Dartmouth Among Top 20 in Both Final FCS Polls

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth Big Green football team found itself in the top 20 of both of the final Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) polls conducted by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and STATS. The AFCA ranked Dartmouth 15th overall — the program's highest ranking since the Division I split in 1978 — while STATS had the Big Green listed at No. 18.

This is the first time since Dartmouth earned a share of the Ivy League title in 2015 that it has been ranked in the final polls. The Big Green finished the 2018 campaign with a 9-1 overall record and 6-1 mark in the Ivy League, placing second in the conference behind Princeton, which went undefeated to earn a top-10 ranking in both polls (ninth in AFCA, 10th in STATS).

Dartmouth boasted one of the best defenses in the country, allowing the second-fewest points (12.0) and rushing yards (79.7) per game, and fourth-fewest total yards (280.4), while recording the second-best turnover margin average (1.8).

The Big Green offense was nearly as stout, ranking among the top 20 in scoring (34.0 points per game, 17th), rushing yards (254.7, 11th), 3rd and 4th down conversion percentage (17th and fourth, respectively), completion percentage (67.0, third) and passing efficiency (156.60, eighth).

The defense was led by consensus All-American and winner of the Ivy League's Bushnell Cup as the defensive MVP, junior cornerback Isiah Swann, who led the country with nine interceptions and ranked second in passes defended per game (1.8). Dartmouth also had All-Americans on both the offensive line (senior Matt Kaskey) and defensive line (senior Rocco Di Leo), each of whom was named to the Division I All-New England Team along with senior linebacker Jack Traynor. No less than 17 Big Green players received All-Ivy honors, eight on the first team.

North Dakota State, which won its seventh FCS championship game in the last eight years, was the unanimous choice atop the rankings in both polls. The Ivy League last had two teams in the final national rankings in 2015 when Harvard was 20th in both polls and Dartmouth was 23rd by STATS and 24th by the coaches, but had never had two teams place in the top 20 in one season until this year. This is the fourth time since the Division I split that the Big Green have ended the season in a national poll — 1990 (17th), 1996 (17th), 2015 and 2018.

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