There is a suggestion in the latest The Sports Network column that the Dartmouth-Harvard contest could be an elimination game because both teams are 2-1.
While I've been known to suggest pretty strongly that two losses is pretty much the death knell in the Ivy League race each fall, I'm not quite as sure that Saturday's loser will be finished.
Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League but it still has a game Saturday at Cornell (where the Big Red is unbeaten this fall and will be tough), a border-war contest with a Penn team that has had the Tigers' number in recent years, a traditional dogfight at Yale, and Dartmouth. Should Dartmouth fall Saturday it would need Princeton to lose only one of Cornell, Penn and Yale because the Big Green closes out the season with the Tigers.
Should Harvard win Saturday the Crimson would be a tougher problem for a two-loss Big Green's title hopes. Harvard's final three games are home against Columbia, at Penn and home against Yale. The Crimson will be huge favorites against Columbia and Yale, although The Game has been known to occasionally surprise. The best chance for a second Harvard loss would probably be at Penn, which will not have the kind of letdown against the Crimson that it had last week against Yale.
So two losses could actually win it this year. At least that's the way it looks from here. Your mileage may vary.
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Oh yeah, the TSN column picks Harvard to defeat Dartmouth.TSN's picks involving Ivy teams and Dartmouth opponents:
Cornell over Princeton
Yale over Columbia
Brown over Penn
Fordham over Holy Cross
Albany over Sacred Heart
Butler over Davidson
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Harvard's game notes for Saturday are available here.
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The Ivy League's weekly release is available here.
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Columbia coach Pete Mangurian has a few comments about the Dartmouth game in his review/preview on the Columbia website.
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The periodic Sacred Heart school newspaper website now has a report on the Pioneer win over Dartmouth. If you are curious what they have to say, find out here.
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Princeton's stunning win over Harvard has caught the attention of a lot of disparate writers. A subscriber has shared a link to a column on the conservative news website Townhall under the headline, Football as it Was Meant to Be.