Harvard Is Favored to Win Ivy League Football Championship in Media Poll

Harvard University will win the Ivy League football championship this season, according to a poll of media representatives who regularly cover the eight-team conference.

The Crimson, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, received 10 of the 17 first-place votes and 128 points. The defending-champion University of Pennsylvania, based in Philadelphia, was picked second with 124 points and six first-place votes, followed by Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with 95 points.

Yale University, fourth with 83 points, received the remaining first-place vote in the balloting, which was released today on the league’s website.

Harvard (7-3 overall, 6-1 in the Ivy League last season) is expecting a battle at quarterback between returning starter Collier Winters and Andrew Hatch, a transfer from Louisiana State University.

“There will be tremendous competition at quarterback,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said on a teleconference. “We have to find out from Hatch: How is his decision making? Does he take care of the football?

“Right now, our team leader is Collier Winters. But if (Hatch) is the best player, the guy who can help us win a championship, then our players will support him.”

Winters completed 100 of 165 passes for 1,281 yards and nine touchdowns last season. The Crimson also have a pair of running backs who finished 1-2 in the league in rushing yards per game -- senior Gino Gordon, at 77 yards, and sophomore Treavor Scales, at 59.1.

Penn (8-2, 7-0) won its 14th Ivy League title and 11th outright last season. It was the seventh championship for Al Bagnoli, the most of any current Ivy League coach.

Harvard shared the title with Brown in 2008.

2010 Ivy League Football Preseason Media Poll
(First-place Votes in Parentheses)

Rank School      Points
1.   Harvard (10) 128
2.   Penn (6)     124
3.   Brown         95
4.   Yale (1)      83
5.   Columbia      61
6.   Princeton     55
7.   Dartmouth     39
8.   Cornell       27

To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at ceichelberge@bloomberg.net

• Tweet
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email