Football: Columbia to end the season instead of Penn?

[Scersk '97]

from http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=211557248

Columbia University released its future football schedules through the year 2022, Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli announced on Wednesday....

A slight change in the Ivy League order of games is also evident as Columbia will conclude its regular season schedules against Cornell instead of Brown beginning in 2018.

Whose brilliant idea was this, I wonder? We have never ended our season vs. Columbia. For the grand majority of our early history it was Penn; during the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, we alternated between Princeton and Penn; since 1988, it's been Penn.

Whether the intention here was to create a rivalry or to manufacture a situation—now completely dubious—in which Cornell is more likely to end the season on a positive note, this change is beyond idiotic.

No one cares about our "rivalry" with Columbia, and no one ever will. I hate this kind of crap.

[scoop85]

from http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=211557248

Columbia University released its future football schedules through the year 2022, Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli announced on Wednesday....

A slight change in the Ivy League order of games is also evident as Columbia will conclude its regular season schedules against Cornell instead of Brown beginning in 2018.

Whose brilliant idea was this, I wonder? We have never ended our season vs. Columbia. For the grand majority of our early history it was Penn; during the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, we alternated between Princeton and Penn; since 1988, it's been Penn.

Whether the intention here was to create a rivalry or to manufacture a situation—now completely dubious—in which Cornell is more likely to end the season on a positive note, this change is beyond idiotic.

No one cares about our "rivalry" with Columbia, and no one ever will. I hate this kind of crap.

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

[Ken711]

from http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=211557248

Columbia University released its future football schedules through the year 2022, Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli announced on Wednesday....

A slight change in the Ivy League order of games is also evident as Columbia will conclude its regular season schedules against Cornell instead of Brown beginning in 2018.

Whose brilliant idea was this, I wonder? We have never ended our season vs. Columbia. For the grand majority of our early history it was Penn; during the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, we alternated between Princeton and Penn; since 1988, it's been Penn.

Whether the intention here was to create a rivalry or to manufacture a situation—now completely dubious—in which Cornell is more likely to end the season on a positive note, this change is beyond idiotic.

No one cares about our "rivalry" with Columbia, and no one ever will. I hate this kind of crap.

Maybe in prior years, but since Columbia's administration finally straightened out their football program, it's highly unlikely it will end on a positive note in the future seasons unless Cornell's administration does the same thing.

[Scersk '97]

Whether the intention here was to create a rivalry or to manufacture a situation—now completely dubious—in which Cornell is more likely to end the season on a positive note, this change is beyond idiotic.

Maybe in prior years, but since Columbia's administration finally straightened out their football program, it's highly unlikely it will end on a positive note in the future seasons unless Cornell's administration does the same thing.

That was kind of my point.

[Scersk '97]

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

Ah, yes, there is after all that storied rivalry with Colgate in hockey; and, indeed, how Columbia is two miles or so (as the crow flies) closer than Princeton just makes me want to forget those Tigers and tear up the Lions!  

Geography is certainly a factor in rivalries, but history is far more important. This just smacks of someone's "good idea."

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

Ah, yes, there is after all that storied rivalry with Colgate in hockey; and, indeed, how Columbia is two miles or so (as the crow flies) closer than Princeton just makes me want to forget those Tigers and tear up the Lions!  

Geography is certainly a factor in rivalries, but history is far more important. This just smacks of someone's "good idea."

This isn't about a Cornell rivalry with anyone.  This is about the Penn-Princeton rivalry.  Cornell-Columbia is simply collateral damage.

[Scersk '97]

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

Ah, yes, there is after all that storied rivalry with Colgate in hockey; and, indeed, how Columbia is two miles or so (as the crow flies) closer than Princeton just makes me want to forget those Tigers and tear up the Lions!  

Geography is certainly a factor in rivalries, but history is far more important. This just smacks of someone's "good idea."

This isn't about a Cornell rivalry with anyone.  This is about the Penn-Princeton rivalry.  Cornell-Columbia is simply collateral damage.

Do you have that on good authority?

If so—if this is about Penn–Princeton rather than the manufacturing of some rivalry with Columbia, probably based on our recent forays into being "New York's University," however one might decide to construe that moniker—then I think it's even more pathetic, since then a basketball rivalry has bled over into one of the more venerable institutions. To put it another way, imagine if we moved everything around to end our season in lacrosse with Harvard every year because, well, there's that hockey thing...

Anyway, I'm sure Princeton students and alums don't consider Penn their rivals in anything but basketball. They look rather toward Harvard and Yale. That being said, there's no doubt Penn-Princeton generates far more local interest than Penn-Cornell, so I'm sure it looks more like a rivalry game to casual fans and sports marketing types. Yet, in the end, Penn has found itself a dancing partner that would, generally, rather not.

[ugarte]

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

Ah, yes, there is after all that storied rivalry with Colgate in hockey; and, indeed, how Columbia is two miles or so (as the crow flies) closer than Princeton just makes me want to forget those Tigers and tear up the Lions!  

Geography is certainly a factor in rivalries, but history is far more important. This just smacks of someone's "good idea."

This isn't about a Cornell rivalry with anyone.  This is about the Penn-Princeton rivalry.  Cornell-Columbia is simply collateral damage.

Do you have that on good authority?

If so—if this is about Penn–Princeton rather than the manufacturing of some rivalry with Columbia, probably based on our recent forays into being "New York's University," however one might decide to construe that moniker—then I think it's even more pathetic, since then a basketball rivalry has bled over into one of the more venerable institutions. To put it another way, imagine if we moved everything around to end our season in lacrosse with Harvard every year because, well, there's that hockey thing...

Anyway, I'm sure Princeton students and alums don't consider Penn their rivals in anything but basketball. They look rather toward Harvard and Yale. That being said, there's no doubt Penn-Princeton generates far more local interest than Penn-Cornell, so I'm sure it looks more like a rivalry game to casual fans and sports marketing types. Yet, in the end, Penn has found itself a dancing partner that would, generally, rather not.

They've been branding the Cornell-Columbia game the Empire State Bowl or something like that for a while. The truth is that the only real bilateral rivalry in the Ivy League is Harvard-Yale. Everything else ebbs and flows with the success of teams in particular sports and pretending otherwise is silly. The only reason I hate this move is that I like to take my son to the game in NYC every other year and I oppose anything that makes it more likely that it will be freezing cold.

[Trotsky]

The truth is that the only real bilateral rivalry in the Ivy League is Harvard-Yale.

Princeton-Yale used to be the Battle for New York when the Ivies were the playpen of Upper Class Twits of the Year.

But then Fitzgerald graduated and they started admitting women and Jews and it all went to shit...

[Swampy]

Well, although it was lopsided, the Cornell-Penn rivalry does have some historic legitimacy, especially in the 1930s. It was on Thanksgiving, nationally broadcast, and played before crowds of about 60,000. Prior to the 1930s, Penn had won six national championships, Cornell would win its fifth NC in 1939, a season that it beat Syracuse, Ohio State, Penn State, and (of course) Penn.

None of this is likely to happen again in our lifetimes, but there's considerable merit in preserving a tradition harking back to the days when student-athletes were students first and collegiate football wasn't a multinational corporate oligopoly.

[ugarte]

Well, although it was lopsided, the Cornell-Penn rivalry does have some historic legitimacy, especially in the 1930s. It was on Thanksgiving, nationally broadcast, and played before crowds of about 60,000. Prior to the 1930s, Penn had won six national championships, Cornell would win its fifth NC in 1939, a season that it beat Syracuse, Ohio State, Penn State, and (of course) Penn.

The truth is that the only real bilateral rivalry in the Ivy League is Harvard-Yale. Everything else ebbs and flows with the success of teams in particular sports and pretending otherwise is silly.

[Trotsky]

harking back to the days when student-athletes were students first

Cough.  Uh, sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7PgnjEiMcA

Same year as this came out, by this guy.

In the fall of 1931, he characterized the college football program as a "semiprofessional racket". He was expelled in April 1932, but following student protests he was readmitted twenty days later. In the fall of 1932, he published King Football: The Vulgarization of the American College (1932), an exposé of commercialism in college football and an attack on higher education that accused United States schools of turning out "regimented lead soldiers of mediocrity". "To put forth winning football teams," he wrote, "alumni, faculty and trustees will lie, cheat and steal, unofficially."

That's the 1930s, and it's about that noted football factory Columbia.

It's always been corrupt, and the stereotype of the Joe Rockhead football player started in the sanctimonious halls of Ivy.

[dbilmes]

Apparently, not all of the Columbia fans are happy about their team's sudden football success.

"The pure joy of Columbia football is that we're not supposed to be good," said Sahil Godiwala, Columbia College class of 1999.

[ugarte]

"The pure joy of Columbia football is that we're not supposed to be good," said Sahil Godiwala, Columbia College class of 1999.

I am 100% certain this person never went to a game and only "enjoyed" the failure of the team passively and ironically. He can go jump in the Harlem River. Maybe then he'll finally see the stadium.

EDIT BEFORE EVEN POSTING: I decided to read the article and while I was right about Mr. Godiwala as a hipster student coping with a team that was always bad, he's enjoying their current success so he's ok by me.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I think the idea was that Columbia is our most "natural" rival geographically, and the league wants Penn to finish against Princeton, their natural geographic rival.  Nothing nefarious about the move.

Ah, yes, there is after all that storied rivalry with Colgate in hockey; and, indeed, how Columbia is two miles or so (as the crow flies) closer than Princeton just makes me want to forget those Tigers and tear up the Lions!  

Geography is certainly a factor in rivalries, but history is far more important. This just smacks of someone's "good idea."

This isn't about a Cornell rivalry with anyone.  This is about the Penn-Princeton rivalry.  Cornell-Columbia is simply collateral damage.

Do you have that on good authority?

Nope, just my typical tin foil hat paranoia.