SIDEBAR: H-Y-P Rivals Stay Atop the Ivies

The Ivy League title picture was cleared up considerably on Saturday, and Harvard fans had to be disappointed with what they saw.

The Crimson took care of business, dispatching of last-place Columbia 24-7 despite a sloppy, penalty-filled outing.

But Harvard got no help from its fellow Ivy leaders, who both pulled out close Ancient Eight wins. Yale got 10 fourth-quarter points, including a 3-yard Mike McLeod touchdown plunge, to earn a come-from-behind victory over Brown in Providence, maintaining the Eli’s perfect Ivy record and first-place position.

Princeton, meanwhile, needed two overtimes to settle its battle with Penn. After the Quakers stormed from behind with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to force overtime, the Tigers prevailed 31-30 after an improvised fourth-down touchdown play and a botched snap on a Penn extra point. Consequently, Princeton preserves its second-place tie with Harvard and keeps its hopes alive for a share of the Ivy championship.

Only one scenario remains whereby Harvard could win the Ivy title outright. Princeton and Yale face off next weekend in New Haven with first place on the line. If the Tigers defeat the Bulldogs, the Crimson would need wins over Penn and Yale in their remaining two games, coupled with a Princeton loss to lowly Dartmouth in the season’s final week, to earn the championship outright.

Of course, Harvard would guarantee itself a share of the title with wins in its remaining two games, but that’s a more daunting task than it might appear.

Penn currently sits at 4-4 overall with a 2-3 league mark, but the Quakers have lost three consecutive overtime contests against Brown, Yale, and Princeton to reach that mark.

“When [Murphy and his staff] came into the league in the season of 1994, they had been on an unbelievable run,” coach Tim Murphy said.

“They’re a dangerous team, they’re a very good football team, and if we don’t play extremely well—if we make mistakes—we’ll get beat,” he added.

Harvard has seen title dreams ruined at Franklin Field before, a field that has been extremely unfriendly to Crimson teams. In 2002, with ESPN’s College Gameday in town, Harvard fell hard to a Penn team in a de facto championship game.

The Crimson did bounce back two years later, clinching the Ivy title with a 31-10 win in 2004 that also marked the first time Harvard had won in Philadelphia since 1980.

But, as Penn’s struggles this season indicate, the league has changed significantly in the last decade.

“Penn is not the same Penn they were ten years ago,” Murphy said.

“There’s a lot more parity in our league.”

That parity has been evident throughout the season. Only three teams have lived up to preseason expectations. Harvard, picked first, continues to be near the top, and Columbia and Dartmouth, picked last and next-to-last, respectively, are exactly where predicted. But first-place Yale was predicted to finish fifth (despite getting a pair of first-place votes) and Princeton was chosen sixth.

Penn, the second-place pick, would be in that position except for the three overtime losses, and Brown, the third-place selection, has floundered since the graduation of star running back Nick Hartigan ’06, staggering to a 2-3 record.

But the parity of the league is creating increasingly complicated title races. Just two weeks ago, Princeton appeared in charge of its own destiny after defeating Harvard. The following week, the Tigers fell to then 2-4 Cornell in Ithaca, leaving Yale as the only team with its chances of an outright Ivy title firmly in its own hands.

But everyone understands that each week is a survival contest. A road win in Philadelphia is the next step toward a championship, regardless of the other league outcomes. Perhaps senior running back Clifton Dawson put it best:

“After I’m done, I’ll look back and I’ll assess my career from an individual standpoint,” he said, “and hopefully it will be with a championship ring.”

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.