AROUND THE IVIES: Football Picks for Last Ivy Weekend

It is no secret that I and countless others have roundly criticized the Ivy League for prohibiting its football teams from entering the NCAA Division 1-AA playoffs.

Ivy squads consistently appear in the national rankings, and I believe that fans and players alike would have no problem extending the season a few more weeks to give the teams they support and play for the opportunity to prove their mettle against the top competition in the country.

But while this unfair and archaic rule deprives the Ancient Eight of the chance to attain the national prominence and respect it deserves, it also allows for the existence of a phenomenon that’s uniqueness and importance is derived from the abrupt termination of Ivy play after the tenth week of the season: The Game.

Sure, even if the Ivies were allowed into the 1-AA playoffs, Harvard and Yale would still play against one another in the final week of the regular season. There would still be a rivalry, and people would still get excited.

But the level of intensity surrounding the contest would be too contingent on where its participants are positioned in the Ivy League standings and what each team has to lose.

Could you imagine either the Crimson or the Bulldogs, already having secured a spot in the postseason, resting its starters and mailing it in because more important competition lies ahead of it?

The beauty of The Game lies in its finality, its all-or-nothing nature.

Yes, the outcome of this year’s matchup between Harvard and Yale will affect who wins the Ivy title.

But the squads will play as hard tomorrow as they would have if both teams were stuck in the Ancient Eight basement.

There will be no apprehension about potential injuries tomorrow, no looking ahead towards the next, more important opponent. There will only be a single, 60-minute football game which will end with hopes and dreams strewn alongside blood and sweat, and the satisfaction that, win or lose, each team brought everything it had left out on to the field and took nothing back with it into the locker room.

DARTMOUTH (0-9, 0-6 Ivy) AT PRINCETON (2-4, 3-6 Ivy)

I’ve got nothing left.

In general, I consider myself an optimist. Really, I do. But this Dartmouth team, in all its absurd awfulness, has rocked my faith in humanity and in the Hobbesian principle that the first law of human nature is self-interest.

What kind of masochistic satisfaction does the Big Green get out of being continuously pummeled, week after week?

I’d like to reassure you Dartmouth, by telling you that it’s almost over. But honestly, I’m starting to think you enjoy it.

Prediction: Princeton 28, Dartmouth 10

PENN (5-4, 4-2 Ivy) AT

CORNELL (4-5, 2-4 Ivy)

It’s highly unlikely that Penn will wind up with a piece of the Ivy League championship, but this Quakers team deserves credit for staying in the race despite significant disadvantages in athleticism and playmaking ability when compared to more flashy teams like Harvard and Brown.

Had a play or two gone the other way for Penn this season, the Quakers may very well have gritted out their first Ivy title since 2003.

Prediction: Penn 17, Cornell 13

COLUMBIA (2-7, 2-4 Ivy) AT

BROWN (6-3, 5-1 Ivy)

I am making the following pick for two reasons.

First, because, journalist or not, I am a Harvard fan and this is an opinion column, so I take full license in expressing my blind hope that Brown will lose and the Crimson will take sole possession of the Ivy League championship.

Second, because I was wrong about Columbia. In my first Around the Ivies column, I wasted perfectly good insults, such as calling the Lions “the court jester of the Ivy League,” that would have been much better used on Dartmouth. Columbia has a fearsome defense, and if it can maintain that part of its game and pick up a star or two on offense, the Ancient Eight will be wise not to take the Lions lightly next season.

Prediction: Columbia 13, Brown 10

HARVARD (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) VS.

YALE (6-3, 4-2 Ivy)

This game is being amply previewed in The Crimson’s Harvard-Yale Supplement, so instead let me make a few more picks while I still have this space.

Ivy League Player of the Year: Chris Pizzotti, QB, Harvard

Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year: Lou Miller, DE, Columbia

Ivy League Rookie of the Year: Matt Hanson, CB, Harvard

The Game: Harvard 27, Yale 21

Last Week’s Record: 4-0

Record to Date: 29-11

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.