Prediction: Brown 24, Cornell 7.
HARVARD (3-2, 1-1 Ivy) at PRINCETON (1-4, 0-2 Ivy)
I know the Harvard-Princeton matchup that everyone is really looking forward to won’t take place until Feb. 4 when the schools’ hoopsters meet on the hardwood, but in the meantime we will have to make due with football.
While the Crimson and the Tigers possess basketball teams that are more or less evenly matched, the same cannot be said about the two schools’ football programs.
Harvard has taken 12 of its last 14 matchups against Princeton on the gridiron and has outscored the Tigers 88-33 over the past three seasons.
It doesn’t seem like much will change this year. Through five games, Princeton possesses the league’s second lowest scoring offense and also the worst scoring defense—generally not a recipe for success.
Prediction: Harvard 28, Princeton 6.
DARTMOUTH (3-2, 0-2 Ivy) at COLUMBIA (3-2, 1-1 Ivy)
If there’s one team that’s going to mourn the end of nonconference play, it’s Dartmouth. The Big Green finished up its non-conference slate last weekend with a 27-19 win over Holy Cross, making Dartmouth 3-0 against foes from outside the Ancient Eight.
But the Ivy League has been a different story for the Big Green, as the squad has dropped its first two league contests to Penn and Yale. That being said, this squad is a stronger Ivy opponent than its 0-2 conference record suggests. Led by running back Nick Schwieger’s 146 rushing yards per game, Dartmouth has nearly come out on top in both its matchups with two of the Ivy League’s top teams, losing each contest by seven points or less.
If Columbia hopes to keep the Big Green’s conference losing streak alive, it will have to get another big game from quarterback Sean Brackett. Brackett, who has thrown for 11 touchdowns and averages 203 passing yards per game, also leads the Lions in rushing yards, averaging 56.2 per game. While this should be a close contest, the Big Green’s days without a conference victory seem numbered.
Prediction: Dartmouth 28, Columbia 21.
—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.