FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Possible tie stirs controversy

With one shocking out of town score, Penn coach Al Bagnoli's football squad reentered the Ivy League title race. As most people are already aware, two scenarios this Saturday would leave a shared Ivy League championship for the 16th time in the league's 40-year history. One of those scenarios -- the one that involves a Quakers victory -- would create a four-way logjam at the penthouse of the Ancient Eight. If Penn and Dartmouth each win home games against Cornell and Princeton respectively, those four teams all finish 5-2 and the Ivies will have four heads wearing the crown. Should the Tigers and Big Red both win, they would share the championship with 6-1 league marks. If one but not both of those two leading contenders wins, the Ivy League will have an outright champion for the third consecutive season. The bizarre prospect of a four-way tie has raised some interesting questions about the structure of the league. The first and most obvious query is why there is no tiebreaker. The answer seems to be there is no practical reason to determine an outright champion. Unlike major college conference champions, who are slotted into New Year's Day bowl games or the NCAA Tournament in basketball, the Ivy League football champion goes home just like everybody else. "Tiebreakers exist in most instances -- even in the NFL -- to get teams into the playoffs. So, in that sense there isn't a reason to do it in football," Associate Director of the Ivy Group Chuck Yrigoyen said. The question of whether or not the Ivy champion ought to advance to the Division I-AA playoffs is one that has been greatly debated over the past several years, when the consensus was that Penn's undefeated teams could compete on a national level. The Ivy League presidents, who are responsible for making that decision, have come nowhere near to endorsing a trip to the postseason. Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky has spoken favorably of some type of postseason play for the Ivy League, although he questions whether the I-AA playoffs are the appropriate vehicle. He has discussed a bowl-type game in a warm climate against the champion of a similar conference, perhaps the Patriot League or the Yankee Conference. Were this to happen, the Ivies would need to determine an outright champion -- something nobody seems prepared to deal with considering the status quo. "Certainly when you end up with half the league tied for the title, you expect some complaints," Yrigoyen said. "[But] I think most people will see this as an isolated instance of a very balanced league. I think a four-way tie could be seen as a kind of a positively interesting thing rather than a negatively interesting thing." For now, that is the way the Ivy League will continue to see it. The more teams that share the title the better. A tie leads to more happy fans and alumni. Many players and coaches may like to see a resolution of sorts, although it certainly depends on perspective. "It depends on where you were," Bagnoli said. "If you are us or Dartmouth, you're perfectly happy with a share of the title after what we've been through. If I were Princeton, I'd be disappointed with that result, although them and Cornell certainly have a shot to win it outright." "Yeah, as a player, you'd like to see it resolved," Penn's all-world wide receiver Miles Macik said. "But if it happens as a tie this year, we'd certainly feel proud. We will have reached our goal." The big issue of who will keep the prestigious Ivy League trophy has yet to be fully resolved, although it would rotate between whatever teams do earn a share of the championship. "We'll have to circulate some piece of paper asking each of the four schools when they would like to have the trophy," Yrigoyen said. "Everyone might want it in February, when recruiting season reaches its climax. There are four weekends in February, so I imagine each school would get it for one weekend." · Penn records are falling by the wayside. Sophomore kicker Jeremiah Greathouse will break the Ivy League record for field goals in a season with his first successful kick Saturday. Greathouse's next field goal will give him 11 in Ivy games for 1995. Macik needs 201 yards to break Penn's all-time receiving yardage mark. Don Clune holds the record now with 2,419 yards. "I'm going in under the impression that anything can happen," Macik said. "My major goal was to break the league mark for receptions and I did that. So, I'm happy with what I've accomplished. If I had a huge game, I'd certainly love it, but I can't say that I'll have any regrets either way." While Bagnoli certainly hopes his players are able to break all the records they can, he does not see breaking the normal flow of a game with the league title on the line to accomplish anything on an individual level. · Elsewhere in the record books, junior speedster Mark Fabish has broken the Quakers' all-time punt return record against Harvard with 802 return yards, eclipsing Tim Chambers' 734 yards. In the kickoff return category, Fabish trails the legendary Adolph Bellizeare by only 57 yards, 909 to852. Obviously, that mark also is breakable Saturday when Cornell visits with the 40th Ivy title on the line.

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