Ivy Champs, Again

TigerBlog thought that, as usual, the commercials during the Super Bowl were simply trying too hard. 

It's almost like the formula is "get someone famous, pay them a lot of money, spend more money on production, have almost no money left over for actual intelligent writing." The overwhelming majority of them were simply not funny. They also didn't do a great job of getting the product to stand out.

Having said that, there was one that was outstanding. It was the Dunkin' Donuts commercial with Ben Affleck. Now THIS is clever and creative.

Other than that, nothing really stood out. 

TB doesn't get it. Do they sit around the boardroom and say "Yes!!! Perfect. That's $10 million well spent?" 

Of course, the chase for Super Bowl commercial greatness stems from this one, which simply changed everything about commercials, not to mention basically the whole world and all.

That commercial is untouchable forever. It's like the "Miracle on Ice" of commercials.

If you asked TB what the second-best one he's seen during a Super Bowl is, he'd go with this one:

That Nissan commercial was from 1996. In other words, it's been more than a quarter-century of bad Super Bowl commercials.

As for the game, as TB said yesterday, it ended in a horrible way. Unless the defensive player has prevented a sure touchdown, then you can't make that call at that point of a Super Bowl. Let Kansas City kick the field goal and then see what the Eagles can do. Everyone was cheated.

Also, can the NFL figure out what's a catch and what's not a catch? How hard is that? In what world was the DeVonta Smith play not an actual reception.

Oh, and if the NFL is going to have replay work the way it does, then it has to be able to blow the play dead for a challenge if the offense rushes to the line. 

TB read a story yesterday that mentioned that Kevin Burkhardt (who is very good) was only the 12th play-by-play announcer for the lead American broadcast of a Super Bowl. Can you name the other 11? TB has them at the end.

Shortly before kickoff for the Super Bowl Sunday, the Ivy League fencing round robins were ending at Cornell. This is a great event, with all of the men's and women's teams in one place for two days of competition.

As expected, the Princeton women rolled to the league championship, going a perfect 6-0 over the two days. The Tigers had their last bout against Columbia, who was also unbeaten coming in; the result was a 20-7 Princeton win.

The men finished third, going 2-2. Harvard won the championship, one game ahead of Columbia. Those three, by the way, are the top three teams in the national rankings as well.

For more on the men's and women's results, click HERE.

As was the case in Ivy League men's and women's squash, no men's or women's fencing team lost to a team it finished ahead of or beat a team it finished behind. There was a clear, clear distribution of who was where. 

The Princeton women have now won two straight Ivy titles, not to mention nine of the last 13. Princeton also had two weapon winners, Maia Weintraub in the foil and Hadley Husisian in the epee (Weintraub, a sophomore, was the NCAA foil champ a year ago). 

Tristan Szapary, a junior, was the men's epee individual winner.

Head coach Zoltan Dudas continues to put together an amazing career at Princeton, as he now has won 13 league titles between the men and women in his 17 years at Princeton. His team has never finished out of the Top 10 nationally at the combined NCAA championships, and he has had eight top four finishes, including the 2013 NCAA title.

The NCAA regionals will be held in Haverford, Pa., on Saturday, March 11, because sure, why not, everything else is happening on that day, including three Ivy League tournament basketball games at Jadwin Gym. The NCAA championships will be held at Duke March 23-26.

The answer to the question about Super Bowl announcers:

Burkhardt, Ray Scott, Curt Gowdy, Pat Summerall, Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, Jack Buck, Joe Buck, Greg Gumbel, Dick Enberg, Frank Gifford and Jack Whitaker. Another way of putting that is "Pat Summerall and 11 other guys."

Lastly, Happy Valentine's Day everyone.