COLUMN: Four-way tie would leave title unsettled

From Jed Walentas's "Two Minute Warning," Fall '95 Four games remain in a season that has given Ivy League football fans everything from the sublime to the ridiculous. It's been an exciting campaign -- Columbia emerged as a legitimate contender before its season shattered, along with quarterback Mike Cavanaugh's leg, at the hands of the Princeton defense. It saw the Tigers exact revenge against the Quakers in this year's Game of the Century chapter at Franklin Field. Brown, a preseason contender in many Swamis' eyes, has proven once and for all that the Bears will always be a pretender. The likes of Miles Macik and Dave Patterson have etched their names in record books for years to come. But with all the great games and fantastic individual performances, the season could, and probably will, end in limbo -- leaving both fans and players looking for a more befitting conclusion. The problem, or at least potential problem, is a shared Ivy championship. If Princeton and Cornell both win road games Saturday, those two teams will share the Ivy title with superb 6-1 records. Princeton won the head-to-head showdown by a 24-22 margin way back in week one. But that contest was at Old Nassau and it was played two months ago -- hardly a contest that should determine the league champion. But the wise bureaucrats at the Ivy League office are aware of that. That's why there is currently no tiebreaker to settle title disputes. Ivy League championships are shared in the event of a tie -- and that event has occurred 15 times in the Ancient Eight's 39-year history. On three occasions, a trio of teams earned a share of the title, the last coming in 1982 when Penn, Dartmouth and Harvard all finished 5-2. In this, the 40th season of gridiron play at New England's prestigious academic institutions, the possibility for the unprecedented exists. If Penn and Dartmouth, who are both sitting at 4-2 in league play, knock off the Ivy leaders on their respective home turfs Saturday, four Ivy League teams will finish at 5-2 and each school will earn a quarter of the Ivy title. Exactly one half of the Ancient Eight's students will be able to claim their school is the champion. Therein lies the problem. Anything shared by half the league is not of championship calibre. It's mediocrity. The rest of the Ivies will finish the season a combined 8-20, with only a pair of wins against the elite four -- Columbia's shocking victory over Penn and Yale's even more surprising triumph over Princeton. So, the top four teams don't deserve a whole lot for beating up on the league's four weak sisters. With a four-team tie, there are no viable tiebreakers that could be used to fairly and accurately determine a team worthy of being champion. Head to head breakdowns become circular. Points scored and allowed is not a valid measure of excellence, and introducing a points differential system as a tiebreaker simply encourages dominant programs to run up the score. The final solution is a playoff. But there is no playoff in the Ivy League for the same reason the Ivies do not participate in the Division I-AA playoffs -- academics. The powers that be in the Ancient Eight feel the football season is long enough. Final exams approach rapidly after Thanksgiving, and who really wants to travel to Idaho for a playoff anyway? Those are all valid points. The reality is that there is no system to determine a single Ivy League champion because nobody in a position to change the system cares. The Ivy League presidents don't understand the feeling of compromise and emptiness that players, coaches and fans will feel after a four-way tie. No one with any passion for Ivy League football will be satisfied. Those four Ivy presidents who will be able to claim their school champion will be ecstatic, though. Have no doubts they'll mention the accomplishment to commence the next meeting of trustees, to draw applause at the New York alumni luncheon and to drape all over the new marketing brochures. Bravo.