Harvard, Dartmouth, Colgate Picked

I feel like the boy who hollered "wolf."

One of the techniques of lively, though inaccurate, sports prognostication is hyperbole. Make anything you predict sound like a sure thing. If it loses, people will forget. If it wins, they won't forget--you won't let them.

The drawback of this approach comes when you have a legitimate sure thing--and such is the case today. Colgate's football team is favored over Yale by a scant six points; the Red Raiders will win by at least three touchdowns. I don't know who quotes the official football point eating cans of pork and beans for the next month because of this staggering ignorance.

Anyway, here are today's predictions:

Colgate 21 Yale 0

The Red Raiders compiled a 7-2 record last season, and have most of the personnel returning from that fine team. Last week Colgate battled Cornell to a scoreless tie, and the Big Red may well be the best team in the Ivy League. Yale, on the other hand, has nothing. The Ellis were riddled by graduation losses; they lost to Connecticut 13-6 last week. The bubonic plague would have to decimate Hamilton, N.Y., for Yale to lose by less than two touchdowns.

Dartmouth 21 Holy Cross 14

This is a tough contest to figure, and one which Harvard fans will doubtless be watching with keen interest. Dartmouth's defense is a question mark, and their 56-6 win over puny New Hampshire last week means nothing. The Holy Cross pass defense, untested against Harvard, may be week, and Holy Cross will see plenty of aerials from the Indians' Mickey Beard.

Penn 21 Brown 14

Here is the most inscrutable game of the week. Penn opened its season with a 20-14 victory over weak Lehigh, while Brown was beaten by an unusually good Rhode Island team, 14-6. The Bruins will undoubtedly be "up" for this game in order to prove themselves, but Penn has a slightly better squad with All Ivy halfback Bruce Molloy and a pair of talented sophomore quarterbacks giving them a diversified attack.

Princeton 23 Columbia 0

The Tigers, once again, are the team to beat in the Ivy League. With a tremendous line anchored by Stas Malizewski and Paul Savidge, no team--particularly inexperienced Columbia--will be able to score on them easily. And with Charley Gogolak, who booted six field goals against Lehigh, Princeton doesn't have to worry about scoring.

Cornell 28 Lehigh 0

This will be a massacre. The Big Red has a fantastic line, which includes a 300-pound monster at tackle, and the most rugged defense in the Ivy League. Lehigh lost to Penn last week. No chance of an upset here.

And just for the record: Harvard 31, Tufts 6.

LAST WEEK'S RECORD: Five right (including UConn's upset of Yale), two wrong, and one tie.