The football season is almost over now, and my place in the CRIMSON sports prognosticators' Hall of Fame is assured, so I feel safe in revealing how these predictions have been made each week.

Thursday nights, after a Lowell House dinner, I wander back slowly to my room, thinking deeply--not necessarily about football. At 6:30, I flick on the philosopher-king and his disciple, Eric.

Then I turn a stern face to the typewriter, hunch my shoulders, grimace several times and set to work.

First, I pore over the statistics for the previous week, carefully studying rosters for weight losses in key players and other vital indicators.

Dickie's Tricky

With these facts straight, I calculate the number of points scored per minute by each team, multiply by .90, add in a quick balance for home field advantage and then pit the whole deal against the other team's defense.

Then for my final prediction, I look up the names of the Presidents of the various universities, find the same name (or the same first name if there's no last name) in any one of the four Boston area telephone books and award the game to the team whose President's name phone number starts with the higher digit. The predicted score then is calculated on an IBM computer in our bathroom.

Columbia at Pennsylvania

In a way, I feel very sorry for Pennsylvania. For those first five weeks, the Quakers waltzed undefeated. Then Harvard and Yale romped on successive Saturdays, and Philadelphia is as dull as always. Columbia had its moment of glory, beating Cornell, but this week will not feature the Lion's roar. Penn 25, Columbia 12.

Dartmouth at Cornell

With the possible exception of the Yale-Princeton game in New Haven, this could be the East's tightest struggle. Both teams have had extremely disappointing seasons; both are coming off fairly impressive victories over second-rate clubs. Neither has much of an offense, but Cornell's defense, which so throttled Brown last Saturday, should win the day. Cornell 10, Dartmouth 0.

Princeton at Yale

I don't want Princeton to win today, even though, if Harvard does beat Brown, it would assure us a tie for the title. I, for one, would much rather have THE GAME be the clash of Harvard and Yale, both undefeated. What a classic. For psychological purposes, therefore, I choose Brian Dowling to win still another game by 19-7.

Brown at Harvard

There's been a lot of talk this week that Harvard will be down for today's game. Brown is terrible; like Columbia it has had but one moment of glory, a victory over Colgate which had beaten Princeton. Harvard managed only a one touchdown win over Columbia and despite what the experts say, "Pusey" starts with an "8" and "Heffner" with a "4." Thus, says the IBM Shower-Stall I-22, Harvard 17, Brown 15.