Ivy League Game Parallels Politics

Nov. 17 -- If you want to know who the next president will be, you might want to keep your eye on Saturday’s Yale-Harvard football game in Cambridge, Mass.

Based on a trend during presidential election years since 1940, a Yale victory in this November matchup between Ivy League rivals has meant a Republican won the presidency that year, while a win by the Democrats has translated into a Harvard victory. The two exceptions to this trend came in 1960 and 1976.

The interesting twist this year is that the presidential candidates attended these two universities. Texas Gov. George W. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968, while Vice President Al Gore earned his degree from Harvard in 1969.

Since the 2000 presidential election is yet to be decided, the superstitious might opt to cheer a little harder for their favorite team.

“Why not let the 117th playing of The Game,” as the rivalry is called, “determine the nextleader of the free world?” Yale asks in a press release.

Coincidental Victories

Yale and Harvard are playing The Game for the 117th time. Theirs is the third most-played series in college football. Only Lehigh-Lafayette (136 meetings) and Princeton-Yale (123) have met more often.

Harvard trails the all-time series 63-48-8.

This coincidental link between Ivy League football and the presidential election began in 1940, when Harvard blanked Yale 28-0 and Democratic incumbent Franklin Delano Roosevelt also easily defeated his opponent, Alfred Landon, by capturing 523 Electoral College votes.

Since then, Republican presidents and Yale, and Democratic presidents and Harvard, have largely gone hand in hand.

In 1956, Yale won the first official Ivy League championship with a 42-14 win over Harvard. Just 18 days prior, Republican Dwight Eisenhower was re-elected president.

In more recent memory, Harvard shut out Yale 14-0 in 1992, when Democrat Bill Clinton was elected to office.

Still, there have been exceptions to this 56-year trend. In 1960, Yale completed its first undefeated season since 1923 by beating Harvard 39-6. However, Democrat John F. Kennedy (a Harvard alum) narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon for the presidency.