It seemed almost too good to be true. As the seniors of the Harvard football team filed into Saturday’s postgame press conference, beaming from one end of the table to the other, it was easy to forget all the moments that had gotten them there. Chris Pizzotti’s brilliance in 2007, the grit of the defense in the bitter cold a year later, fourth and 22 in New Haven last season, and finally Saturday’s win.

The Crimson class of 2011 went undefeated against Yale in its career and became the first group ever to add sweeps of Princeton and Dartmouth to go 12-0. And in a season when the game meant nothing for league standings (Penn’s easy win over Cornell Saturday sealed a second straight outright title), the culmination of these dominant four years reminded everyone why this weekend has been a campus fixation for 127 years—rivalry.

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HANOVER, N.H.—We’re nearing the home stretch of the 2010 football season, and for the Ancient Eight, it’s been a tale of two leagues. At the beginning of the year, it appeared that Ivy teams were moving towards parity, with recent doormats Dartmouth and Princeton showing signs of life. But with four conference games in the books, the Ivy League has once again split into its hierarchy.

Defending champion Penn sits alone at the top, its unbeaten record intact after a 24-7 spanking of Brown. Harvard sits at the next level of the Ancient Eight pyramid, tied with Yale and the Bears at 3-1, while the lower half of the league is an exact mirror, with three more teams owning a 1-3 record and winless Princeton alone at the bottom.

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Playing a woeful team can do wonders for your stat sheet, but Harvard coach Tim Murphy knows that it does little for his team’s Ivy title prospects.

The Crimson dominated an overmatched opponent for the second week in a row, rolling over Cornell Saturday to the tune of 314 yards on the ground and 505 total, but the offensive onslaught didn’t mask some lingering problems for a banged-up football team.

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With co-captain J.P. O’Connor’s national championship victory last weekend, The Harvard Crimson has indulged in an outpouring of wrestling coverage. Or at least as the wrestling beat writer, I’ve pushed this coverage to a point bordering on creepy obsession.

But this focus is somewhat understandable. Sports writers love success stories and treasure the idea of reaching that “ultimate goal,” an achievement that only a piece of NCAA hardware or a place on a podium can make tangible.

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NEW YORK—If there has been a theme in the Ivy League this year, it has been that perseverance triumphs over talent. With projected stars such as M.A Olawale and Jordan Culbreath sidelined by injuries, Ancient Eight contests have been decided in hard-nosed fashion—by gutting it out in the trenches.

And this year, no one has battled more fiercely than Harvard.

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