I remember when I used to have trouble predicting these games. I was new to the art and I approached it on too much of an emotional plane. You know, picking with your heart, not your head. Of course, there's not much of a choice in my case. Really though. I was too chauvinistic. I stubbornly picked Brown and Harvard even the Braves, week after week. You'd think I might have finally learned a lesson from B. J. Thomas-Billy kept his faith in Sue, kept expecting letters from her, and back home. Sue was running round.

One must be realistic. Now I'm attacking these weekly dilemmas with a refreshing albeit vicious, rationality that has proven too much for even quirks of fate to overcome. I've been abused, it is true, but now I've rebounded and I'm twisting again. Yet I must retain an appealing humility, and I must remember Captain Crunch's important role in the grand scheme of these things. As Moses led the Jews out of the darkness of Egypt, so Captain Crunch led me to my present state of football enlightenment.

COLUMBIA-CORNELL: Pick one: Barry Goldwater or Lyndon Johnson, the Boston Patriots or the 1967 New York Giants, air pollution or water pollution, Studebakers or Hudsons. Columbia or Cornell. This is perhaps a distortion, but anybody can tell you that that's a newspaper's most important function. One consideration is Ed Marinaro's return to the Cornell lineup. Since Columbia is allowing about 240 yards per game on the ground. I would guess that the Big Red would take advantage of this weakness. And the game is in Ithaca-a definite factor. Then again. Columbia is starting to look better. Rutgers beat the Lions only 21-14, on a last-minute touchdown, no less. Coach Frank Navarro said he'd make changes after getting bombed by Yale, and apparently. he has made two good ones. John Sefeik. a 156 pound sophomore, gained almost 175 yards last week, and Bill Flynn did a pretty good job as the new quarterback. Could be interesting, but poor, old Columbia will lose number six, 35-24.

PRINCETON-BROWN: After just wasting all that space on such a bomb of a game. I'd better start being more concise. Brown is certainly a team to be pitied. It's a team built right along the lines of your basic Greek tragic hero. Everything has gone wrong, not to mention the fact that the Bruins have lost four games in five attempts. Despite outplaying Colgate, they lost, 20-6. But Princeton. N. J., a suburb of Trenton, is a town without pity in the Gene Pitney tradition. And that's where today's game is being played, or forfeited. or whatever. It wouldn't be so bad for Brown were it not for Princeton's recent improvement. Both the offense and defense have clicked. Scott MacBean is encountering greatness. Jake McCandless's boys now have that Tony the Tiger winning attitude. Brown cannot stop such pyschodynamic forces, or passes, for that matter. I must pick Princeton, 31-14.

YALE-DARTMOUTH: One of the bigger games this wonderful day. I could pick Yale, or I could pick Dartmouth. Let's look at the facts for lack of anything better to do. The Indian's rushing average is almost the highest in the nation. But Yale is one of the most effective teams against the rush. Yale's offense is coming fast, but getting through the Big Green offense is no easy task. I think Dartmouth will have to show a little better passing attack than it did against Harvard, and if it does, the Elis could really get stung. But they're playing in the Yale Bowl, where, according to Bob Blackman. Yale has an automatic two-touchdown advantage. Oh well, the Bulldogs have played nothing but patsies and pussyfooters, so that makes it Dartmouth. 21-14.

HARVARD-PENN: A fifth Penn quarterback will make his appearance today. So both teams are about even in the quarterback department. Elsewhere, however, the Crimson enjoys advantages. As usual, the big difference is in defenses-Harvard has an excellent one, and Penn has a rather inadequate one. And how can our boys possibly lose three in a row? Such rude awakenings are just too rude to awaken. This was supposed to be a big game, but now it's a battle of also-rans. Today's American Bandstand has been sold out for weeks, but there's still lots of room at Franklin Field. Let us just say that Harvard had better win, or else, as is the case with the Shangri-Las, John Yovicsin can never go home anymore. Crimson, 17-7.