Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit had better get ready for a barrage of toast.
For the first time in the nine-year history of the program, ESPN College GameDay will visit a Division I-AA school when Penn faces Harvard in a battle of Ivy League unbeatens this Saturday.
The Quakers (7-1, 5-0 Ivy) and Crimson (6-2, 5-0) come into their matchup unbeaten in league play for the second straight season. Last year on this weekend, ESPN analyst Beano Cook joked to the three hosts of GameDay -- then at the Florida-South Carolina game -- that they should have been in Boston for the Penn-Harvard matchup.
Last season, both teams were 7-0 overall and 5-0 in league play coming into the contest, the last battle of unbeaten teams in the country last season. Harvard rallied to beat Penn, 28-21, last year.
The winner of this year's game will clinch at least a share of the Ivy title. Two seasons ago, 5-1 Penn topped 5-1 Harvard, 36-35, at Franklin Field and went on to win the title the next week at Cornell.
The GameDay telecast from Franklin Field is not only the first time a Division I-AA and Ivy League game will be featured on the program, but the second time that a game without National Championship implications will be featured. The only other such game was when the GameDay crew headed to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the Army-Air Force game on Nov. 3, 2001.
The Quakers and the Crimson have been the class of the Ivy League for the past few seasons. Aside from games against each other, they are 22-0 combined in league play the past two seasons.
This year, Penn has outscored its league opponents by a score of 209-64, an average win of 41.8-12.8. Harvard's games have been a bit closer, with the scoring margin only 161-97, an average of 32.2-19.4.
The Crimson are led by star wide receiver Carl Morris, one of 16 candidates up for the Walter Payton Award, given annually to the top player in Division I-AA. The Quakers have the top rushing defense in Division I, letting up only 48.5 yards on the ground per game.
The program kicks off at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
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