Ivy slate takes over for football

For the first time this season, the Ivy League’s eight teams will square off against each other rather than taking on non-Ivy opponents.

While a clear hierarchy may seem to have emerged on the stat sheet, differences in the teams’ nonconference schedules mean that win-loss records could be deceiving.

Penn (4-1, 2-0 Ivy), for example, will match up against a Yale team on Saturday that has the exact same record. Yet Penn’s sole loss of the season came to then-No. 1 Villanova, while Yale suffered a three-point loss to Albany, a team which currently sits 81 spots lower in the Sagarin ratings than Villanova.

Given the disparity in strengths of schedules at this point in the season, there is reason to expect some shuffling of the Ivy leaderboard this weekend. With that in mind, here’s a quick look at this weekend’s Ivy slate:

Dartmouth (3-2, 0-0) at Columbia (3-2, 1-1)

Dartmouth showed a surprising amount of pluck at the beginning of the fall, opening its season with consecutive victories for the first time in 13 years.

But the Big Green’s Ivy campaign has been comparatively disappointing. While the team currently has the highest scoring offense in the league at 27.8 points per game, Dartmouth has struggled to convert its statistical dominance into a victory.

In both of their Ivy games this season, the Big Green kept its opponents within reach — they forced Penn into overtime and tied Yale with six minutes left — only to watch wins slip away due to poor defensive performances.

The Big Green’s passing defense, currently the worst in the Ivy League, will face a strong challenge from a Columbia squad that has the conference’s highest pass efficiency.

But the Lions’ defense, which struggled against Penn’s running game, will again face the challenge of a strong on-the-ground offense from Dartmouth, whose running back, Nick Schwieger, leads the League in rushing yards.

Brown (3-2, 2-0) at Cornell (1-4, 0-2)

After three straight road games, Brown returns to Providence, R.I., tied for first in the Ancient Eight.

Though the road stand began with two losses, the Bears reversed their fate last weekend, taking a 17-13 victory in Princeton, N.J. Their other Ivy victory came from a 29-14 upset of preseason favorite Harvard.

Sitting at the bottom of the League in both offense and defense, Cornell should not pose too much of a challenge. Under the direction of first-year coach Kent Austin, the Big Red have been trounced in all four of their losses this season — including routs by Yale and Harvard who won by a combined 28 points.

Harvard (3-2, 1-1) at Princeton (1-4, 0-2)

After being selected as the Ivy preseason favorite, Harvard’s first conference game can only be described as disappointing. The Crimson surrendered 23 points to Brown before even getting on the board.

Since then, things have picked up — Harvard won its next two games against Lafayette and Cornell by 25 and 17 points respectively. As a result, the Crimson are now ranked second in scoring offense and are tied for first with Penn in sacks.

Princeton, meanwhile, appears to be having a transitional year under new coach Bob Surace. The Tigers currently rank last in the conference for scoring defense and second-to-last in scoring offense.

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