See if this sounds familiar. Yale was leading by three points with 2:25 left in their giant season-defining game against Harvard on Saturday. It was fourth down and they had the ball on their own 26-yard line. Seems like an obvious punting situation, right? (After all, their punter is the best in the Ivy league and was averaging 51 yards per kick for the game.) Well, Williams was apparently so won over by the outpouring of love and affection that Bill Belichick got all week by going for it against the Colts, that he decided to do the Patriots' leader one better. The Bulldogs ran a fake punt that gained 15 yards on an end around run. The only hitch in the plan was that they needed 22.

I'm not sure those Ivy League eggheads read all that statistical analysis defending Belichick very carefully. Oh, sure it was a gutsy gamble that really sent a message. The message is that Yalies are not smart. Seriously, fourth and 22? Harvard got the ball at the Yale 40 and three plays later they scored the winning touchdown, their eighth victory in nine tries over their arch rival. Gah!

Williams has made a bit of a name for himself in his first head coaching season with his frequent and effective use of trick plays, and he claims he did not want to play scared. Plus, he was worried that Harvard had gained momentum and he wanted to "keep our foot on the pedal," because you always want to be going full speed when you drive into a brick wall.

Although, to be fair to the Elis, Williams did go to Stanford. Those West Coast buffoons can't do math for shit.

Williams offers apology to players day after loss [New Haven Register]
Head Coach Pulls a 'Belichick,' Yale Loses to Harvard [Fanhouse]
Harvard-Yale Game 2009 Has Yale Lose with 'Belichick' Call [Associated Content]

Yep, the Ivy League has their own blog set up for the Olympics. Of course ths will mean that you're focusing a ton on fencing, rowing, and other sports that people who aren't rich have never heard of. But imagine the snob appeal. You're not rooting for the richest country in the world, you're rooting for the richest .0001% of the richest country in the world.

And if you get tired of that, why not stroll through the Ivy League record book so you can impress the fellows at the Hamptons this weekend? Harvard Man: "Oh, you went to Columbia? I guess that's not so bad if you don't mind going to a school that has only produced 35 Olympians. Now if you don't mind I'm going to quietly suffocate on my own hot air."

Ivies in China [Ivy League Blog]

The Ivy League is the only conference in the nation that has the balls to give their NCAA tournament slot to their regular season champion. For the third straight year, that will be the Quakers (ever the non-conformists). I am of the opinion that every conference should do it this way.

If you're looking to size up Penn's tournament chances, know that they've lost in the first round the last two years ... by 8 to Texas in '06, and by 20 to Boston College in '05. Also know that they are the Penn Quakers.

So congratulations to them. Four other teams will join them in the bracket this afternoon, as the Atlantic Sun, the SoCon, the Big South, and the Ohio Valley all have their championship games going today. This March Madness business is starting to feel a little bit real.

Penn wins Ivy League title to secure berth in NCAA Tournament [Mercury News]

• 1. Just One More Thing, Ma'am ... Legendary Princeton coach Pete Carrill wore the same worn-out Princeton sweatshirt, bow tie and trench coat to every game, earning him the campus nickname "Columbo." He retired in 1996 after 19 seasons at the university for many reasons, one being Princeton's high tuition making it hard to attract talent. Carrill says that in one case, university officials learned that a recruit's mother had a paper route and subtracted the amount she made from their scholarship offer.

• 2. America's Got Talent. Dartmouth junior forward Jonathan Ball is not only a fan of the Memphis Grizzlies, but is known as "one of the best singers on the Big Green team." A lofty distinction indeed.

• 3. Cool As The Other Side Of The Pillow (Wee!). Yale junior guard Caleb Holmes' father, Mark Holmes, played professional basketball in Iceland.

• 4. Grow Hoof, Grow! Among noted University of Pennsylvania alumni are ninth President of the United States William Henry Harrison, Donald Trump, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Allred, Warren Buffett, and Barbaro ... the latter who technically has not yet graduated.

• 5. Concentrate, Dammit! Students at Brown University do not have "majors" ... they have "concentrations." So, seven members of the men's basketball team "have not yet decided on a concentration." Meanwhile, Cornell University has something called the College of Human Ecology. Is that like, hygiene class?

Oh, those crazy Ivy Leaguers. What won't they do in the name of ribald gridiron revelry?

This video, made by Brown students before their game against Penn, involves the ritualistic torture of the Penn mascot in ways that, if not necessarily likely to make him talk, at the very least will lessen his opportunities at reproduction.

Brown Kidnappers Issue List Of Demands [Ivy Gate Blog]

• 1. Competitive Tanning Also Started Here. Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip features B.D., a character based on Brian Dowling, Yale's quarterback in the late 1960s. Dowling was a first-team All-Ivy League performer in 1967 and 1968, the latter year when Yale went 8-0-1 on its way to a tie for the Ivy championship. In the first eight games, Dowling threw for 1,438 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also finished ninth in the Heisman trophy voting for the season. B.D. has worn a helmet since his first appearance in the Doonesbury comics. He even went to Vietnam with his football helmet on. Eventually, though, the football helmet was replaced with other kinds of headgear, including motorcycle, war combat and riot helmets.

• 2. Or, You Can Play The Madden '03 Video Game. Princeton and Yale's 1903 battle wasn't just a match-up of undefeated teams. It also served as the site for the oldest collegiate football video footage on record, thanks to a Thomas Alva Edison-sponsored production company. The result is a remarkable recording of a game previously witnessed by only the 50,000 spectators on hand. The Library of Congress has obtained the footage and has it available for free online.

• 3. Well, They Are Smart. The students at MIT managed to invade the annual Harvard-Yale matchup
in 1982. After a second-quarter score by Harvard, a weather balloon with the letters "MIT" inflated from underneath the field and exploded into a cloud of dust on the 45-yard line. But what many don't remember is that the prank was so well-constructed it virtually erased the memory of two other MIT pranks in the same game. In that same game in
1982, the MIT band disguised themselves as the Harvard band and played the MIT school song on the field, while MIT students gave out cards that spelled 'MIT' when turned over.

• 4. Run, You Pixies, Run! Sprint football — limited to athletes who weigh 160 or fewer pounds — is an obscure sport played at a handful of Eastern Colleges. Cornell, Penn and Princeton still host it as an intercollegiate sport, as do Army and Navy. Until recently it was known as 'lightweight football' and the only conference was the Eastern Lightweight Football League (the ELF League). When Columbia hosted the sport in the 1960s, current New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft was a member of the team.