<p>Of course it "decided the outcome." Just like a phantom "roughing the kicker" call in the waning moments of a game against Oakland cost the Patriots a trip to the Super Bowl a few years back.</p>
<p>I am surprised to learn that one definition of good sportsmanship is the act of acknowledging that Harvard should be declared to have won a game that it lost. </p>
<p>I was at the game and, while hardly impartial, thought the calls balanced out. </p>
<p>Harvard benefited from an unsportsmenlike conduct third down penalty call in the first half that resulted in a touchdown rather than a field goal try. In addition, even if the penalty in question had not been called, Princeton would still have had a fourth and four to make the conversion, and no one knows what might have happened. Also after that penalty Harvard had opportunities to both prevent Princeton from scoring and to score after Princetons touchdown. </p>
<p>Besides, things are very much in the eye of the beholder. Note this description of the drive that resulted in the Harvard closing the score to 24-21 on the Princeton website:</p>
<p>After both teams traded third-half punts, Harvard put together an impressive 93-yard touchdown drive to cut the deficit to three points. Harvard gambled early on a 4th-and-inches quarterback sneak inside the Crimson red zone, but O'Hagan picked up the first down, then moved the offense into the Princeton half of the field with a quarterback keeper. A controversial catch by Mazza on a deep out moved the ball into the red zone, and Dawson scored his third touchdown of the game to cut the deficit to 24-21.</p>
<p>I believe Princeton has won its last six road games so it seems they have found a way to overcome gifts to the home team even if other teams have not.</p>
<p>Good sportsmanship simply requires an admission that victory, in this case, was earned primarily because of a questionable "too much celebrating" penalty call by an official, at a key moment, after he was yelled at by the home coach. At the end of the game, this turned a loss into a victory for the home team.</p>
<p>Saying that "the calls balanced out" is laughable and absurd, although I well understand that this is the cynical party line handed down after the game by the Princeton coach - apparently with a straight face - and that all the victory-starved old Tigers dutifully cry "amen".</p>
<p>I don’t see a point in further rebuttal. The defense rests - after two interceptions in the last minutes of the game.</p>
<p>ya, i was there and i agree</p>
<p>No help from the refs this time.</p>
<p>^classy post by a classy poster.^</p>
<p>Sour grapes by a Tiger Troll!</p>
<p>Is it possible to be a "Tiger troll" on the Princeton board? I think f.scottie's got home field advantage here.</p>
<p>Unfortunately Princeton didn't have "home field advantage" going for it today.</p>
<p>Good point in post #29. This forum is home ground for the Tigers.</p>
<p>lol i didn't know so many people cared about the sports of the Ivy league this much.</p>
<p>I think the OP cares a great deal. He has started scores of posts about Princeton athletics. </p>
<p>He chortles with joy when things go well, and is down in the dumps when they don't. </p>
<p>Ivy athletics are, indeed, somewhat akin to academic politics, of which it is often observed that "the intensity level is so high, because the stakes are so low!"</p>
<p>The same thing could probably be said of online disputes about the relative merits of various Ivy league schools.</p>
<p>except that academic strengths/merits are one of the strong points of Ivies, not sports.</p>
<p>like, if someone wants to be drafted into the NFL and want rows crawling with scouts, they don't go to P'ton or Harvard.</p>
<p>Indeed, every Ivy school has at least one grad currently playing in the NFL.</p>
<p>Princeton's loss to Cornell was costly. It has now slipped behind not only Harvard, but Yale as well. More than the possibility of a bonfire will be at stake when the Tigers visit New Haven.</p>
<p>Yale STILL can't break into the rankings here:
<a href="http://www.cstv.com//sports/m-footbl/division_i_aa1.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cstv.com//sports/m-footbl/division_i_aa1.html</a></p>
<p>The Massey composite rankings are superior, when it comes to Division 1AA, because some of those participating in the single ranking you cite are relatively clueless. </p>
<p>Yale has played a tougher schedule than Princeton so far - with the exception of the Tiger's tainted victory over Harvard, of course.</p>
<p>Interesting that Harvard has remained unscathed in the rankings considering the loss to Princeton, or does Massey also take into account "unfair" calls.</p>