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.
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| 1. | Penn (5-4) | 1 | As impressive as the win at Hawai’i was, the New Year’s Eve win over Division II BYU-Hawai’i was very important. The experience of beating a team of physical mid-twentysomethings in an empty gym with one-sided officiating should pay off down the road. |
| 2. | Yale (6-6) | 4 | The Bulldogs win the second-place sweepstakes by virtue of routing hapless Savannah State down in Corpus Christi. Of course, this came on the heels of a disappointing loss to a less-than-stellar James Madison team in the first round of the tournament. |
| 3. | Harvard (8-5) | 3 | The non-league schedule ended on a down note for the Crimson with a blowout loss at SMU that featured a 28-1 first-half run by the Mustangs. But help is on the way, as Brian Cusworth is expected to return for Harvard’s Ivy opener at Dartmouth this weekend. |
| 4. | Columbia (6-5) | 2 | There was no competitive game against a major conference foe or win over a MAAC opponent in the Holiday Festival at the Garden for the Lions this year. After starting out 5-0, Columbia has fallen on hard times, losing five of its last six games. |
| 5. | Cornell (4-7) | 5 | Cornell came out of the exam break with a thud against a struggling Long Beach State squad. Next up is a visit to 7th-ranked Washington, which should be sufficiently surly after seeing its nation’s-longest home winning streak snapped this weekend. |
| 6. | Brown (3-8) | 6 | After a lifeless performance in a double-digit home loss to Albany, the Bears won at the buzzer against Army in West Point. While the Black Knights are a very weak opponent, it beats losing at home to bad teams, as Brown did twice in late December. |
| 7. | Dartmouth (1-9) | 8 | The level of play has improved the last three games, but the Big Green still finds itself on an eight-game losing streak. Now Dartmouth has a chance to measure itself against Brown, as the Big Green returns to the East Coast for a road game at Army. |
| 8. | Princeton (2-9) | 7 | A miserable season got worse this week when the Tigers lost at home to Division III Carnegie Mellon. Princeton did go on a three-point spree midway through the second half to tie Rutgers at the RAC, but scored just two points in the final 5:14 to fall to 2-9. |
