For the last few months, Cornell has looked a lot less like the Big Red-faced embarrassment of the early 2000s and more like the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s. Pundits picked the team to finish first in the Ivy League preseason poll, and so far, the play has matched the hype.

For most Penn sports teams, winning the Ivy League regular season is the key to the postseason. But for the wrestling squad, an Ivy title does not directly impact the team's NCAA tournament chances. So when the No. 25 Quakers (8-4) start their Ancient Eight season this weekend with matches at Harvard tonight and at Brown tomorrow, pride, not playoff potential, will be on the line.

The last time Columbia's All-Ivy forward John Baumann suited up against the Quakers, he let up six runs on five hits in 6.1 innings. That's not your typical basketball stat line. Baumann was on the mound for the Lions, not the hardwood. By excelling at both sports, he joined an elite group of athletes when he was named All-Ivy first-team in basketball and second-team in baseball for the 2007-08 season.

A captain in his senior season, Penn's Brian Grandieri has hit his share of big shots in his career. But even he'll tell you that the most meaningful points he ever scored weren't for Quakers coaches Fran Dunphy or Glen Miller. They were for Evan Brady. A neighbor, schoolmate and childhood friend of Grandieri, Brady was a standout lacrosse player for Rose Tree Media Optimist Youth Club, and seemed set to continue playing at Malvern Prep, a Catholic school outside of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia may not be buying Beckham, but $47 million in state funding might be the golden goal in the contest to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the City of Brotherly Love. Last Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell formally committed money from state grants and loans to aid a Chester project which would include a $115 million stadium, a 200,000-square-foot convention center, retail space and apartments along the Delaware River.

Senior night for the men's squash team will definitely be one they will never forget. But not for good reasons. The Quakers fell 9-0 to No. 2 Princeton last night, and only one match lasted longer than three games. They are now just 39-6 against the Tigers over the past five seasons.

The Penn women's tennis team can now leave the Levy Pavilion courts without having lost there. The Quakers won't return home until April 11, when it will be warm enough to play outdoors. And in their indoor finale, they slipped by an all-international Old Dominion 4-3 to remain undefeated in their spring season.

A year removed from a one-loss run to the Ivy crown, the Harvard women's basketball team came within seconds of suffering its second conference defeat in its first three games. The worst part? Penn - losers of 10 straight at the time - was the team that nearly knocked the Crimson (10-8, 3-1 Ivy) past last year's loss total, leading virtually wire-to-wire before junior Emily Tay's game-winning hoop with 14 seconds to play.

After last week's cakewalk, tonight's match could be a rude awakening for the men's squash team. Eight days ago, Penn routed Franklin and Marshall 9-0 in a match that senior captain Ryan Rayfield said "went pretty much as expected." Tonight promises to be different as the Quakers host the far more formidable Princeton Tigers, whom coach Craig Thorpe-Clark has never beaten in his nine years at Penn.

The Class of 1923 Arena is aging along with Penn Hockey's most beloved fan. With 2,900 seats, Pennsylvania's largest collegiate hockey facility is far from crowded, averaging 20 spectators for Penn hockey games. But every time Penn takes the ice, standing by himself in front of Seat 23 is a capped man with glasses.

The Penn men's basketball team went 4-for-15 from three over the weekend. Instead of being disappointed with that first number, the squad is content with the second one. The nation's 334th-best three-point shooting team was attempting 17.3 per game coming into the weekend but managed to get different kinds of looks in wins over Harvard and Dartmouth.

The Lady Monarchs technically hail from Norfolk, Va., where their school is based. But when the Old Dominion tennis team heads to the Lott Courts today, the match will have a far more international flavor. Old Dominion's roster more closely resembles a United Nations roll call than a list of varsity athletes.

Men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller believes that in a tight season, experience is "what can put you over the edge." If he's right, then he has a lot to look forward to next year, when the team will feature 12 seniors. But on the flip side, it also means that 12 players will graduate in 2009.

Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said he was "shocked" that the better team, the New England Patriots, did not win the Super Bowl. He was less shocked that his Hawks beat Villanova easily last night, although the Wildcats' 14-game winning streak in the Big 5 had caused more fickle minds to wonder.

It is the only true Ivy League duel of the year. The seven schools with fencing programs met in New Haven, Conn. on Sunday for Day 1 of the Ivy League Round Robin. The Quakers men and women entered with a combined 18-2 record, and they continued to bout well, defeating both Harvard and Yale.

More than anything, this weekend's opening Ivy League games were a chance for the Quakers to rebound from a rough first half of the season. And rebound they did. In the two games this weekend, Penn beat Harvard and Dartmouth on the glass by a combined 88-63.

The annual Saint Joseph's-Villanova matchup is always the most emotional Big 5 game, and for the past two years it provided the most convincing argument that the Wildcats were the city's best team. The Holy War was no less consequential this year, and the result was a clear reflection of the Big 5's new balance of power.