Only five of the eight Ivy League teams -- Penn, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth -- have won the Ivy League title outright in the 50-year history of the Ancient Eight.
In this 50th season, that list may be about to grow by one.
Brown (8-1, 5-1 Ivy), which claimed shares of the title in 1976 and 1999, is a win over hapless Columbia (2-7, 0-6 Ivy) away from its first ever outright championship.
The YES Network will be in New York for the occasion, having chosen the Brown-Columbia game as its Ivy game of the week.
In the previous four weeks, all eight teams have been featured once. YES had its choice of all but the Harvard-Yale game -- which will be broadcast nationally on WGN -- for its final broadcast this season.
Meanwhile, Harvard, Yale and Princeton still retain hope of winning a share of the crown.
For that to happen, though, Brown would have to lose and one of the other teams would have to win.
Coincidentally, the last time Brown shared the title, it was with Yale -- which was also the last championship the Elis won.
Being Nick Hartigan
It might be hard enough simply to be a student at an Ivy League school like Brown.
It is even harder to be a varsity athlete -- and a good one at that.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg for Bears running back Nick Hartigan.
Off the field, Hartigan has a busy week ahead of him. He is a Rhodes Scholar finalist, and has an interview Friday in Pittsburgh.
After his team's game the next day, Hartigan may have to return to Pittsburgh Saturday night for another round of interviews.
On the gridiron, the senior won Ivy League offensive player of the week honors for the sixth time in nine weeks this season for his 192 rushing yards and two scores against Dartmouth.
He also leads Division I-AA with 166.44 yards a game, more than 10 yards better than the next closest rusher.
His 49 career rushing touchdowns are one fewer than the all-time Ivy record held by Cornell's Ed Marinaro, who played from 1969-71.
All of this has earned Hartigan a spot as one of the 16 finalists for the Walter Payton Award, given to the top offensive player in I-AA.
It has also gotten him features in The New York Times and USA Today.
No respect for elders
Saturday was Gary Wood Day at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y. Either no one told senior quarterback Ryan Kuhn, or he really wanted to honor Wood's memory.
Wood was a 1964 Cornell graduate and former NFL player. Until Saturday, Wood held the Big Red's career and single-season quarterback rushing records.
That is, until Kuhn ran for 175 yards, to pass Wood's single-season mark of 889 yards. Kuhn now has 903.
However, the senior has no chance of reaching Wood's career record of 2,156 yards, as Kuhn has only 910 yards in his time at Cornell.
A good time for firsts
After beating Penn the week before, Princeton looked in good shape to win at least a share of the Ivy League title.
Going home to play Yale, Princeton looked fine until a late Elis' scoring drive tied the game.
Then, after a costly fumble, the Elis punched in the game-winner on a sneak by quarterback Jeff Mroz.
It was Mroz's first career touchdown run.
It was also the first time in 20 games that more than one Yale player scored a rushing touchdown in the same game. Running back Mike McLeod had the other.
No shutouts here
The Bears clinched a share of the Ivy League title Saturday, and also moved into a tie for second place on the all-time Ivy League scoring streak list. The Bears have scored in 97 straight games, dating back to the second game of the 1996 season.
They drew even with Dartmouth, whose streak stretched from 1987 to 1997.
For the Bears to break the all-time record, they would need to score against the Lions Saturday, score in every game of the 2006 season, and score in the first two games of 2007.
Penn's current streak is second among active streaks, at 80, and is now third all-time, ahead of the 78 by Princeton between 1945-54.
The Quakers have scored in every game since a 33-0 loss to Harvard in 1997.
Before that, they had scored in 65 straight, meaning that they have scored in 145 of their last 146 games.
