If you asked a sports fan of a certain age, “Who is the worst in college football?” one popular answer would probably be the Columbia Lions. After all, Columbia went through a notorious 44-game (and then record-setting) losing streak in the 1980s that garnered national attention.
Fans tore down the goal posts when the Lions finally won a single game.
To put it mildly, Columbia ain’t Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, or USC in the pantheon of college football greats.
And yet, the Lions are on the precipice of winning their first league title in over six decades and only their second ever.
All that has to happen on Saturday is for Columbia to defeat the Cornell Big Red at home in Manhattan and have the Harvard Crimson lose to the Yale Bulldogs up in Massachusetts
If both of those events occur, Columbia will tie Harvard for a share of the Ivy League title.
It’s so very different from what college football has become with its elaborate playoff system. It’s like something out of yesteryear.
You see, in the Ivy League, there are no tiebreakers and no league championship. None of the league’s eight members take part in any playoffs. If you’re tied, you’re tied. That’s it.
Indeed, that’s exactly what Columbia winning a league title would be. Something out of yesteryear such as when Columbia won the Rose Bowl in 1934.
You might be wondering why I know that Columbia won that Rose Bowl. It’s because my father never stopped talking about it. He was one of the biggest Lions fans in the world, especially for someone who didn’t attend the school.
My father began following the team during one of its rare winning stretches from the late 1920s into the middle part of the 20th century. He then took me to see the games when they were, for the most part, flat-out awful in the 1990s and 2000s.
My father is gone now, but my love of the Lions remains (and no, I didn’t go to college there either).
To me, Columbia winning a share of the Ivy League title would be its own mini version of the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. Those who know me know that I don’t take those words lightly.
The Lions have actually played far worse than the Bills in recent history. In the last half century, the Lions haven’t been bad for the one four year period mentioned at the top. What Columbia has specialized in is being bad over and over again.
Since 1974, the Lions have won more games than they have lost in six seasons. They have lost more games than they won 42 times. One season they had as many wins as losses. In other words, they have had six times as many losing seasons as winning seasons over the last half century.
Just a decade ago, this writer noted that a Columbia versus Cornell matchup was “The Worst College Football Game In The Worst College Football Town.”
Back in 2014, an 0-8 Columbia went up against an 0-8 Cornell team. The Lions, not surprisingly, lost that game and then went on to lose the next week to finish 0-10.
Columbia was in the midst of another losing streak of over 20 games.
This year things are so very different on both sides of the ball than were in 2014. Instead of being in the bottom ten of all the college football championship subdivision in points allowed, Columbia is in the top ten.
The offense is also markedly better. Instead of ranking dead last in rushing yards per game, Columbia is actually in the top half of the college football championship subdivision. And instead of ranking in the bottom five in passer efficiency, which takes into account pass attempts, completions, interceptions, touchdowns and yards, the Lions are in the top half.
The bottom line is that no matter what way you look at it Columbia is just much, much better. Remarkably, they have done it behind a rookie head coach (Jon Poppe) who wasn’t even alive when the Lions started their 44-game losing streak back in the 1980s.
So, I’ll be up in northern Manhattan on Saturday to cheer on Columbia at a stadium that is five miles from the university’s campus. Maybe – just maybe – the Lions will win their first title since 1961.
