with a two-yard run and Estaban Nunez Perez kicked a 38-yard field goal. 

Princeton receivers Josh Robinson (four catches, 73 yards), Roman Laurio (two catches, 67 yards) and  Paul Kuhner (one catch, 51 yards) all made huge contributions as the Tigers again went with their two-quarterback rotation. 

If you add up those three totals, you get seven catches for 191 yards. If you add up their three career totals prior to the game Friday night, you get eight catches for 95 yards. 

Right now, every Ivy team has played three games, with two non-league games and one league game. Your four 1-0 Ivy teams are Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Penn. 

Next up for Princeton is a tough one, at home against nationally ranked Mercer. The Bears are 4-1-something, after starting the season with a game that was halted in the fourth quarter due to weather and therefore counted as a no-game, a loss to Presbyterian and now four straight wins. 

The most recent was this past Saturday's 45-21 win over Samford. 

Kickoff Saturday on Powers Field will be at noon.