Greetings from the Northeast Corridor.

Some good news and bad news as we head into the weekend: The good news is my feature on Rider's freshmen is in Saturday's Trentonian. The bad news is our idiot web guy -- me -- forgot to post it amid the hubbub of a high school football Friday. Since it's stuck on a page in Trenton, I'll have to post it when I get back to the office later in the morning.

That said, my plan for the day includes stopping in Lawrenceville to watch the Broncs' intrasquad scrimmage. Tommy Dempsey said the team will split up and likely play three 10-minute periods or something along those lines.

Rider's practice takes place at the same time as the Rutgers-Pitt football game, in which the Scarlet Knights are out to honor Eric LeGrand in their first game since the amiable defensive tackle was paralyzed last weekend.

(If you haven't already, click here to make a donation to RU's Eric LeGrand Believe Fund)

That will make for some juggling, but that's what netbooks are for: I should be able to follow all the football while watching the scrimmages, then get back to the office in time to wrap things up.

The Trentonian.com live chats are here for high school football and here for RU-Pitt and Princeton-Harvard.

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With a little bit of spare time on my commute, I figured now was as good a time as any to start reading up on UMass.

The Minutemen, Rider's opening-night opponent Nov. 12 at the Mullins Center, was picked 11th in the preseason A-10 poll -- a slot coach Derrick Kellog doesn't think is unjust.

UMass, Vautour writes in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (my home county's paper), may not necessarily be a better team, but the Minutemen are in better shape to begin practice.

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The Trentonian got some love in this blog post by renowned media critic Jay Rosen of NYU.

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An important programming note that I've thrown out on Twitter but not on the blog: We'll be hosting the first live chat of the season Tuesday during MAAC media day in Times Square. We'll carry the announcements of the preseason poll and preseason all-conference teams live, along with reaction from coaches and players.

I'm also wondering if anyone out there would attend a live chat next Wednesday during the Ivy League conference call -- the league's version of media day. That's when the preseason Ivy poll and all-league teams will be announced. Princeton figures to be tabbed as the league favorite, with Harvard and Cornell also in the mix.

If you'd take part in the Ivy chat, leave a comment or send me a tweet @bendoody.

That's all for now, but I'll be back later in the morning.