While most football fans are anticipating Sunday’s Patriots-Colts showdown, Ivy football fans in particular may have an additional high-stakes contest to look forward to in November: the 124th edition of The Game. Taking place at the Yale Bowl in three weeks, this game is developing added significance with the emergence of Yale and Harvard as the league’s only unbeaten teams.
Harvard and Yale have played each other 123 times since 1875 and it’s commonly acknowledged as one of the oldest rivalries in all of sports. Yale won on the road in 2006, snapping Harvard’s string of five in a row. There is bad blood between the two, so much so that The Game itself is probably valued more than these teams’ entire regular season records.
It has been rare of late for both participants to be enjoying strong seasons at the same time. With Dartmouth’s tough 28-21 loss to the Crimson on Saturday, every team other than the Bulldogs (4-0) and the Crimson (4-0) has at least two losses. Both leaders are in the top two in turnover margin, first downs, third down conversions, time of possession, and a slew of defensive categories. Harvard’s cumulative point differential for the season is +48 while Yale is even further ahead with a differential of +106 (first Ivy team to record two 50-point games in a single season.) The only other Ivy team to even have a positive point differential this season is Dartmouth at +9.
The next two Saturdays present each team with two winnable games before they play the unofficial Ivy League bowl. Yale will take on Brown (2-2) and Princeton (1-3), while Harvard plays Columbia (0-4) and Penn (1-3). Even if both teams lose a game before facing each other, they would still be the only ones in the running for the crown come Nov. 17.
Some might argue, however, that things aren’t so clear-cut. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column suggesting that Yale was going to be untouchable this season (kind of the like the Patriots) and deserved a post-season bid. I still strongly believe that the Ivy League should compete for an actual title, but the past two weeks have definitely reshaped my impression of the power structure within the league.
The Bulldogs barely squeaked by Penn, winning in triple-overtime 26-20 (only the second such game in Ivy history). Even if that was to be considered an anomaly in an otherwise “perfect” season, last Saturday’s performance against our Lions probably further validates the thinking that Yale may not be as good as those 50 point wins earlier this month. Columbia, with the worst rushing defense in the league (allowing 267 yards per game on ground), held the Bulldogs’ top-rated running attack (averaging 303 yards and 4 touchdowns per game) scoreless for the entire first half. That first half in itself is a victory for a struggling Columbia team, but more importantly, it gives upcoming opponents such as the Bears and the Tigers some hope in slowing down—and possibly upsetting—the favorites.
Harvard has also just slid by its recent opponents—namely, Dartmouth. The Big Green gave the Crimson a scare, tying that game at 14 each, late in the third quarter.
It boils down to four teams, including the Lions, having the opportunity to spoil the looming Harvard-Yale party. Coaches and players associated with the League have been talking about parity in Ivy football for several seasons now. How well that trend is actually materializing could very well be shown during the next two weekends of games involving the most ancient two.