Football Media Day

TigerBlog will get back to Ivy League football media day in a moment. 

He'll reminisce about the glory days of the event, held at a Connecticut golf course, with interviews, media, box lunches and golf. It was during one of those media day golf outings back in the 1990s when TB did something for the only time in his life and is pretty sure you never have (and he'll keep you hanging on that one).

First, though, he has to talk about the story he just read about Dickie Bush. You might remember him as the center on Princeton's 2016 Ivy League championship team who then started all 10 games as a senior the next year. 

Bush was an operations research and financial engineering major. TigerBlog has a sense of what that actually is, though he'd say the only thing he really knows about it would be that it's really hard. After graduation, Bush went to work for Black Rock in Manhattan.

These days, he's living in Tampa. He's moved on from finance and is now in the, well, it's hard to sum up the business he's in these days. It's his own company, and it has to do with writing every day. 

This isn't the kind of writing that TigerBlog does. It's actually a pretty interesting business plan. You can read about it HERE.

Ivy League media day these days consists of video conference calls with the eight head coaches, and that was what the process was yesterday. As a reminder, Princeton has been selected fifth in the Ivy League preseason media poll, for whatever that's worth. 

Here is part of what Tiger head coach Bob Surace had to say: 

NEXT MAN UP.

With a veteran core setting the tone and a next-man-up mentality across the roster, @PrincetonFTBL enters 2026 looking to turn its experience and depth into results. The Tigers open at Bryant on Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. 🌿🏈@TIAA pic.twitter.com/kTPkLFbll2

— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) August 10, 2026

There was a time when football media day was one of the highlights of the annual Ivy sports calendar. Mostly for TigerBlog, back in the 1990s, it was a race to get the football media guide done in time to have it printed and delivered to the Connecticut golf course before the first coach spoke. That was stressful.

What is that? A question from someone young? What was a "media guide?" Yeah, TB can barely remember those either. 

Of course, you couldn't risk being the one out of eight who didn't have a media guide there. That would be horrible. 

TB never missed. He did have to drive to print shops on the way to Connecticut to pick up the first 20 of them or so. And what did he have to do as soon as the football guide was finished? The men's basketball one. 

The best part of media day wasn't the questions and answers. No, it was the relationships. The Ivy League athletic communications staffs usually had an annual meeting the day before the media day, with a dinner after the meeting. 

The Q&A portion of media day was okay, but it was really the lunch and the golf outing that made these days special. It was a chance to meet up with media members, of which there were plenty, and opposing coaches. 

And wrapped around it all? The knowledge that it wouldn't be that long until football season would be there.  

And that brings TB to what he did at one of those Ivy football media days that he's guessing you never have? 

It was on the 17th tee at the Yale golf course, one of the two courses the league used for its media days, with the other Lyman Orchards. It was a Par 3, elevated tee, really humid. TB hit an 8-iron, and what happened next was a bit stunning. 

Hole in one? Nope. Close. His ball landed on the green, stopping about 10 feet from the pin.

Hole in one? Maybe. His 8-iron slid out of his hands and helicoptered majestically away from the tee box, splashing down in a lake to the left. 

TB never got the club back. He never putted for birdie or played the 18th hole. 

Have you ever done that? 

He doesn't think so.