Some people wonder how we here at IvyGate Sports come up with our rankings each and every week. Specifically, why do we include some athletic results and ignore others. Truth be told, it’s all based on a complex formula. We use a weighted average that assigns more value to the sports that are: (a) major sports nationally, (b) traditional Ivy League sports vis-a-vis preppiness, (c) sports that the Ivy is nationally competitive in (so not football), and (d) profit. Once the average is computed, we adjust for quality wins, upsets, and conference championships. Finally, we ignore all the data and base everything on lacrosse, like we have done here.
1. Cornell
Holds bragging rights over: Princeton
After last week’s Princeton domination, it didn’t take long for the Tigers to fall back to earth. Most notably among the earth-falling is Princeton’s men’s lacrosse team, who after earning their first number 1 ranking since 2001 last week, lost to the fourth-ranked Big Red 10-7. With the win, Cornell clinched a share of the Ivy League title for the seventh straight year and will have a chance to win it outright next week at Brown. Other Cornell sports teams having good weekends include softball, who won the Ivy South Division title; women’s lacrosse, who won at Yale; and Evan Starkman, who won the first week’s event on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel 2.
2. Penn
Holds bragging rights over: Brown
While there’s still room for shake-ups in the race for the Ivy men’s lacrosse title, the women’s title is all wrapped up. The Quakers pounded Brown 14-4 to solidify their third-straight Ancient Eight title and third-straight undefeated Ancient Eight campaign. Next weekend, Penn travels to Evanston to lose to No. 1 Northwestern. The game is a preparation for the upcoming NCAA Tournament, where Penn is the favorite to lose to Northwestern in the finals.
The rest follow the jump.
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We here at IvyGate apologize for the IvySports Roundup being a day late, but there were good reasons. First we had to finish our marshmallow peep diorama, then some baseball and softball games got rained out. Most were replayed on Monday while Yale’s teams play doubleheaders at Harvard today. You can bet that the Elis are hoping for more rain however, as Yale’s best teams are in water sports, solid water sports, and water “sports”. Meanwhile, one school had an unprecedented run of success this weekend, and that is why they are number one in this week’s rankings. It is also why their band has achieved new levels of irritation that can only be equalled if Rachel Ray and Guy Fieri mate. (Or pretty much any two people from the Food Network for that matter.)
1. Princeton
Holds bragging rights over: ALL!
Men’s lacrosse beat Harvard. Women’s lacrosse crushed Harvard. Softball swept all four games against Columbia. Men’s tennis swept the weekend. Women’s tennis swept the weekend. Lightweight crew beat Cornell. Women’s track beat Yale and Penn. The only Tigers sports team to lose a game to an Ivy foe this weekend was the baseball team–and they still won the other three games against Columbia. Oh, and their men’s lacrosse team is now number one in the nation. AND, their admission rate is the lowest, too! Wait, it isn’t? Woo-hoo! They didn’t win everything!
2. Cornell
Holds bragging rights over: Penn
The Big Red softball team maintained first place in the Ivy League South Division by sweeping the Quakers in two doubleheaders. In addition, both Cornell lacrosse teams won their games and equestrian won the Ivy title. But in the most unexpected result of the weekend, the Big Red women’s gymnastics team won the USAG Collegiate National Team Title, tying with Bridgeport atop the standings. Granted it is often said that a tie is like kissing one’s sister, but because we’re talking about women’s gymnasts here, that sounds pretty hot.
The rest of the schools that weren’t as successful as Princeton after the jump.
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After the torturous results suffered by Ivy League sports teams last week, this weekend was rather uninteresting. All schools did well in one sport or another and there were a couple of impressive performances, but overall, it was a lackluster weekend. Students shouldn’t enjoy the failures of their school’s athletics teams, but at least the pain keeps them passionate. It is a sentiment best expressed in the words of the great prophet Three Days Grace: “I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all.”
Anyway, on to the rankings.
1. Brown
Holds bragging rights over: Harvard
Brown was one of two schools to see both their lacrosse teams win this weekend. The 9th-ranked men’s lacrosse team beat Yale for their eighth straight victory, while the women’s team beat Columbia. But the most impressive performance by a Brown team came courtesy of women’s water polo. On Friday, the Polo Bears upset Hartwick College, which is somehow a women’s water polo power. The team would then play three more games in the next 24 hours, winning all of them including an 11-10 pipping of Harvard. By halftime of the third match, Brown’s medical trainers were put on finger-pruning alert 6.
2. Princeton
Holds bragging rights over: Yale
Princeton’s fifth-ranked men’s lacrosse team had a high-profile win this weekend, topping defending champion Syracuse at Giants Stadium. The win over the Orange gave Princeton student publications the opportunity to write ample New York Post-style headlines, like “Orange Crushed” or “Tigers Have The Juice.” Much to our chagrin, they passed up the opportunity. Nor was any creative headline writing attempted for the story on the women’s lacrosse team’s win over Yale, despite the fact the Tigers’ high scorer was named Lizzy Drumm. And pun Jesus wept.
The rest after the jump.
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There are many words than can describe this past weekend in Ivy League sports. There’s “heartbreaking”, “horrible”, “bleak”, “unchill”, “Pussycat Dolls coming for Slope Day“, and “craporexic”. Much of this diction stems from the three Ivy League schools entered in the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament all being eliminated in painful fashion.
On Friday, Yale fell 4-1 to Vermont in what was essentially a home game for the Elis in Bridgeport. Yale was the fifth-ranked team in the country, was coming off a 5-0 drubbing of Cornell in the ECAC Championship, and was considered a favorite to make the Frozen Four. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they underestimated the motivational power of Phish songs.
That was followed shortly after by Princeton surrendering 2 goals in the final minute, including the game-tying score with 0.8 seconds to go, against Minnesota-Duluth before losing in overtime 5-4. In the post-game press conference, the Duluth head coach said that his team was resigned to losing but dammit that Princeton band was just too annoying to let go home happy.
Unlike their compatriots, Cornell won their first round game–a 3-2 comeback against Northeastern. This put them only one win away from a trip to the Frozen Four in Washington, D.C. All the Big Red had to do to make their first National Semifinal since 2003 was beat Bemidji State–a school with an 18-15-1 record in the regular season and the lone representative of the CHA conference, also known as the Sun Belt of College Hockey. You can probably guess what happened next. On the plus side, it had now been proven possible to make Ithaca even more depressing.
Anyway, on to the dismal, dismal rankings. Bring your own My Chemical Romance CDs.
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It’s time once again to look back at the weekend in sports in the Ivy League, or as it is also known, the Old Ocho. With last week being spring break for most of the Ocho, many teams took road trips to schools in the west and south. It was a nice chance of pace as they were able to lose in warm weather. But one Ivy school stayed in the cold and won, and that’s why they lead this week’s list.
1. Yale
Holds bragging rights over: Cornell
The Eli’s men’s hockey team won its first ever ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship this weekend. In the semifinals on Friday, the Bulldogs scored two goals in the final two minutes to rally past St. Lawrence 4-3, and in the finals on Saturday, they stomped Cornell 5-0. Yale received even better news when the NCAA men’s hockey tournament bracket was released on Sunday. Thanks to what can only be Skull & Bones working their dastardly influence by annexing Fairfield University, the Bulldogs were named the host of the East Regional in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They managed to be the host despite not actually hosting any games there this season. Anyway, this means that the Elis only need to win two games in their home state to make the Frozen Four. This is example #5,763 of Yale making the world less fair for the rest of us.
2. Brown
Holds bragging rights over: Dartmouth
Both Bears teams in the Ivy League’s only nationally competitive spring sport (lacrosse) won this weekend. The nationally ranked men beat Dartmouth and the women squeaked by UConn. Of course, Connecticut’s women’s lacrosse team is essentially the bizzaro version of their women’s basketball team, but still…
Everyone else after the jump.
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Once again, it’s time to recap the weekend in Ancient Eight athletics. Determining this week’s ranking order of schools was a difficult task, as the winter sports have concluded Ivy League play, and most of the schools are on spring break. But in spite of these difficulties, an order has been established and presented below. What’s even better is that there is little to no mention of the Ivy League fringe sports, like the Cornell polo team or the Dartmouth racism decathlon.
1. Yale
Holds bragging rights over: Harvard and Penn
Yale’s men’s ice hockey team showed Harvard the proper way to beat the second-worst team in men’s collegiate hockey. Tip number one: score goals. The Bulldogs eliminated Brown from the ECAC Hockey playoffs in straight games, scoring six goals on the weekend. That’s six more than Harvard scored in their series against the Bears last weekend.
And in good news for bad Yale teams, the Elis beat Penn in men’s lacrosse on Michael Karwoski’s ovetime goal. By law, a loss to Yale in lacrosse must be accompanied by a ten point drop in ranking. Of course, with Quaker lacrosse being equally bad, a different Penn institution had to take the drop. And thus summarizes Penn’s latest excuse for Wharton falling in the business school rankings.
2. Dartmouth
Holds bragging rights over: Cornell
The Big Red may have the Ivy League men’s basketball title, but the Ivy Player of the Year resides in Hanover. The Big Green’s star forward Alex Barnett became the first Dartmouth player to win the award since 1981. Dartmouth also is home to the Ivy League women’s basketball Player of the Year, Brittney Smith. Barnett won the award in part due to his Ivy League leading 19.4 points per game, but mostly due to the fact that he looks like the Predator.
The remaining six after the jump.
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It’s time once again to look back at the weekend in Ancient sports, or Ancient schools who do their best at sports. The Ivies have been ranked by their athletic performance, because Ivy Leaguers know that rankings are the only form of comparison that counts. And justice shows that this week’s rankings practically mirror last week’s, except they’re in reverse. Some might call that inverse.
1. Cornell
Holds bragging rights over: Everyone
So as everyone knows by now, Cornell clinched their second consecutive Ivy League men’s basketball title on Friday when they demolished Penn and Princeton lost at Columbia. Images of Cornell students storming the floor opened Sportscenter on Friday night, one of the two times a year Ivy League basketball is shown on ESPN’s highlight show. The other is when the Ivy League champion loses by 45 to Michigan State in the first round of the tournament.
On Sunday, the Big Red won their second conference title of the weekend in wrestling, pounding the competition at the EIWA tournament at the Palestra. The EIWAs—an NCAA Division-I wrestling regional consisting of the Ivy League, the Patriot League, Rutgers, and Franklin & Marshall (because wrestling is about the only sport the Amish can play)—saw four Cornell wrestlers win their weight classes. 125-lb champion Troy Nickerson took home the Sheridan award for most wins by pinfall, although Ann Coulter is attempting to have it revoked as he is a CA&LS student, and thus not really a Cornellian.
Everybody else after the jump.
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We decided we didn’t have enough jock-appeal so we decided to do an IvyGate staff calendar for oak-paneled locker rooms everywhere. While Adam is saving up for a new camera, I’ll be doing weekly recaps of the Ivy League sports action that took place over the weekend. For your convenience, the recaps for each school are ordered from best to worst weekend. (That might be reversed for fun’s sake.) They are also accompanied by the fellow Ivy that each school has bragging rights over for the week. Gloat if you must, but we are still talking about Ivy League sports, here.
1. Harvard
Holds bragging rights over: Cornell
The Cornell students at the Daily Sun had their “Big Red Claim 2nd Consecutive Ivy League Men’s Basketball Title” stories ready on Saturday afternoon. Then Harvard had to go and ruin everything by beating the Big Red by 1. Last year, Cornell beat Harvard by 1 when the Crimson players committed two five-second violations in the last thirty seconds. Apparently, the players had forgotten that the rules of college basketball don’t account for Harvard Time.
2. Yale
Holds bragging rights over: Cornell
Sure, Yale’s men’s basketball team fell at Princeton this weekend, but they made great strides in a sport the Elis don’t care about. Yale’s men’s ice hockey team beat Cornell 4-2 on Friday to clinch the regular season conference title. The conference in question is the ECAC Hockey League, also known as “The Ivy League Plus Colgate, Quinnipiac, RPI, and Three Schools I’ve Never Heard Of.”
Don’t mind the elitism. Everyone else after the jump.
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