Brown Picked 3rd In Ivy League Preseason Football Media Poll

Providence, Rhode island -- The defending Ivy League Champion Brown football team has been picked to finish third in the 2009 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll by a vote of 17 media members - two media from each school and one national media representative.

Brown, winners of two of the last four Ivy League titles, received 106 points in finishing third in the poll, including three first place votes, behind Harvard (129 points) and Penn (117 points), and ahead of Yale (82 points), Princeton (67 points), Columbia and Cornell (44 points each), and Dartmouth (23 points).

Brown head football coach Phil Estes believes that his team will once again be in the hunt for the Ivy title with the return of 10 starters, including six All-Ivy players.

Three of Brown’s first team All-Ivy selections return to the offensive side of the ball, with senior wide receivers Buddy Farnham and Bobby Sewall back in the fold, along with senior offensive tackle Paul Jasinowski.  Both Sewall and Farnham are pre-season All-Americans.

Brown’s defense also returns three All-Ivy players, senior defensive tackle David Howard, a first team selection and preseason All-American, and second team All-Ivy honorees, senior defensive end James Develin, and senior safety Chris Perkins. The Bears will look to pick up where they left off last year with the Ivy League’s stingiest defense against the run, allowing a league best 77.1 yards per game on the ground, fourth best in the nation. Brown’s defense also allowed the fewest rushing touchdowns (3) in the nation.

2009 Ivy League Football Preseason Media Poll
1. Harvard (10) 129
2. Penn (4) 117
3. Brown (3) 106
4. Yale 82
5. Princeton 67
6. Columbia 44
Cornell 44
8. Dartmouth 23