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Around the Ivy League

Week five

Sometimes 60 minutes just isn’t long enough.

CBS knows it—that’s why it created 60 Minutes II—and Penn and Brown picked up on it as well.

After trailing 14-0 to open their game against Bucknell, the Quakers overcame two missed field goals and a missed PAT as quarterback Pat McDermott hit wideout Gabe Marabella for a 12-yard touchdown to pull Penn even at 22 and force overtime.

In the opening frame of the extra session the two sides traded field goals of more than 40 yards, including a blast from 42 yards out by Penn kicker Evan Nolan, who had been benched before the game for being, well, terrible at kicking.

McDermott capped the Quakers’ side of the second overtime period with a one-yard run, and the defense held on the subsequent Bison possession as Penn snapped Bucknell’s 17-game home non-conference winning streak.

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Brown joined in the extra football fun after a late-game Fordham field goal knotted the game at 20. But Bears running back Nick Hartigan tumbled into the endzone from a yard out to give his club a 27-20 lead to open the first overtime period.

The Brown defense yielded just three yards in as many downs on the Rams’ possession and recorded a sack on fourth-and-seven to seal the Bears’ first-ever overtime victory.

The two extra-session wins gave the Ivies a split of their four games against the Patriot League on the weekend and left the season record at .500 (6-6) with just three games left between the two conferences—all coming this weekend.

And with that, let’s get to this weekend’s action:

NO. 25 PENN (3-1) vs. COLUMBIA (0-4)

Columbia may very well be the worst team in the Ivy League. Penn may be the best.

The Quakers haven’t lost an Ivy game since a 28-21 defeat in Cambridge in 2001. The last time Penn lost a league game at home people were too busy worrying about Y2K to notice.

Since none of this information is directly relevant to this particular contest, here’s some pertinent analysis to keep in mind.

They’re playing Columbia.

There are only three guarantees in Ivy League football: Postseason participation will always be banned, athletic scholarships will never be allowed and Columbia will always suck.

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