NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — If only they still had ties.
Harvard would have a chance at winning the Ivy League title outright on Saturday if college football games still ended in ties, like they did 45 years ago when the Crimson famously “beat” Yale 29-29. Instead, after Harvard’s triple-overtime loss to Princeton on Oct. 26, and the best that the Crimson can do now is defeat their archrival in New Haven and hope the Tigers lose their season finale.
That would lead to, of all things, a tie for the Ivy League championship.
That would be a fitting result on the 45th anniversary of the most famous entry in one of college football’s oldest rivalries. In 1968, Yale jumped to a 22-0 lead in the matchup of unbeaten teams and still led 29-13 before Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds. The Harvard student newspaper, The Crimson, trumpeted the result with the headline, “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”
This year, Harvard (8-1, 5-1 Ivy League) can only win the conference title with some help from Dartmouth.
But first the Crimson need to beat their archrivals at Yale (5-4, 3-3).
