College Sports Journal Ivy League Previews, How To Watch: Week of 10/19/2019
Last week’s battle of unbeatens ended up not much of a battle – 4-0 Dartmouth jumped all over Yale early and never looked back, crushing the Bulldogs 42-10 and established themselves every bit the frontrunners for the Ivy League title. As we sit and wait for the inevitable clash of titans between Dartmouth and Princeton later in the season, let’s take a look at this week’s games.
Fearless Predictions
Dartmouth (4-0) at Marist (1-4), Saturday October 19th, 12:00 PM, Leonidoff Stadium, Poughkeepsie, NY, Marist Athletics
This non-competitive game will turn out exactly as you think, and won’t go a very long way towards convincing Top 25 voters across the nation that the Big Green should be in their Top 10. Dartmouth 40, Marist 0
Princeton (4-0, 1-0) at Brown (1-3, 0-1), Saturday October 19th, 12:30 PM, Brown Stadium, Providence, RI, NESN+, ESPN+ (subscription req’d)
There might be a slight concern that the Tigers might be looking ahead just a bit to their clash against rivals Harvard next week, but that won’t be enough for the rebuilding Bears to pull off an upset. Princeton 27, Brown 9
Harvard (3-1) at Holy Cross (3-3), Saturday October 19th, 1:00 PM, Fitton Field, Worcester, MA, Charter TV3, Patriot League Network
An intriguing Massachusetts contest between the Crusaders and Johnnies, a game that has been a fairly regular occurrence lately and one that has generally involved a lot of offensive fireworks. But this time round both teams have been fairly hard to figure out, with Harvard blowing out a bunch of overmatched opponents and Holy Cross being able to put the clamp down on New Hampshire (13-10) but not Yale (10-23). In the end, I think Harvard’s offense will be too tough for Holy Cross to pull off the upset. Harvard 27, Holy Cross 17
Penn (2-2, 0-1) at Columbia (1-3, 0-1), Saturday October 19th, 1:30 PM, Kraft Field at Wien Stadium, New York, NY, SNY, ESPN+ (subscription req’d)
The Lions have lost three straight, but haven’t looked terrible after leading Princeton for a time in their game, while Penn’s losses to Delaware and Dartmouth are nothing to sneeze at. This has all the makings of a surprising, under-the-radar game which Columbia has an excellent chance of winning Columbia 21, Penn 17
Colgate (0-7) at Cornell (1-3), Saturday October 19th, 1:30 PM, Schoellkopf Field, Ithaca, NY, ESPN+ (subscription req’d)
Before the season, with Colgate ranked in the FCS Top 25, this rivalry game might have seemed like a potential laugher, but with the stunning fall of the Raiders the Big Red have to believe that they can keep their nearby rivals winless. Since it’s a big Rivalry game, it’s hard to pick a winner, but let’s go with the home team in a surprisingly close game. Cornell 28, Colgate 24
Yale (3-1) at Richmond (3-3), Saturday October 19th, 6:00 PM, Robins Stadium, Richmond, VA, FLO Sports ($$/subscription req’d)
This is a story of two teams coming into the contest in very different places: Richmond riding high off stunning upsets of Albany and Maine, while Yale comes back from a game vs. Dartmouth where they were dominated in every facet. Richmond continues to ride high. Richmond 28, Yale 10
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
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