COLUMN: Game one will be best of season

The beauty of college football -- as is traditionally the case -- is the building of a rivalry that develops over the course of a hard-fought schedule. The season begins with the division's elite trying to out-perform common opponents. As the weeks wear on, fans begin to both pin their eyes on the hometown scoreboard, and sneak a glance at their rival's results. When inevitably neither team suffers an upset, the stage is set for that climactic, late-season matchup between the division's finest -- the game for all the marbles -- the one that ends with crashing down goalposts. But what would happen if football's traditional scheme of events were inverted -- with the division's elite meeting in week No. 1 instead of late in the season? Welcome to the 1997 version of Ivy League football -- a season turned upside-down. Caution to any Penn students planning on foregoing the September 20 season opener against Dartmouth -- you are only missing the biggest game of the Ivy League season. By leaps and bounds, the Quakers and Big Green stand above the pack in the Ancient Eight. Defensively, both squads boast units that will wreak havoc on the Ivy League -- a division marked in '97 by rookie quarterbacks and inexperienced rushers. Penn returns nine defensive starters from last season, including NFL prospect Mitch Marrow at defensive line and the dominating Tim Gage at linebacker. The Big Green return seven, highlighted by first team All-Ivy linebacker Zack Walz -- who finished 1996 with 111 tackles -- and Lloyd Lee, also first team All-Ivy, who picked off seven passes in '96. These players will enjoy a season of tremendous success and padded statistics, taking full advantage of the inevitable offensive mishaps in a league that has just three starting quarterbacks returning from last season. The victor of this season opener at Franklin Field controls its own destiny toward a championship, playing a schedule that should permit them to go the rest of the way unscathed. It's highly unlikely that such inexperienced offenses -- those of the Ivies' other six teams -- can drive the ball downfield against either Penn or Dartmouth's experienced defense. The loser's only chance of a championship banner is finishing the season 6-0 and banking on a dark horse team pulling off an upset. Among the rest of the Ivies' teams, only Harvard -- who returns 11 defensive starters -- leaves any reason to be looked at as that dark horse candidate. The Crimson defense, anchored by second team All-Ivy selections Tim Fleiszer, Chris Smith and Jeff Compas, are the favorites to finish third in the Ivies. Harvard, however, will likely do no better than that since the Crimson quarterback Rich Linden is an interception waiting to happen -- throwing eight in '96 as compared to just four touchdowns -- and featured running back Chris Menick just isn't Eion Hu in the backfield. But with the solid defense, the Crimson keep the Ivy League football fan's hope alive of an upset which would give the season meaning beyond the first week. The Ancient Eight's other five teams -- Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Princeton and Yale -- just don't have much to bring to the table in '97. A combined 16-19 last season, one may expect these teams to perform respectably. Each team, however, has substantial obstacles to overcome. Brown was 4-3 in '96. That's not bad for a team whose lone highlight in 41 years of Ivy League football was a 1976 tie for the championship. But the Bears lost first team All-Ivy quarterback Jason McCullough to graduation. McCullough was the Bears' offensive savior last season, throwing for a league best 2,609 yards and 23 touchdowns, as compared to his replacements -- Anthony Ames and James Perry -- who threw a combined three passes in '96. Also 4-3 last season, Cornell returns its quarterback, Scott Carroll. But he was a non-factor in last year's campaign, as the Big Red relied on Bushnell Cup winner Chad Levitt to carry the offensive load. Levitt led all rushers with 13 touchdowns and 1,435 yards. Without him, the Big Red offense is as inept as Brown's without McCullough. Columbia also returns its quarterback, Bobby Thomason, to a team 5-2 in '96. But gone from the Lions is the team's defensive stars, Marcellus Wiley and Rory Wilfork who were NFL draft picks. Last year, even with the two future pros, the Lions were shellacked 40-0 by Darmouth. Without Wiley and Wilfork, this defense will get slaughtered. Finally, among the weakened Ivy League, there's Princeton (2-5) and Yale (1-6). With records that poor in '96, it's tough to imagine things will get worse. But for the Tigers they do. Losing Palmer Stadium to construction means Princeton will play all of 1997 on the road -- making the six-hour bus trips to Harvard and Dartmouth, and the four-hour trip to Brown. Now that's a tough schedule! And the Elis begin the this season's campaign without football genius Carm Cozza, who had manned their sidelines for 32 seasons and brought 12 championships home to New Haven, Conn. With this much established, it is unlikely that football fans will find their traditional, close divisional-race in the Ivy League this season. By the same token, however, all this drama combined into this September 20 season opener will leave the winning team's fans turned upside down with joy.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.