Ivy League Football Report, 1996 November 11

This weekend's much-ballyhooed Dartmouth-Columbia matchup turned into a laugher, with the Big Green pouring it on in a 40-0 win over Columbia, who were undefeated a mere nine days ago, but who are starting to resemble the Lions of old. Meanwhile, the second-place Brown Bears kept pace with an easy 31-7 win at Harvard. Over in New Haven, the Cornell Big Red bounced back from two straight losses, downing the Yale Elis 28-20 behind 218 yards rushing by Senior Chad Levitt. And in one of the Ivy League's many unrequited rivalries, Pennsylvania squeaked past oblivious Princeton in a 10-6 battle of the fallen mighty.

With two weeks remaining, the Big Green machine, undefeated in its last 15 games, stands alone at the top with a 5-0 mark. Brown can still catch them at 4-1, while Cornell and Columbia, at 3-2, need a miracle to grab a share of the title. The Penn Quakers have used two straight wins to go to 2-3 and pull themselves out of the 1-4 quagmire occupied by the so-called "big three" of Yale, Harvard and Princeton.

The most important game of the remaining season will be on Saturday as Dartmouth travels to Providence; a win will make the visitors Ivy League champions, while a Brown victory would tie the standings with a week to go. In other games Cornell and Columbia battle for third place in New York, while Penn hosts Harvard and Princeton visits Yale.

Until next week, this is Joe Schlobotnik with the Ivy League football report.