Rivalry Weekend

This is a big rivalry weekend with Cortland State at Ithaca College on Saturday and the Cleveland Browns visiting the Steelers on Sunday. I’ll start with the 49th Cortaca Jug game, although there have actually been 65 games in the series (Ithaca leads 36-26-3). Both teams enter with 7-2 records and the winner has an outside chance at making the Division III playoffs, even though no 8-2 teams earned an at-large bid in 2006 and the D3football.com playoff projections fail to include either team. I’ve got several links for this game so here we go:

* The Ithacan explains how the Bombers can make the postseason.
*Cortland Game Notes
*The Ithaca Journal’s preview #1 and #2
*To the fans, stay safe out there. (Seriously, don’t drink and drive; plus, there are usually checkpoints set up between Ithaca and Cortland.)

After the Steelers crushed Cleveland in week one, I wrote that the rivalry between the two teams was over. I’m not ready to retract what I wrote, but Sunday’s game may decide the AFC North division winner. If the Browns do manage to win the game, the rivalry is back. I’ll be live at Heinz Field on Sunday, though not live-blogging, but I’ll try to share notes about the game.