What Do You Say to a Four-Way Tie?

There is really nothing like it. The two-month build-up, the great expectations, the 48 hours of non-stop action. When it's over, the letdown is tremendous, but that's to be expected. This is Yale weekend. This is THE WEEKEND.

And, lost in the revelry of party upon party, tailgate upon tailgate, reunion upon reunion, is the fact that this is also the weekend that the Ivy League title will be decided.

Yale, the home team, is in the driver's seat with a one-game advantage over three contenders.

Harvard, one of the contenders. Harvard, the leader three weeks ago, the underdog Saturday. Harvard, psyched out of its mind, ready to defy the oddsmakers who made the Crimson a ten-point underdog, ready to make up for last year's 21-7 loss inflicted upon it by these same Elis at the Stadium.

For sure, Harvard is the people's choice, not to mention that of Dartmouth, Brown and anyone else who gets into four-way ties for championships. The Big Green and the Bruins are currently deadlocked with the Crimson for second place; a Harvard win combined with Dartmouth and Brown triumphs (against Penn and Columbia, respectively) and seven weeks of Ivy football will have produced an unprecedented stand off.

If the Crimson isn't ready to play tomorrow in front of a packed crowd of 70,000 lunatics in New Haven, it never will be. There's last year to consider. There's the fact that Yale is favored. There's the fact this is Yale.

Those who have installed the Elis as a more-than-one-touchdown favorite should not be accused of ignorance, however. Mentally, Yale will also be psyched. Undisputed title opportunities tend to do that to people. Psyched

Physically, the Elis are superior. They're more experienced, they have a 6-2 record and their halfback is John Pagliaro, who has rushed for 987 yards already this season, or a mere 77 less than Harvard's entire team.

What the bookies can't control, though, is the tradition that surrounds this game, a tradition that basically negates the first two months of the season. It also negates the point-spread.

And, as if the fact that this is THE GAME weren't enough to confound those who hope to win some money on its outcome, there is also the reality that the 1977 Harvard football squad is no easy matter to figure out.

The last month, in fact, has been like a sandwich with fresh rolls and leftover salami The Dartmouth game was immense. The Penn performance was awesome enough. In between, the Princeton and Brown contests were farces. In particular, the Princeton fiasco, where only an adequate performance was needed for Harvard to be fighting for sole possession of the title tomorrow.

But such is life in the Ivies, where unpredictability is a virtue and the Harvard-Yale game is the summit.

Unpredictable

Even then, you can rest assured that there was really nothing like it. The two-month build-up, the great expectations, the 48 hours of non-stop action. When it was over, the letdown was tremendous, but that was to be expected. It was Yale weekend. It was, and still is, THE WEEKEND.

Physically, the Elis are superior. They're more experienced, they have a 6-2 record and their halfback is John Pagliaro, who has rushed for 987 yards already this season, or a mere 77 less than Harvard's entire team.

What the bookies can't control, though, is the tradition that surrounds this game, a tradition that basically negates the first two months of the season. It also negates the point-spread.

And, as if the fact that this is THE GAME weren't enough to confound those who hope to win some money on its outcome, there is also the reality that the 1977 Harvard football squad is no easy matter to figure out.

The last month, in fact, has been like a sandwich with fresh rolls and leftover salami The Dartmouth game was immense. The Penn performance was awesome enough. In between, the Princeton and Brown contests were farces. In particular, the Princeton fiasco, where only an adequate performance was needed for Harvard to be fighting for sole possession of the title tomorrow.

But such is life in the Ivies, where unpredictability is a virtue and the Harvard-Yale game is the summit.

Unpredictable

Even then, you can rest assured that there was really nothing like it. The two-month build-up, the great expectations, the 48 hours of non-stop action. When it was over, the letdown was tremendous, but that was to be expected. It was Yale weekend. It was, and still is, THE WEEKEND.