Week 10

It appears that the women's basketball team picked an unfortunate weekend to schedule a game at Buffalo.

What does the forecast for that city say? Possibly six feet of snow? What the heck? 

TigerBlog isn't sure what the NFL will ultimately do regarding the Bills-Browns game that is scheduled for Sunday. If you're a football fan, though, there's nothing you like more than watching a snow game. And kudos for the Bills for planning an outdoor stadium for their new facility. 

Remember when it was nearly 80 degrees a week ago? TigerBlog still hasn't worn a coat this entire fall. And now, it's getting to be wintry, if not winter (or even Thanksgiving).

There won't be any snow in Princeton tomorrow, though it will easily be the coldest day of the football season. Still, that shouldn't make a bit of difference. The whole point is to play big games this time of year, and that's exactly what Princeton will be doing on Powers Field tomorrow at 1.

The Ivy League football season has reached its final Saturday. As always, another 10 weeks have flown by.

As you already know, this Week 10 is unlike almost any in Ivy history. This time around, there is a chance for the league's first-ever four-way tie for the championship.

With six Ivy games in the books, Princeton and Yale are tied for first at 5-1. Penn and Harvard are a game back, at 4-2. 

Harvard plays host to Yale tomorrow at noon. Princeton hosts Penn at 1. Should Harvard and Penn win, then Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Penn will share the championship.

This is not news to you, if you're an Ivy fan. You probably also know that there have been three seasons that have ended in a tri-championship (something that can't happen this year mathematically) — 1966, 1969 and 1982.

If you remember the 1995 season, that's the closest to a four-way tie that there has been. Had Alex Sierk not kicked his field goal on the final play of Princeton's game at Dartmouth, then Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn and Cornell would have all been 5-2. Instead, Sierk, aided by a great drive put together by Brock Harvey, rallied the Tigers for a 10-10 tie, one that gave Princeton the outright championship.

That season was the final one before college football adopted overtime, by the way.

Should Princeton and Yale both win tomorrow, they'd be co-champs, Should one of them win and the other lose, then the one who wins will be the outright champ.

All of this got TB to thinking. If you look at the Ivy League statistics, in which categories would you see the four contenders ranked 1-2-3-4 in the league. In other words, what stats might be the most predicting of success, if this year's Ivy football season is an indicator.

What would you guess? There are actually five stats, out of the 28 team stats the league keeps, in which Princeton, Yale, Penn and Harvard are the top four in some order.

It is said that defense wins championships, and there are two defensive stats among the five. First is fewest yards allowed per game, in which the teams are ordered Princeton, Penn, Harvard, Yale. Then there is sacks (Penn, Harvard, Yale, Princeton).

For special teams, there is net punting yardage (Penn, Princeton, Yale, Harvard). 

On the offensive side, there is passing efficiency offense (Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn). The final one is scoring offense (Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Penn).

Would you have guessed scoring defense over scoring offense? 

There is no stat in which the four teams are 5-6-7-8, though there is one where they are 4 (Penn)-5 (Yale)-7 (Harvard)-8 (Princeton). What is that one? Opponent penalties. In other words, Princeton's opponents has drawn the fewest penalties in the league. 

What does that say? 

What does any of it say?

TB can tell you after the game if any of this matters. In the meantime, it's the last week of the football season, which is somewhat sad. 

Of course, you want to get into the final game in this position, playing for a championship. It's not something that should ever be taken for granted, and it's always something to get excited about.

So TB will see you at Powers Field tomorrow. Dress warm, but be there.