CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Ivy League has officially announced that it will participate in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs starting next season, marking the end of a hundred-year hiatus from postseason competition. This decision, which prioritizes academic commitments, signifies a historic shift for the conference.
Mason Shipp, a Yale receiver and chair of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, expressed enthusiasm about the change, stating, “It’s a monumental day in the Ivy League and a special day to be an Ivy League student-athlete. For those future generations who will represent us in the FCS playoffs, let’s aim for championship victories!”
The Ivy League’s 2024 football season concluded with Columbia, Dartmouth, and Harvard sharing the championship title—most notably, Columbia claimed its first conference title since 1961. The league plans to spend the upcoming offseason developing a tiebreaker system to decide its automatic playoff qualifier.
Harvard’s head coach, Andrew Aurich, expressed gratitude towards the university presidents for allowing their student-athletes a chance at a national title. He remarked, “Ivy League football is more competitive than ever, and I am eager for us to contend in the playoffs in the coming years.”
Historically, institutions that would form the Ivy League were formidable in early college football, dominating during the period of leather helmets before the introduction of the forward pass. Yale and Princeton were legendary, winning 23 of the first 25 unofficial national championships by the late 1800s, with Harvard adding two titles and eventually seizing five more, including a notable 1919 title secured with a win against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
However, this would mark Harvard’s only appearance in postseason play for a century, as prominent schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton later declined bowl bids, opting to concentrate on academics instead.
Fast forward to today, as the landscape of college football evolved dramatically, with power shifting to southern and western schools. Academia and athletics began integrating, resulting in significant stadium expansions. The commercialization of college sports burgeoned, with lucrative television deals leading to a greater focus on football and the rise of athletic scholarships. Additionally, the allure of a professional NFL career attracted many players.
Despite these transformations, the Ivy League, which became an official athletic conference in 1954, has historically shunned the pressures of lucrative college athletics, sidelining bowl games and now the FCS playoffs to safeguard academic priorities. A unique aspect of its postseason ban was the historical growth of postseason opportunities in other sports at their institutions.
As longtime Harvard football coach Tim Murphy pointed out, football was the only sport among their 42 varsity activities that did not enjoy postseason competition.
With the Ivy League moving forward, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference will remain as the final holdouts against FCS playoff participation from the league’s perspective. Meanwhile, larger conferences like the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten handle their championship decisions through the College Football Playoff framework.
Although the sport has evolved far beyond its Ivy League foundations, a player from the conference has still featured in 10 of the past 12 Super Bowls. NFL teams today are brimming with Ivy League graduates filling roles both on the field and coaching sidelines.
Robin Harris, the executive director of the Ivy League, stated, “The Ivy League takes pride in its rich tradition of impact and competitive success throughout college football history. We are looking forward to this new chapter of achievement.”