“We’ve been going over a ton of Brown film. They have nine All Ivy players returning,” Murphy said, noting that the Bears return junior receiver Lonnie Hill, who led the Ivy League in receptions in 2003 before taking last season off. “Based upon what I know, Brown’s as good as anybody else.”

The nine All-Ivy players the Bears have back include two-time All Ivy first-team rusher Nick Hartigan and league-leading senior receiver Jarrett Schreck. Like Harvard, however, Brown has yet to settle on a quarterback, and its offensive line has lost four players to graduation.

“Their group of skill kids, especially their offense, may be the best in the league,” Bagnoli said. “That doesn’t include the other five teams. In any given week in this league, anyone can beat anyone else. It somewhat surprised me, the distance between Harvard and Penn and Brown, though.”

Elsewhere in the Ivies, Yale, Cornell, and Princeton formed a second tier in Ivy football, finishing in close succession with 66, 63, and 57 points respectively.

Pollees saw no reason that Dartmouth or Columbia should suddenly reverse their skids of recent years to leap out of the league basement, as the Big Green and the Lions rounded out the Ivy League, receiving 36 and 24 points, respectively.

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.