Get schooled.
Game of the Week: Cornell (5-8) at Penn (6-4) – Friday, January 13, 7:00 pm
After some positive buzz in the preseason magazines and a pair of strong showings on ESPNU to open the season, the Big Red looked every bit an Ivy contender. But Cornell has gone just 4-7 since then, with a trio of consecutive losses to poor Hartford, Lafayette, and Quinnipiac teams, and enters the game ranked outside the Top 250 in all three major ratings systems.
Last week saw Ivy teams recover somewhat, going 6-5. However, two of the wins were over non-Division I opponents and two of the losses were against weak opponents at home. Even though the league schedule technically got underway this past weekend, we’ll call this The Final Power Rankings Before Ivy Play.
It was tough to make heads or tails of the league after another rough week. Other than Penn, no one else stood out as deserving a upper division ranking. But like last season’s standings, someone had to finish second, so here are your Power Rankings for the new year.
Last night’s Penn win at Hawai’i is one of the better road wins by an Ivy team in recent memory. The Warriors were shorthanded and tired from playing five games in ten days, but the Quakers had their own issues with a 15-day layoff and the flight to the Aloha State. In a game that Penn led almost all the way through but never by double digits, three plays late in the game loomed large.
Columbia kicked off the post-holiday Ivy action with a disheartening loss at the Garden last night to a less-than-stellar St. John’s team. Five Ivies play tonight, in games taking place all over the country. Given the matchups, a winning night for the league would be a smashing success.