Recapping Brown

From the Daily Dartmouth story on Saturday's game:

A 21-point third quarter was not enough to offset the three other mediocre quarters

The Brown Daily Herald writes:

Head Coach Phil Estes said he was pleased with the result.

"After two fairly devastating losses, it was a good win for us," he said. "We had started to lose confidence after the two losses and we were able to hang in there and win."

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Looking ahead to Saturday's finale at Princeton, the Daily Princetonian writes about the Tigers' narrow loss to Yale – which is still mathematically alive in the Ivy League race:

The football team may not have come out with a win against Yale, but the Tigers did prove that despite all their injuries, they can still run with the big boys in the league.

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This week's Sagarin Ratings with last week's rating and result in parentheses:

120. Penn (125 – beat Harvard)
164. Harvard (163 – lost to Penn)
174. Yale (168 – beat Princeton)
185. Brown (193 – beat Dartmouth)
196. Dartmouth (187 – lost to Brown)
208. Columbia (206 – beat Cornell)
225. Cornell (226 – lost to Columbia)
227. Princeton (231 – lost to Yale)

201. Holy Cross (200 – beat Lafayette)
212. Sacred Heart (211 – idle)
235. Bucknell (235 – lost to Colgate)

78. New Hampshire (84 – beat Villanova)
183. Colgate (183 – beat Bucknell)

(Although as someone pointed out last week, power rankings are kind of silly once you are this far into the season. The standings are the rankings that matter. ;-)

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Speaking of the standings, yesterday's Green Alert Premium included what I think is an interesting fact: Not one team in the Ivy League has a win over a team ahead of it in the current league standings. (There have been wins against teams with the same league record, but that's it.)

The standings with one week to go:

1. Pennsylvania 6-0
2. Yale 5-1
3. Brown 4-2
3. Harvard 4-2
5. Dartmouth 2-4
5. Columbia 2-4
7. Cornell 1-5
8. Princeton 0-6

The Ivy League results, in reverse order:

Princeton
Wins: None
Losses: Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Brown, Yale, Penn

Cornell
Wins: Princeton
Losses: Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Brown, Yale

Columbia
Wins: Cornell, Princeton
Losses: Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Penn

Dartmouth
Wins: Cornell, Columbia
Losses: Harvard, Brown, Yale, Penn

Harvard
Wins: Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth
Losses: Brown, Penn

Brown
Wins: Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard
Losses: Yale, Penn

Yale
Wins: Princeton, Columbia Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown
Losses: Penn

Penn
Wins: Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale
Losses: None

Keep in mind, the team with the better league record at the time of the games didn’t always win. Columbia, for example, was 1-1 in the Ivy League and Dartmouth was 0-2 when it went to New York and defeated the Lions.

If the pattern continues, Dartmouth will beat Princeton, Penn will beat Cornell and Brown will beat Columbia this week.

As for the Yale-Harvard game, that would fit the pattern no matter which team wins. If Yale wins, it will improve to 6-1, Harvard will fall to 4-3 and the team with the better record will have won. If Harvard wins, it will improve to 5-2 and Yale will be 5-2 so the game will fit in the "teams with the same record" category.

What does it all mean? Unless Princeton, Cornell or Columbia happens to win on Saturday, not one game in Ivy League play this fall will be an upset if the final standings are used as the determinant for what constitutes an upset. There can be a domino effect, however, if an "upset" occurs. For example, should Columbia win and Dartmouth lose, the Lions ( then 3-4)would have beaten Brown (then 4-3). And Dartmouth (then 2-5) would have a worse record than Columbia, but a win over the Lions.

There are other variations on the theme, but hopefully you get the idea.

(And hopefully you don't find a mistake in my reasoning ;-)