I'm going to try a new feature on The Buzz this week. Each Monday I'll try to find stories on the football game from the past weekend written by the opposing team's student newspaper (and in the case of the more rural schools the local professional papers as well). Obviously I'm a few days behind, but with Fall Break at Penn earlier this week, The DP only published our own stories today so I didn't think of this idea until now. So sorry the Columbia Spectator stories are a few days old.

First is the standard recap. Interestingly, while we refer to the Lions quarterback as M. A. Olawale, The Spectator uses his first name, Millicent. Also, Lou Miller led the Columbia defense with 10 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and five tackles for a loss, and earned the inaugural John Toner Columbia Football Homecoming Player of the Game award for his efforts.

They also have a sidebar on turnovers, which is similar to my column that ran today, though of course without opinion. (There was no column.)

In addition, since it's already Wednesday, The Spectator has their equivalent of an Ivy notebook. They focus on the fact that just three Ivy teams won, including Penn and Brown who beat League foes Columbia and Princeton, respectively. Of note, it also mentions that Princeton star linebacker Scott Britton suffered a knee injury in the loss and probably will miss the rest of the season. That marks the second Tigers standout -- after running back Jordan Culbreath -- to suffere a season-ending injury.

At least according to this Spectator column.

The author does make some good points, specifically that the offense is senior-laden. So's the defense. In fact except for the special teams unit -- "the kicker can’t make PATs and the punter had an 11-yard punt against Princeton" -- the team appears to be the strongest in the Norries Wilson era. Add in a home schedule that includes games against four of the top five Ivy teams, and the author thinks Columbia can stay in contention until the last week, if not win the whole thing.

In short, if the hapless Ivy squad doesn't breakthrough this year and at least compete for its first Ivy title since a split championship in 1961 then Wilson should probably be fired. At least according to the author.

That same year the Lions last won some hardware, they also shut out an Ivy opponent on the road (Yale). The next time the Lions accomplished that feat? This past Saturday at Princeton, winning 38-0. So clearly Columbia is capable of both putting points on the board and shutting down an opponent's offense during Ivy games.

So how does this affect Penn (which the column describes as the only Ivy team that "has good kickers")? The Quakers can't waltz into Baker Field a week from Saturday and expect to win big, like the 2007 59-28 victory. Just last year at Franklin Field it was 15-10. And as commenter "'96" said on Neil's column from Monday, "We've got a test in two weeks with an improved Lions squad in NY (their homecoming) that will not be a gimme. They've got a huge offensive line to complement Olawale. Lose that one, and the rest of the season becomes academic."

At the least the game on the 17th should be competitive. And maybe by the end Roar Lions Roar will finally have something to um roar about.

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In other football news, The Inquirer is saying sophomore John Hurley will start at quarterback for Penn Saturday versus Bucknell (HT SPL twitter). When Eli asked some questions for my football notebook, Lyle Marsh told him "John Hurley is the starting quarterback right now." However, Bagnoli did say it wasn't completely settled, so hence my notebook says it's still up in the air. My feeling is that Hurley is slated to start, but Bagnoli would prefer Olson if he improves his knee by then. At the least, I'd be quite surprised if Olson still doesn't see a decent amount of action.

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In personal news, I'm sorry I haven't been able to contribute that much in the past couple of weeks on The Buzz (outside of comments). I've been much busier than in past semesters, so hence the lack of posts. But after Noah posted at 6 a.m. last night, I thought, hey why can't I do the same?

The Penn basketball team's 51-50 win at Columbia on March 7 was a great memory in a season mostly full of bad ones. The Quakers spent most of the night playing catchup and were down a pair with 1.9 ticks left, but senior captain Kevin Egee drilled an impossible three-pointer off a flawless inbounds play to snatch the game away. It wasn't being televised, but someone in the crowd that night had a camera rolling and later posted a grainy clip of the final play on YouTube, where Egee's moment could live on forever.

Or perhaps not. The video has since been removed at the request of Columbia's Athletics Department. See for yourself: The original link, which had been posted on The Buzz, now just gives a message reading "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Columbia University Athletics." So far as I can tell, there are no other versions of it floating around.

What childishness. Columbia obviously has the right to decide where and how recordings of its teams' games appear online, but was removing that video from YouTube really necessary? Was Columbia losing any money because it was there? Was there an important precedent at stake? Did Columbia have to deny fans, recruits and casual observers -- not to mention Egee's family and Egee himself -- the chance to relive that great moment online?

The answer is obvious. Which might explain why there are plenty of other Ivy League basketball clips on YouTube -- some from games that were broadcast, some from games that were not. Those clips have stayed there for years, unmolested. Why this one was judged to be so damaging, I don't know.

If athletic administrators want to spend their man-hours policing YouTube, that's their right. But erasing the memory of Egee's shot -- a game-winning, Columbia-beating shot -- just reeks of sour grapes.

Outphysicaled is probably my least favorite word -- if you want to call it that -- in the sports interview lexicon, and thankfully a word that Glen Miller chose to avoid in last night's press conference. But the word might be the best way to describe Penn's performance against Columbia. Miller boiled it down to toughness, stating plainly that Penn just wasn't tough enough to win the game.

And that assessment is dead on. The Quakers could not thwart the Lions inside presence, allowing Jason Miller to net a career-high 21 points. Loose balls and long rebounds always seemed to find their way to a baby blue jersey, and wherever the Quakers were trying to go on offense, Columbia was always a step ahead of them. The Lions' physical play helped prevent Penn's ball screens at the top of the key and knock Penn out of its rhythm. With time, Zack Rosen and the Quakers tried to make too much happen instead of waiting for a play to develop, leading to turnovers and missed opportunities.

As I hinted Thursday, Columbia isn't half bad this year. In fact, though it's hard to believe, the Lions might be one of the best teams in what is a truly wide open conference defined by parity this season. Niko Scott came to play, Noruwa Agho turned in solid minutes, K.J. Matsui nailed his threes, and Miller's inside contribution was as impressive as it was unexpected.  Even Steve Egee -- whose match up against his brother Kevin provided one of the coolest moments I've seen at the Palestra in four years -- showed a good bit of talent and basketball IQ.

Bottom line: Columbia was the better team yesterday, and the more physical one at that. Glen Miller even seemed a bit stumped during the press conference, noting that Columbia wasn't "doing anything special," but just outplayed Penn. Before we read too much into last night's effort, let's see how the Quakers respond tonight against Cornell, which is coming off of a surprising loss to Princeton. Please get to the Palestra if you can tonight -- it should be a very interesting game.

Sidenote: Though the attendance at last night's game among students followed the standard Penn pattern for basketball and football games -- arrive late, leave early -- I was impressed with the large number of students that came by last night. Too bad the Quakers couldn't give them a better show. Last night happened to be the fraternity/sorority night at the Palestra, with discounted tickets for Greeks and a sorority tug-o-war contest. I'd say it was a successful promotion.

That said, and I credit Philly.com's Jon Tannenwald for furthering my observations, Penn needs to make the entire student section general admission. At tip-off last night, the upper level behind the basket was pretty full of students with GA tickets, while section 120 -- reserved for season ticket holders that did the Line -- remained pretty empty and needed to be filled up with cheerleaders. If the season ticket holders don't care enough about their tickets to show up to the game at tip-off, then let the kids that cared to show up down to the lower level. Of course, this can't be done this year because the season ticket holders already paid their money. But to resolve the problem going forward, they should make everything general admission and make the Line optional or get rid of it altogether and just do a "Midnight Madness" event like so many other schools.

As always, your thoughts are welcome. More detailed coverage of this weekend will follow in Monday's edition of the DP.

Three facts that are necessary to understand me before we enter this relatively straight-forward named post:

1. I love lists. I will read any arbitrary group of things as long as it’s in numeric order—“The 16 Worst Plastic Surgeries,” “The 4 Handsomest Daily Pennsylvanian Sports Editors,” whatever –for several years I felt as though VH1’s programming was meant exclusively for me.

2. I hold deep seated biases. Oftentimes, I choose these biases on a whim. In presenting these biases to you, the blog reading public, I want to express that they are solely my personal flights of fancy and do not  represent the DP.

3. I love interacting with commenters. Constructive criticisms, deconstructive put downs, construction suggestions, whatever, please interact with me. Like most bloggers, I am lonely.

But before we get to the list, for anyone interested in what Penn’s opponents’ newspapers are saying this weekend, here’s the game preview from the Cornell Daily Sun. The money quote in the piece comes from Cornell Coach Steve Donahue saying, about Penn: “They’re still a young team. They’re one of the most talented teams we’ll play in the league, if not the most talented.”

The Columbia Spectator does not have a game preview up yet, but I found this article about a potential progressive semi-professionalizing of college sports interesting.

All that being said, here are the institutions I’m encouraging you to root for this weekend.

     1. The Princeton Tigers Men’s Basketball team:

Yes, yes, I know this is heresy. I’m the Benedict Arnold of the Buzz. But something has felt consistently wrong without Princeton in the upper echelon of Ivy League basketball. A 4-0, first place Tigers team could generate the sort of excitement for the League that has been lacking everywhere except for Ithaca.

     2. The Continuation of Phi Slamma Eggleston (I wish I had coined this term)

Ever since the La Salle game, Jack Eggleston has picked up—and immediately thrown down, two handed—the mantle as the preeminent Penn in-game dunker. It’s starting not to feel like a game unless the rim is abused by Eggleston. Additionally, rumor has it that last weekend in Hanover Cam Lewis, The Slammin’ Gauguin, joined the elite PSE fraternity attacking Dartmouth’s rims with aplomb. It would be nice to see that translate to a portrait worthy dunk or two on Jeff Foote and Jason Miller.

For whatever reason, Columbia hasn't lived up to its athletic reputation in the past few years on the hardwood against Penn. While everyone is getting geared up for the Penn-Cornell showdown on Saturday, the Quakers could find themselves in a real jam if they overlook tomorrow night's game.

The brief rundown of the recent history, in case you forgot...

Last year, Penn got destroyed at Columbia, 74-58, thanks to the hot shooting of K.J. Matsui. Penn could not defend the three. In Philadelphia, the Quakers squeaked out with a win, 69-67, in the last game of the season.

Three seasons ago, the Lions dealt Penn its first Ivy League loss of the season. That Penn team would go on to win the Ivy League that year.

Columbia has played relatively well this season -- Niko Scott and Matsui remain viable perimeter threats, and freshman guard Norwua Agho has been coming on very strong as of late. Agho, like Ibby Jaaber and Darren Smith, is a product of the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J.

It's easy for everyone to get absorbed in the Cornell hype, but if the Quakers can't put Columbia away tomorrow, they won't be in very high spirits heading into Saturday night. With such a young team, mental preparation is paramount. For this reason, Columbia cannot be overlooked. The Lions will come to play tomorrow, and Penn better be ready. It's not yet time to be thinking about Saturday.

Having had almost a full week to think about the collapse in the final minutes last week to Dartmouth, the Quakers should be chomping at the bit to get out on the court. And I have faith that Glen Miller has hammered these points home already.

P.S. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the blatant absence of Penn basketball coverage on The Buzz in the past week. There is no excuse for it, and I personally regret the lack of posts. But you're not looking for an apology -- you're looking for regular commentary on the Quakers. All I can do for my part is promise to do a better job of bringing that to you on a consistent basis. Thanks for reading.

A blog dedicated to  Columbia football -- yes, the same Columbia football team that is currently on a 12-game losing streak -- just wrote a post about Al Bagnoli and the quick turnaround of the Penn football team he masterminded in the early 1990s.

But as Quakers fans know, the last four years have brought zero Ivy League titles and three straight losing Ivy campaigns. Why the decline?  Well, according to the post, maybe Penn President Amy Gutmann is to blame.

But 2003 was the last time Penn won the football title. And that's also when current Penn president Amy Gutmann came on the scene.

Could the two incidents be related? When I asked Bagnoli last year if he felt he was getting enough support from the administration, he mostly shrugged. I get the feeling he had more to say ... but couldn't.

And then later:

For all I know, Gutmann is supporting athletics more than anyone at Penn, but the time parallels here are pretty clear. This is not only the longest championship drought for Bagnoli, his Quaker teams have had three straight losing Ivy seasons! And basketball fell off a cliff in 2007-08 for the first time in... forever.

Oh, and quarterback Robert Irvin is also to blame, says the blog, despite the fact that he was injured for all but 1.5 games last year and performed well in his sophomore season when he earned honorable mention All-Ivy honors.

Although this post is more than a little suspect -- Gutmann surely can't be blamed for Penn's football woes -- the blog, Roar Lions Roar, actually does have some legitimate information. Some links of note for Penn fans:

Will Lions WR Austin Knowlin have a big game on Saturday?

Is there a rivalry between Penn and Columbia?

Scouting Penn

In the past few weeks, I've had a lot of seemingly random posts, ranging from connections of the Ivy League to the NFL, to Cornell's basketball team as the best ever to Ivy League hoops previews that are two months early.

But starting today, I'm going to try something a little different. From now on, I'll collect these randomly related Ivy League and/or Penn links that aren't time sensitive and post them each Wednesday. And any story with a more direct news link, such as Cornell's Adam Gore tearing his ACL or analysis of the just-released men's basketball schedule, will get posted ASAP.

So without further ado, here's the first couple of links:

1) In honor of Yankee Stadium closing Sunday night, Jim Caple, of ESPN.com's Page 2, ranked "America's 100 most important sports venues." The title is pretty important, because Caple specifically states it's neither the best venues nor his favorites, and it's not just stadiums (ESPN's headquarters comes in at No. 10).

Penn gets on the list twice. The Palestra comes in at No. 34, while Franklin Field makes the cut at No. 71. (The Palestra actually gets one of the few photos.) ESPN praising Penn athletic facilities isn't anything new, but it's still nice to see our stadiums mentioned on the most-read sports website. The only other Ivy venue is the Yale bowl, and Penn is one of just two universities to have both on-campus football and basketball venues listed (Tennessee is the other).

2) This might be a month old, but if you're sad that the Penn football team just lost its fifth overtime game in its last 16 contests, just remember, at least you don't root for Columbia.