After a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ivy League basketball is back this fall. Here’s how the Ancient Eight teams stack up heading into the 2021-22 season. 

In a 15-12 loss to the Big Red, the Quakers could not find a way to generate effective offense against a Cornell defense that ranks in the bottom half of nearly every defensive statistical category in the Ancient Eight.

Penn football’s (3-4, 1-3 Ivy) 45-17 dominant victory over Brown (2-5, 1-3) was a joy to watch. But, we should also be careful not to overreact to a blowout of a Bears team that has allowed 40+ points for five out of seven contests this season.

In the past game against the Yale Bulldogs, watching freshman starting quarterback Aidan Sayin play made something clear: this problem with recovery isn’t limited to Quinnelly and his play style. It’s rooted in the whole team.

Sports associate Andrea Mendoza argues that Penn football needs to shift its priorities to next season by playing younger players now. 

While this victory for the Red and Blue should be applauded, in many ways, the performance left me with more concerns than assurances moving forward into the final six games of Ivy League play.

Penn football has shown flashes of greatness this season, but has more often than not looked unready to compete, leaving them on the outside looking in. 

We know who the players for Penn football are, but do we know which team will show up on Saturdays?

Senior Sports Editor Brandon Pride argues that Penn football's two non-conference games before it faces off against Dartmouth will be key in the team's quest to find its identity. 

While many look to dismiss Simone Biles' mental health troubles as trivial and meaningless, her struggles are not far removed from what many gymnasts end up experiencing during their careers.

In all likelihood, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference Memphis Grizzlies will fall short of a ring this year, but the team’s 2020-21 campaign embodies the motto “Progress is perfection.” 

If the one and only goal of the Ivy League presidents was to mitigate COVID spread, they would indeed cancel the season. But that clearly isn’t the case.

You may not know it, but we are here. We throw from the same mounds men do. We run the same bases men do. It's less common, but we still hit home runs out of the same parks men do. Women's baseball is the sport's best-kept secret, but not for a lack of trying on our part.

Athletes are celebrities. Millions of fans, many of them children, look up to their favorite sports stars as role models for how they should act. 

To effectively combat the spread of coronavirus, the other NCAA Division I conferences throughout the country should join the Ivy League in canceling fall college sports.

A spring season would not only keeps players safe, it would expose Ivy football to a national audience and allow for a postseason to take place. 

We need to think critically about the benefits and drawbacks of both options: allowing the game to continue as is, injuries and all, while examining the consequences of eliminating the program altogether.