It's time to talk title scenarios.
March Madness creeps closer every day and as the only Division I league without a conference tournament, the Ivy League will decide its NCAA Tournament representative in the next few days - as early as Friday but perhaps later if the stars align.
Cornell was supposed to run away with the Ivy League championship this season - just like it did a year ago when it went 14-0 in the conference.
That hasn't panned out. The Big Red are in first place but have faltered down the home stretch, losing two of their past four games. Believe it or not, Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth all now have a mathematical shot to usurp the defending champions and nab a spot in the NCAAs.
Princeton has the clearest path to the title, and neither Yale nor Dartmouth can sneak into first place unless Princeton does too. The Tigers sport a 7-4 Ivy record, 1.5 games behind Cornell's 9-3 mark. Yale and Dartmouth are two full games back at 7-5.
The Big Red host Penn Friday and Princeton Saturday, while Columbia hosts Princeton first and then Penn. The Tigers have one more game after that, a Tuesday date with Penn at the Palestra. If there is a tie for first place when the dust settles, a playoff at an undetermined location will decide who gets the NCAA autobid.
It's even possible for the Tigers to steal the title from Cornell outright, if they win their final three games and Cornell loses its final two.
Of course, the issue could be resolved by Friday night. A Big Red win and a Princeton loss would give Cornell the outright championship. If only one of those two results occur, Cornell still clinches at least a share of the title. If Penn and Princeton both win on Friday, nothing is decided.
Either way, Princeton must beat Cornell on Saturday. The Big Red clinch sole possession of the title by winning that game, regardless of anything else.
If Cornell beats Penn on Friday but Princeton wins all three of its games, the Tigers and Big Red will finish in a first-place tie, forcing a one-game playoff.
If Cornell gets swept over the weekend, Princeton can lose one of its other games (against Columbia or Penn) and still end up in a tie for first. Then things could really get hairy because in that situation, either Yale or Dartmouth - which play each other Friday - could also grab a share of the title by winning both of their weekend games. That would result in a three-team playoff.
There are a lot of "ifs," but a three-team playoff has happened before. In fact, the most recent playoff involved three teams when Penn, Princeton and Yale ended the regular season all tied for first in 2002.
The Obama connection. Former Brown coach Craig Robinson is exceeding expectations in his first year at Oregon State. He took over a program that had just gone 0-18 in the Pacific-10. This year, the Beavers are sporting a 7-9 conference mark.
He said in a radio interview with ESPN Tuesday that he had originally thought the Beavers would be "lucky" to get three conference wins all year. He later joked that he might ask his brother-in-law, who happens to be the President of the United States, to make some recruiting calls for him.
"I haven't had to use him yet, but I think I ought to petition the NCAA to see what the ruling will be on that before I do it," Robinson said.
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