Common Opponents Analysis (Updated 1/4/12)

The transitive property is not the most reliable method for comparing teams, so despite what Elon says, we're not ready to put Dartmouth ahead of Princeton in our Power Poll.

With about six weeks of play in the books, we thought it was time to look back at the league”s common opponents to see if we could glean any knowledge from what”s happened on the court so far. Everyone knows that the transitive property carries limited weight in sports, but it”s still interesting to see how a team fares against multiple conference foes. Without further ado…

Updated through games on 1/4/12

Albany beat Brown 77-68, lost to Cornell 85-82 OT, beat Dartmouth 82-74

American beat Columbia 66-58, beat Cornell 65-63, beat Brown 70-61

Army lost to Yale 84-75, beat Dartmouth 67-64

Boston University lost to Cornell 71-66, lost to Harvard 76-52

Bryant lost to Dartmouth 66-62, lost to Yale 76-59

Bucknell beat Princeton 62-56, beat Cornell 63-60, beat Dartmouth 67-59

Buffalo beat Cornell 68-59, lost to Princeton 61-53

CCSU lost to Yale 73-69, lost to Brown 90-80

Colgate beat Dartmouth 61-55 OT, lost to Columbia 66-59

Connecticut beat Columbia 70-57, beat Harvard 67-53

Delaware beat Cornell 72-64, lost to Penn 69-60

Elon beat Princeton 56-55, lost to Dartmouth 62-54

Florida St. lost to Harvard 46-41, lost to Princeton 75-73 3OT

Hartford lost to Yale 74-69, lost to

Brown 59-52

Holy Cross lost to Harvard 73-64, lost to Columbia 46-45, beat Dartmouth 65-61, lost to Yale 82-67

Lafayette lost to Princeton 69-54, lost to Columbia 77-67, lost to Penn 78-73

Loyola Marymount lost to Harvard 77-67, lost to Columbia 69-61

Manhattan beat Brown 54-52, lost to Columbia 59-41, lost to Penn 75-72

Marist lost to Penn 84-71, beat Columbia 79-59

New Hampshire beat Dartmouth 53-50, beat Brown 69-56

Rhode Island lost to Brown 65-56, lost to Yale 68-65

Rutgers beat Dartmouth 62-56, lost to Princeton 59-57

Sacred Heart beat Brown 77-64, lost to Yale 73-71

Stony Brook beat Columbia 67-53, beat Cornell 68-59 OT

Wagner beat Princeton 73-57, beat Penn 71-65

Vermont beat Dartmouth 65-53, lost to Harvard 55-48, lost to Yale 68-52

 

Clearly, we can”t read too much into this, though the results do generally seem to support the theory that Harvard (and Yale) are a step above the rest of the league, and the middle is messy. The Buffalo and Delaware results push Cornell to the back of the pack, leaving Penn, Princeton, and Columbia to duke it out for third. Or maybe this is me projecting my personal predictions on a pretty useless data set.

 

Common Opponent Records:

Yale: 8-0

Harvard: 5-1

Penn: 4-1

Princeton: 4-3

Columbia: 5-4

Brown: 3-5

Cornell: 2-5

Dartmouth: 2-8

3 thoughts on “Common Opponents Analysis (Updated 1/4/12)”

  1. Great site; really enjoy the Ivy League coverage! I believe you left out Stony Brook University, as they have beaten both Columbia and Cornell…..Keep up the great work!

    • Thanks for reading!

      This was posted the day of the Stony Brook-Cornell game. There are a few other matchups from the past week that need to be added to this list to bring it up to date. I will try to get to it this week when I have a few free minutes.

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