Penn’s path to Ivy football title starts against Harvard on Saturday
Penn essentially needs a victory in its final home game of the season to stay in contention for an Ivy title.
As the Penn football season winds down and final rankings become clearer, each game has more perceived pressure. In essentially a win-or-go-home situation, Penn has to pull ahead of Harvard in the penultimate week of the season. Harvard looks to spoil Penn’s final home game of the season on Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN+).
Keys to victory
The Crimson (5-3, 3-2) are two games out of first place in the Ivy League, but they’re not easy competition. Their only conference losses have been to undefeated No. 16 Princeton and a head-scratching upset by Columbia last Saturday, somewhat reminiscent of Penn’s loss to Brown earlier this year.
If Penn (7-1, 4-1) can get the ball down the field, there’s a good chance it can make it count on the scoreboard. Penn has the best red zone offense in the Ivy League and Harvard has the worst red zone defense. To seal the deal, the Penn defense will have to shut down wide receiver Kym Winberly Jr. and running back Aidan Borguet. They combine for 210.8 yards per game, more than half of Harvard’s total offense.
Championship in sight
Four teams are still vying for the Ivy championship. Though every game is important, this final stretch has extra weight because these top teams will all be facing one another in the two remaining weeks. Penn and Yale (6-2, 4-1) will each play Harvard and Princeton (8-0, 5-0).
The Quakers will need to go 2-0 against Harvard and Princeton to guarantee at least a share of the trophy. There is, however, a situation in which Penn loses to Harvard but still gets the title. That would require both Penn and Yale to beat Princeton and Harvard to beat Yale. The result would be a four-way tie at the top of the standings with 5-2 teams. There are no tiebreakers or playoffs in the Ivy League, so handing a trophy to half the league is possible, though highly improbable.
These two have a history
The fifth-oldest rivalry in college football, Penn and Harvard have been going at it since 1881. The Crimson lead the series, 50-39-2. Since 2000, Penn is 11-10 against Harvard. In eight of those 11 years, the Quakers went on to win the Ivy championship.
What’s next
The Quakers will hit the road for their season finale against Princeton on Nov. 19 (1 p.m., NBC Sports Philadelphia). The Tigers are one of four undefeated teams in FCS.