Looking at the League

It feels a little early to embark on my "Ivy Power Rankings" posts after just one week of play and no head-to-head Ivy games.

But I am ready to make a few observations based on the games the other seven Ivy teams played Saturday and what to look for from them this week:

Probably the most impressive victory of week 1 was Brown's win over Bryant. The Bears came in as six-point underdogs and rallied to win. They have a much tougher test at Harvard this Friday night.

Speaking of the Crimson, I think their win over St. Thomas shouldn't just be discounted as an easy win over an over matched opponent. Even more notably, Harvard has clearly chosen to end its QB losing streak by going with a running QB as starter Chuck Deprima ran for more than 100 yards in the game.

I don't think we learn much about Yale or Dartmouth from their losses to top FCS teams Holy Cross and UNH, respectively. Yale predictably performed better on offense and Dartmouth was unsurprisingly better on defense. 

Cornell travels to New Haven to take on the Elis this Saturday coming off a possibly tougher than expected win over Lehigh. But QB Jameson Wong did look better than expected, and that has to concern Yale now. 

Dartmouth should feel good about what its defense should be able to do to the Mountaineers when Lehigh comes to Hanover on Saturday. The offense will still face a challenge. 

Penn's win at Colgate seems like a "hold serve" type of outing. The Quakers won by a bit more than the spread predicted, but not much surprising resulted in the game. Penn needs to throttle Bucknell this Saturday to keep its high standing intact. 

Princeton seemed a little wobblier than expected against San Diego, but never really seemed threatened either. Bryant will be a much better test for the Tigers in New Jersey this Saturday.