Last week I started this new feature of linking to the opposing school's football stories. Week 1 illustrated the Columbia Spectator's reaction to Penn's 27-13 win. This week, let's see what the Yale Daily News -- considered one of the better Ivy newspapers -- had to say about Penn's 9-0 shutout.

The YDN only had one article, a standard recap with a sweet quote from Bulldogs coach Tom Williams, who said “we played with great violence.” (Notice the photo credit). Interesting facts from the recap: though Penn hadn’t shut out an opponent since November 2007, Yale was shut out as recently as the last game of 2008, and in fact didn’t score an offensive touchdown for the second straight week.

There were several comments on the article. Some were vehemently against Williams, who hasn’t thrilled Yalies in his rookie year as coach. But the one defense of him that I especially liked went for the French Revolution metaphor: "Roll the guillotine back into storeage for a bit. ... Show Mr. Williams a year of mercy, since the unfortunate truth is that his current minions are all holdovers from the ancien régime.

In a thought-provoking, albeit a little too familiar, article, the Wall Street Journal's Darren Everson asks if the Ivy League needs fixing.

Using the decline of national success of Ivy football, basketball and hockey, he writes about the luster Ivy Athletics has lost in the last 20 years or so. The standard reasons for the Ancient Eight's fall are there -- no scholarships, no football playoffs, no basketball tournament and of course rigorous admission standards for athletes -- but he does make a good point that the Ivies theoretically are at a crossroads with Robin Harris starting her job July 1.

So what do you guys think?  Does the Ivy League need to seriously adjust their standards? Or is it OK that the league does well in second tier sports like lacrosse, wrestling and of course in lower-level sports like squash and fencing but can't make noise in the bigger ones? Let me know in the comments.

Since there's a possibility that link won't give you the entire article, the full text is after the jump.

But before that, here's some other Ivy news. I wrote a few months ago about the possibility of a Washington, D.C., "Big 6" version of the Big 5. Well Connecticut of all places has beaten out the nation's capital. Well kind of.

For the next three seasons, the Connecticut 6 Classic will take place at the beginning of every season, as Yale, Sacred Heart, Hartford, Quinnipiac, Fairfield and Central Connecticut State will compete in a triple header of games. So it won't be exactly like the Big 5 since it won't be round robin. Instead it'll be more like the Philly Classic that started two years ago.

(via Cornell Basketball Blog)

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Hey, Matt Flegenheimer here from the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Ct. The wireless service in the press box has been out all day, but with the second half set to kick off, we're finally connected and ready to go. Yale leads 7-0 after 30 minutes, scoring on a 17-yard drive following a Robert Irvin interception on Penn's first drive. Yale tight end John Sheffield took a pass in the right flat from Yale's Brook Hart (starting in place of injured Ryan Fodor) and went in untouched for the score. With Irvin struggling early, Al Bagnoli has gone to junior Kyle Olson from the end of the first quarter through the first drive of the second half. Stay with the Buzz for live updates the rest of the way.

Halftime stats:

Irvin: 4-10, 27 yards, Int

Olson: 6-14, 46 yards

Blackmon: 6 rushes, 27 yards

DiMaggio: 3 rushes, 6 yards

Koontz: 4 catches, 19 yards

For Yale...

Hart: 5-6, 29 yards

McCleod: 11 rushes, 23 yards

Haase: 3 catches, 23 yards

Penn 9 Yale 7, FINAL

Hart picked up two first downs on the ensuing drive, but was taken down by Drew Goldsmith on a huge sack to force 3rd and 18. Two incompletions later, Penn had the ball back on downs. With only one timeout left, Yale could only stop the clock once, and got the ball with 25 seconds left at its own 23 for one last shot. After two incompletions from Hart, former QB Brendan McNally picked off the final pass to end the game in style.

Penn 9 Yale 7, 4:35 Q4

Let's see what you've got, Brook Hart. Samson knocks a 31-yarder through after a nice, prolonged drive from Olson and the backs. DiMaggio run hard, picking up three first downs, and Olson completed a nice intermediate route over the middle to Derham to get them close. The drive stalled at the Bulldog 8, and the Quakers went backwards from there, but Samson put the Red and Blue ahead with a good-looking knock that was never in doubt.

Penn 6 Yale 7, 12:26 Q4

Bagnoli might regret this one. Two DiMaggio runs set up second and goal from the 1, then another inside handoff to DiMaggio is sniffed out for a one-yard loss. On 3rd and goal from 2, Olson rolls right, has nowhere to go, runs backwards to the 12 or so, then flips a pass to DiMaggio at the 10--about 8 yards behind scrimmage--where the running back is promptly bottled up. Samson field goal makes it a one-point game, but this lost opportunity could prove the difference-maker today.

Penn 3 Yale 7, End of Q3

Another golden opportunity for the Quakers as the third quarter comes to a close. On a 4th and 1 from their own 38, the Bulldogs try a fake punt direct snap to corner Paul Rice, but the snap comes in low, and Rice can't pull it in. He falls on it at the 33, and Penn takes over on downs.

Marcus Lawrence takes a screen from the left side and goes 8 yards on the first play of the drive, and DiMaggio picks up the first two plays later. On the final play of the quarter, Olson hits a wide-open Koontz for 8 yards over the middle to set up 2nd and 2 from the Yale 10.

Penn 3 Yale 7, 3:35 Q3

On the first play following another Penn punt, Hart gets decked by corner Tyson Maugle (back after missing two games with a broken nose) and coughs it up. Jordan Manning tries to scoop it, but ends up knocking back in Maugle's direction. Maugle corrals it from his back, and Penn takes over at the Yale 13.

After three short runs by DiMaggio, though, Penn has to settle for three on a 22-yard field goal by Andrew Samson.

Penn 0 Yale 7, 7:17 Q3

Penn squanders its great field position with a three-and-out, then a pooch punt by Olson that goes into the end zone for a touchback (13 net yards). Yale can't do much, either--the Penn D has been superb all day, only allowing points on an incredibly short field early in the first after the Irvin pick. Goniprow took down Hart for his second sack of the day to force 3rd and long, and Hart scrambled for a short gain on the next play to set up the ensuing punt. Penn takes over from its own 29.

Penn 0 Yale 7, 11:44 Q3

The teams trade punts, but Penn wins the field position battle. After stalling on the first drive of the half, the Quakers got a tremendous boot from Olson inside the Bulldogs' 4. After a three-and-out by the Elis, punter Tom Mante shanked one to his own 36, where the Red and Blue will take over.

Don't know how this one fell through the cracks, but director Kevin Rafferty submitted a film about the infamous 1968 football game between Harvard and Yale that ended in a 29-29 tie to the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Here's a review of the film.

Final, 78-65 Penn
Just as it looked like Penn might be in for a repeat of last night, the Quakers snapped out of their funk and went on a 28-3 run, playing the most inspired stretch of basketball they've played all season. The key to the game was Penn's great inside play, which started to free up open looks from the perimeter later on in the game. Glen Miller has to be very pleased with this win against a somewhat talented Yale team. On the whole, a tremendous team effort for the Quakers.

A few quick notes:

• Yesterday I told you that Remy Cofield left the Palestra in a Tom Brady-like protective boot. He was not on the floor for the pre-game warmups tonight and didn't see any action.
• Cam Lewis, who didn't play last night, saw 4 minutes tonight.
• Mike Kach did not play.
• Penn got to the free throw line 20 more times than it did last night, going 22-26.
• Harrison Gaines had 5 assists in 12 minutes with only one turnover. For the game, Penn had 18 assists and 12 turnovers.

In-game updates can be found after the jump.

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With a few minutes left in the Penn-Brown game, it looked like the winner would have a great shot of challenging Cornell for the title.

The Big Red were surprisingly down, as Harvard used a 19-5 run to build a nine-point second-half lead. The Crimson were still on top by that margin with seven minutes left, and maintained a five-point advantage with under 30 seconds to go after a Jeremy Lin three.

But everything that could have gone wrong for the home side did.

Cornell's Alex Tyler connected on a shot that cut the deficit to 71-68 with 25 seconds left. Then on a long inbounds pass, Lin fell out of bounds (without a foul call) to give it right back. The Big Red gave the ball right back to their big man, as Tyler scored again, getting a goaltend from Evan Harris.

The Harris tried to inbound the ball, but was whistled for a five-second call. Cornell, with under 10 seconds to go, used a screen and misdirection to find Tyler open under the basket to finally re-take the lead, 72-71. Drew Housman's bid to win the game for Harvard missed, and Cornell's undefeated record (7-0) remains intact. Box score

Meanwhile, the Quakers were left at 3-3 after the loss, and a long way away from a fourth-straight title. It's still possible, though, but if the Red and Blue lose tonight to Yale, they are finished.

Wondering why tonight's game is at 6 p.m.? It's on ESPN Classic. I kept seeing advertisemnets for tonght's doubleheader (Villanova plays St. Johns, and yes it is also a national broadcast) in between watching Cheap Seats and old Duke-Maryland games. You won't find Classic in the Quad, but Comcast cable off-campus gets it, and it's in my appartment on Hotwire cable. Yes, that's actually the name of my cable company, and yes it's real ghetto.

Some news stories to keep you busy before the game tonight.

• Columbia's paper gives another perspective on the financial aid issue.
• The Yale Daily chronicles 'Attrition and the Yale Athlete.'
• The NCAA is considering tweaking with some penalties in college football.

Check out these betting lines: Brown is a four-point favorite at Penn, Cornell is a five-point favorite at Harvard, Columbia a two-point favorite at Dartmouth and Yale a 1.5-point favorite at Princeton.

What's so remarkable about that? I believe today is the first time any road team has been favored all year. And the first time it happens, all four road teams are favored!

I think the best bet is for the Big Red to cover the spread at Harvard.

For those who want to keep an eye on 6-0 Cornell's run for the Ivy League title, check out the Times's ongoing coverage of their roadtrip through New England.

And if you can't make it to the Palestra for the Brown game tonight, check back here for live updates. Until then, here's the Providence Journal's preview of the game and here is the DP's.

If you haven't noticed, and if you're reading this post you have, the blog has changed its look a bit. Most of the items in the right rail are still there, just in a slightly different order. We've added archives by month, as well as tags that will show what's popping up most frequently on The Buzz.

Send any comments along to scurria@sas.upenn.edu.

In today's football news, the Boston Globe does a fine profile of Harvard linebacker Peter Ajayi, which is almost enough for me to excuse them for snubbing Saturday's Penn-Princeton game from their Friday preview rundown. The Brown Daily Herald briefly previews Yale's tester against the Bears.

Today's DP carries previews of the Princeton game and the weekend in the Ivy League along with our regular opp spot.