I used to be an idealistic young man.

I used to think that Harvard students would come to football games if you made them more fun. That deep within every student was the same innate desire to see players batter each other for glory. That getting A’s in college was easy. That Santa Claus was real. That Yale was a good school.

I get reminded of my insolence every Saturday as I sit among the concrete sea of empty seats. Last weekend’s tailgate, that happened to be more populated by students during the game than the game itself, further solidified my opinion that most Ivy League kids simply do not care about football.

But for the three that do, my picks:

URI AT BROWN

I don’t know which is more surprising: the fact that URI beat Harvard or that Rhode Island has enough colleges to actually have a state rivalry, which apparently this is. The two will meet for the 102nd time to play for the “Governor’s Cup,” which in Rhode Island I guess is a shot glass.

With a 1-3 record, URI is in the midst of their best start to a season in four years. No, I am not kidding. The team sent a good(ish) Central Michigan squad to overtime in its season opener and beat Harvard two weeks ago. We’ll call the latter a fluke.

Harvard had a fluke of its own Saturday when Brown forgot to field its actual quarterback. When the 2016 playcaller, Thomas “Golden Arm” Linta, finally did take the helm of the Bears’ sinking ship late in the third quarter, he was beautiful in every sense of the word. The man threw for 232 yards, three touchdowns, and ran in another all in the span of 15 minutes. That’s 10 more yards than Harvard threw all game. You’d have to go to Brown to not start him this week, which luckily for the Bears, their coach didn’t.

Pick: Brown 35, URI 24

DARTMOUTH AT PENN

The only thing that could possibly save Dartmouth from the impending loss this weekend is a stray bullet hitting Penn wideout Justin Watson in the knee. Even so, the kid would probably just wrap it up and still drop 30 points on the Big Green.

Both are undefeated this season, but Penn just scored 65 points last week against Lehigh, the most in a single game for the team since 1946. Dartmouth merely went to OT against a competitive Holy Cross team. Dartmouth is good, just not Justin-Watson-without-a-bullet-in-his-leg good.

Pick: Penn 46, Dartmouth 31.

HARVARD AT GEORGETOWN

This game will be hosted in Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in D.C., which seats 45,000 people. For reference, Georgetown games are typically attended by about 3,000 people. My Hebrew Bible lecture Friday morning will be less empty. On the net, I think this is for the best. The larger the arena, the harder it will be to hear the band, which means everyone wins.