The weather is heating up, prospective students are coming in to checkout the campus, and, all-in-all, Columbia athletics is doing well. So for this week, it’s a very optimistic look at things as everybody’s “hot”—and not “not.”

Who’s Hot?

Tennis: Any team that has won 12 straight is good. Any team that does that by beating Harvard is even better. Any team that does that and commandingly defeats the #67 team in the country and then upsets the #20 team in the country is the best.

What team am I talking about? Men’s tennis!

This Light Blue team is on a roll and after two 5-2 victories against No. 67 Dartmouth and No. 20 Harvard, respectively, the Light Blue are emerging as the team to beat in the Ivy League this season. Columbia, who came into the match against Harvard ranked #50, can expect to see their stock rising as they look to continue their winning streak against Yale and Brown this weekend.

College Sports

What are the two sports you associate with college?

If you guessed Frisbee and Ping-Pong, you’re exactly right!

To start, Columbia’s Ping-Pong team is making a splash nationally yet again. As we have reported before, the team is nationally ranked, and now it’s been invited to the 2012 College Table Tennis National Championships in Texas this weekend (April 13-15) to compete for table tennis glory. The Lions come in seeded the 13th best team in the nation and are looking to break into the top 10 with a solid performance.

Also, as you may know, it is Days on Campus this weekend! With all the cheery-eyed freshmen coming in, expect an exponential increase of Frisbee to happen on the lawns over the next few weekends.

And, really, what’s better than Frisbee and Ping-Pong? It’s the fundamental spirit of college.

Buffalo Bills

My favorite ex-Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, once said that the Buffalo Bills are “New York State’s only team.” We have the “New York” Giants and “New York” Jets playing in….New Jersey (that’s a state?!). So, I can’t help but agree with former Gov. Cuomo.

As the only football team to actually play in the state of New York, the Bills always seem to be at a disadvantage. They went 6-10 last year, and haven’t been able to get much media coverage this year, especially after the Jets picked up some backup quarterback dude named “Tebow” (Maybe you’ve heard of him?).

Buffalo, however, has had a very productive off-season. They picked up all-pro defensive end, Mario Williams, re-signed their top wide receiver, Steve Johnson, and should have many key players return from injury for the start of next season. The Bills also have this year’s No. 10 pick in the draft with money still left to spend.

So, mark my words, Buffalo could be a team making the playoffs next season. But the best part? Lions senior offensive tackle Jeff Adams may get in on all of the fun!