This was a good week in the Ivy League for Harvard.

Yes, the Crimson lost to associate arch-rival Princeton, 18-7. Yes, it continued to move in Brown's direction on the Ivy League standings. And yes, it failed even to garner an Ivy League Rookie of the Week award.

But Harvard had one thing going for it this week which made all of these setbacks trivial: Yale lost to Columbia.

That's right, Columbia. The same Columbia that the Crimson beat 39-32 earlier this season. The same Columbia that has to scrape and claw every year for even one win in league play. The same Columbia that is widely considered to be the losingest program in college football.

The Bulldogs lost to the Lions, and it wasn't even close: 30-9. In fact, it was Columbia's most lopsided win in 122 games.

The story in the game was the play of Lion quarterback Jaime Schwalbe. In the first half alone, Schwalbe completed 12 of 23 passes for 158 yards. He finished with 265 yards on 20-for-38 passing.

On the strength of his arm, Columbia led 13-3 at halftime and 27-3 late in the third quarter.

Twenty-seven to three? Columbia? What gives?

Seriously, the Lion win was almost predictable.

Since the Harvard loss, Columbia has been playing its best ball in five years. It has tied a tough Lehigh team, 28-28. It has destroyed Lafayette and Fordham. And, most impressively, it has given the best team in the league a scare, falling to Penn 12-3 last week. It is currently tied with four teams in the Ancient Eight.

Yale, meanwhile, has been slipping. The Bulldogs began their season with three straight wins, beating Brown, 27-16, Holy Cross, 47-22, and Connecticut, 28-17. Since, though, they have lost to Lehigh, 36-32, and Dartmouth, 11-13, and now Columbia. All three losses were to very beatable teams.

Speaking of beatable teams, Princeton was about as vulnerable on Saturday as it has been since Columbia last beat Yale. The Tigers went into the game against the Crimson with an impressive 4-1 record. Clearly, though, it was not the team it was two years ago, or even last year, when it had running back Keith Elias.

That fact became evident early on Saturday when the Crimson slid out to a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. From then on out, the game was a messy free-for-all. Harvard committed five turnovers, Princeton committed two and the game was in question midway into the second quarter, when Princeton's Bill Jordan scored on a 17-yard touchdown run.

Harvard (3-3 overall, 1-2 Ivies) remained tied for fourth in the league, while Princeton (5-1 overall, 2-1 Ivies) remained in third place.

In the two other league games, the league's two top teams defended their cushy positions in the standings.