poop picks: ivy league/FCS football

we here at poop on boozer pride ourselves on staying abreast of sports and on voicing our totally non-expert opinions on everything. but, we're also not afraid to step aside and let more knowledgeable people contribute when their expertise greatly exceeds ours.

know anything about FCS football? do you even know what FCS stands for? well, for the answers to all your questions about the ivy league and what used to be division I-AA football, check out the "poop picks" from our experts below.

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MALCOM GLENN, president and former football beat writer, The Harvard Crimson


IVY LEAGUE ORDER OF FINISH: Harvard, Brown, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia. Save for a relatively green secondary (which also happens to include a preseason All-American from last season), who have the defending champs lost? The graduation of Brad Bagdis on the defensive line is met with the return of the Bryant brothers, Brenton and Desmond. The quest for the title begins and ends in Cambridge.

IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Chris Pizzotti, QB, Harvard. The guy has never lost a game he’s been able to start and finish. Barring injury, he only gets better the longer he plays, and in his fifth year in a Crimson uniform, he’ll finally get the accolades already warranted by the numbers.

IVY LEAGUE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Matthew Hanson, DB, Harvard. Head coach Tim Murphy will be looking for a guy to push some of the action in the direction of veteran cornerback Andrew Berry, and Hanson may be the most physically equipped to do that. Plus, he’s from Colorado.

IVY LEAGUE COACH OF THE YEAR: Phil Estes, Brown. A team many believed over-performed last year will do the same this year, as the other shoe finally drops on Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, paving the way for a surprising second-place showing from Estes’ Bears.

WALTER PAYTON AWARD: Mike McLeod, RB, Yale. Like Tom Brady a year ago, a foot injury in his final game and a swarming performance from an underdog defense ruined what could have been an undefeated season for the favored team’s best player. And like Brady this year, McLeod will return more motivated than ever to erase memories of last year’s conclusion. (EDITOR'S NOTE: malcom was totally unaware of brady's upcoming major knee injury when he made this analogy.)

FCS TITLE GAME: Massachusetts over Appalachian State. Losing to LSU is nothing to feel bad about, but when the Tigers’ starting quarterback is a former Ivy Leaguer, it stands to plant seeds of doubt in last year’s champion. Appalachian State will make a run at a fourth straight crown, but Massachusetts will avenge its championship loss from two years ago.

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PABLO TORRE, reporter and talking head, Sports Illustrated


IVY LEAGUE ORDER OF FINISH: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia. It's Harvard because ever since I've been following Ivy League football (e.g. since 2002), it's been Harvard. (Hooray, homerism!) I was also going to write some sentence about how I'm going to Harvard-Yale this year and want to celebrate an Ivy League title, but any causality between record and alcoholism at The Game is patently farcical.

IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Cheng Ho, RB, Harvard. Mike McLeod is the easy choice. Cheng Ho is the Asian choice. I'm allowed to say that because of my ethnicity. (I also value Chris Pizzotti's 11-1 record as a starter.)

IVY LEAGUE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Zach Wodka, OL, Dartmouth. To be completely honest, I don't know anything substantive about any impact freshmen in the Ivy League this year. I am 100% positive that Malcom does, though. (EDITOR'S NOTE: we're not sure how zach's last name is pronounced, but we are now more convinced than ever that pablo does not only write about alcoholism; he lives it.)

IVY LEAGUE COACH OF THE YEAR: Tim Murphy, Harvard. Does he still have braces? That doesn't affect my choice, I'm just wondering.

WALTER PAYTON AWARD: Armanti Edwards, QB, Appalachian State. A loss to LSU takes the wind out of his sails of invincibility (dear god, that's a terrible metaphor), but we'll be hearing about him come NFL draft season. Also, I recently interviewed him and he was very nice, but also said that he "never" drank moonshine. Hopefully the Wonderlic doesn't have a lie-detector component, Armanti.

FCS TITLE GAME: Appalachian State over North Dakota. App State picks up its fourth straight FCS title, easy. I went to the title game last year where the Mountaineers beat Delaware and Ravens starter Joe Flacco. We might look back at that game five years from now and marvel at the two QBs who played in that game. And by "we," I mean "I."