Year in and year out, Ivy League football has offered one of the best bets in college sports.
Empty your savings account, find a bookie (try Mather House) and lay greenbacks on the following:
The Columbia Lions will not win the Ancient Eight crown.
Don't pay attention to Columbia alumni. The Lions have only captured the title once in the last 45 years. And that ought to tide them over for the next 45.
In fact, The Lions will probably finish last, repeating last year's 1-6 finish.
The only other candidate to knock the Lions out of the basement is Brown, where Coach Mickey Kwiatkowski's innovative Spread-T Flex offense will be crippled because nobody will know how it works.
The Bears return a total of five starters on both sides of the ball.
The Lions and Bears will jockey all season long for the privilege of being listed at the bottom of the standings.
That's the easy call. The hard calls are at the top.
But it looks like Princeton, which returns nine offensive starters and seven defensive starters from a squad that went 5-2 and finished second, is the team to beat.
Despite the loss of Chad Roghair, the leading passer in the Ancient Eight last year, the Tigers are the prohibitive favorite to win the Ivy League title.
If Dartmouth, last year's title winner, or Harvard, which finished third, can plug critical holes in their defenses, they could give the Tigers a run, especially if Princeton's quarterback problem doesn't solve itself.
The remaining teams--Cornell, Yale and Pennsylvania--are doomed to finish with mediocre records.
With that in mind, here is a closer look at the Crimson's Ivy contenders, in projected order of finish.
PRINCETON
Nickname: Tigers
Coach: Steve Tosches
Season: 6th
1991 Overall Record: 8-2
1991 Ivy Record: 5-2
1991 vs. Harvard: Harvard, 24-21
Series vs. Harvard: Princeton, 46-31-7
Captain: Aaron Harris
Lettermen Lost/Returning: 25/32
Players to Watch: Michael Lerch, Keith Elias Aaron Harris, Keith Ducker, Benjamin Ertischek
The Tigers would be a cinch to win the conference if it wasn't for the black hole at quarterback.
Chad Roghair threw for 11 touchdowns and only four interceptions last year, completing 61 percent of his passes for a 142.4 quarterback efficiency rating, 14th in the nation.
This year, Princeton Coach Steve Tosches says he Also in the hunt are junior Cam Scholvin (4/19,247 yards and a TD as a freshman) and sophomoresClinton Haley (35/61, 444 yards and 2 TDs as afreshman), Brett Huckelbridge and Tom McInerney.But don't expect to hear much from any of theseguys in the near future. Fortunately for Foote, the offensive linereturns four out of five starters from last year. And--most importantly--Foote will have MichaelLerch, the Ancient Eight's Jerry Rice. Lerch ledthe league in receiving yards last year with 702,averaging 20.6 yards per catch. Lerch also returnskicks an average of 23.6 yards. Almost a third ofthe Tigers' total offense came from the All-Ivyreciever. But with an inexperienced quarterback, expectCoach Steve Tosches to do more running this yearbehind tailbacks Keith Elias and Erick Hamilton,widely regarded as the best backfield in theleague. The Princeton defense is especially formidable,returning seven starters--including first teamAll-Ivy linebacker Aaron Harris--from a unit thatwas second in both scoring defense and yardageallowed in the Ivy League last year. This year, the biggest problem for them will beat free safety, where the graduation of MarvinWilliams will leave a gap in a secondary thatallowed just four passing touchdowns. On thedefensive line, Princeton graduated two playersbut is still solid with All-Ivy players at theother two positions: junior defensive end BrianKazan and junior tackle Reggi