Afterthoughts from Yale

Nov. 11 was on every Ivy League fan's calendar this year, but for the wrong reason.

With Harvard's loss to now-red-hot Princeton and Penn's devastating defeat at Yale, the game of the year is no longer Penn-Harvard on the eleventh, or even Harvard-Yale a week later. It's the Tigers' matchup against the Elis at the Yale Bowl.

And with Yale playing Columbia and Brown -- still a mediocre team despite a 28-7 rout of Cornell on Saturday -- there's no reason to believe the Elis will have a conference loss when 11/11 rolls around.

As a fellow 5-foot-9 guy, I have to give wideout Matt Carre some love after his latest performance. Carre caught three passes for 85 yards -- all in the first half, not suprisingly -- and jumped from thirteenth to eleventh on Penn's all-time receiving yards list with 1,155. Next up: 1960's star Rick Owens, who leads Carre by a single yard.

I'm still debating whether or not fans rushing the field after Yale pulled out the win was inappropriate. I've always thought that if fans are going to pull a stunt like that, they'd better have a darn good reason. (Exhibit A: Buffalo's overtime win over Temple after a 3-3 regulation does not qualify. It just made both sides look silly.)

On one hand, the win broke a five-game losing streak against Penn, one short of the longest ever for the Elis. Bear in mind that that was back in the 19th century, something only Coach Lake himself might remember.

On the other, Yale was 4-1 and an underdog in name only. In fact, Yale became the favorite as soon as the kicking game became a big factor, so was the win a big enough shock to justify all that mayhem?

Probably not. But I can't help but like seeing devoted fans finally get to lay it all out on the field. Can you imagine Penn fans doing the same thing if the two team's fortunes were reversed?

Me neither.