The annual Harvard-Yale meeting has always been known simply as "The Game."
Over the past several years, however, the Ivy League has grown accustomed to a different reality. It may still be called "The Game," but the clash between the Crimson and the Elis has fallen under the shadow cast by the late-season contest pitting Harvard against Penn.
For the past four years, the latter has been played at the most crucial point in the season with heavy title implications. Last year's meeting at Franklin Field marked the third time in four years that both teams came in with a perfect 5-0 Ivy League mark. Either the Quakers or the Crimson has won the title in each of the last five seasons, and nine out of the last 12.
Rather than watching the Crimson roll over the Elis, as they have done in each of the last four years by an average margin of 17.25 points, fans are now circling the Penn-Harvard meeting on their calendars. "The Game" has become just another excuse to tailgate and get drunk; The actual game has showcased the best the Ancient Eight has to offer, functioning essentially as the league championship.
And so it was supposed to be this year. In its preseason poll, the Ivy media listed Penn and Harvard as one and two, respectively.Before the league schedule began, prognosticators had every reason to believe that this Saturday's meeting would see two undefeated teams vying for the Ivy title.
Boy, were they wrong. Penn coach Al Bagnoli, however, could have seen this one coming.
"Who's picking them?" Bagnoli said of the preseason media rankings. "If you were going to poll the coaches, I think they would have said Brown, on paper, had the most people coming back."
This year's meeting has lost its luster, with both the Quakers and the Crimson coming in with mediocre 3-2 league marks. Rather than battling for a championship, the teams find themselves on the outside looking in. Brown and Princeton, each streaking out in front with 4-1 marks, need only win out to ensure a share of this year's title and, significantly, to keep both Penn and Harvard out of the running.
This year's situation begs the question: have we been spoiled over the past five years?
"The league, because of its recruiting structure, is built on parity," Bagnoli said. "So it's very difficult, and somewhat out of the norm, when two teams dominate the league for such an extended period of time. On paper, that's not supposed to happen."
Although this weekend's contest will be televised on the YES Network, the station can expect nothing special in terms of viewership. The matchup just doesn't deserve it. Why tune in to watch two teams, both effectively out of contention for even a portion of the championship, duke it out in Boston with absolutely no implications whatsoever? The Quakers aren't playing for any bowl bids, that's for sure.
Still, Bagnoli will have his boys fired up for the game. The Red and Blue suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Crimson just one year ago, and it will fight for every inch this time to salvage some pride.
"We're playing a good football team, we're somewhat shorthanded, but that's the nature of the beast in this sport," Bagnoli said. "I'd like to see our kids step up, get ready to play, play for some pride as opposed to maybe playing for a ring. But just understand that this is still important to them, it's still important to us, and we want to put our best foot forward."
Ilario Huober is a sophomore in the College from Syracuse, N.Y. His e-mail address is ihuober@sas.upenn.edu.
