For the first time, the Ivy League is allowing its football teams to participate in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
The change was initiated by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and approved by the eight university presidents.
Both Harvard and Yale earned bids to the FCS playoffs, marking Harvard’s first postseason game in 105 years.
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Jaden Craig was having one of the worst Sundays of his life, less than 24 hours removed from he and his teammates losing for the third consecutive year to Yale in one of college football’s most storied rivalry games.
The loss also cost the Crimson a chance to finish unbeaten in the Ivy League and secure an undisputed conference title.
“Just a really weird morning,” the Harvard third-year quarterback said.
The emotions Craig felt bordered between unnatural and uncertain. Normally, a loss to Yale for Harvard (or vice versa) means an offseason filled with regret and fueled by revenge. The Harvard-Yale game was just that – a chance to be a part of a rivalry that dates back to the 1870s, and a chance to end the year on a high note.
Until this season.
Harvard secured an at-large bid into the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs, while Yale secured the Ivy League’s first-ever automatic bid into the tournament thanks to the Bulldogs’ 45-28 victory on Saturday, Nov. 22.
A change initiated by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) over the span of nearly 18 months that led to the eight university presidents voting to allow postseason participation for the programs opened the door. The teams, of course, had to prove their worth.
And now, for the first time in 105 years Harvard is playing in a postseason game after a 9-1 season, and Yale, as the conference champion at 8-2, joins them; the Crimson will play Villanova, while the Bulldogs go on the road to face Youngstown State. Both games are set for a noon ET kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 29.
“We have one loss, that helped us out as well,” Craig said. “I just think overall, we are a good team. We pass the looks test. We pass the numbers test.”
“I am incredibly proud of our players and entire staff,” Yale head coach Tony Reno said. “They have poured their hearts into the work that brought us to this moment, and earning the opportunity to win a championship and become the first team to represent the Ivy League in the FCS Playoffs makes it ever more special.”
How the Ivy League decided to participate in the FCS playoff
In the summer of 2023, Ivy League executive director Robin Harris met with the SAAC, which consists of athletes from many sports from all eight member schools.
The regular meeting always brings about robust discussion, Harris said. One question from that specific call was “why do we not participate in the FCS playoffs?”
Since 1945, the Ivy Group Agreement prevented teams from playing beyond the regular season in bowl games and then the FCS playoffs. Harris explained that governance and legislative processes had to be accounted for and that while others had tried, no group saw the movement through.
“To their credit, they followed up in the fall,” Harris told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview.
The students developed a thoughtful, rational proposal. They understood that the process required patience. That fall, they took the proposal to their schools’ athletic directors. Once the ADs supported the plan, the proposal went to the league’s policy committee. With that next blessing of the policy committee, the legislation went to the desks of each university president. It was the first time presidents voted on an FCS championship proposal. They approved it in December 2024.
“Our materials were very clear that this would provide an opportunity for a team or teams to participate, and that we would get an automatic bid. But we regularly would have multiple teams selected for NCAA championships.”
In the fall semester, Harris said, four sports saw multiple teams from the Ivy League competing in postseason play. (The Ivy League has been part of the FCS since 1982.)
“It’s not unusual,” she said.
But it is a first for football.
“When it was announced, the guys were really excited,” Harvard head coach Andrew Aurich said.
Every win, every point within a margin of victory, mattered on the resume when it came time for the committee to fill out the 24 teams in the FCS bracket.
“But again, they’re smart grownups,” Aurich said of his players. “They understand this stuff.”
To guarantee a postseason berth, beating Yale and winning the Ivy League championship with an undefeated record could have propelled the Crimson into one of the top eight seeds. They’ll sign up for the bus ride from Boston to Philadelphia, though.
“It definitely seemed like the guys were a little hungrier in certain games throughout the season that maybe they weren’t or could have been a little not as hungry.”
What does change mean for Harvard-Yale rivalry?
The national championship banners at Harvard Stadium aren’t in the rafters, but rather at field level.
1890. 1898. 1899. 1910. 1912. 1913. 1919.
The 1920 Rose Bowl – played so long ago opponent Oregon hadn’t evolved from the Webfoots to Ducks – was the last time the Crimson played a postseason game.
Once the FCS playoff selection show Sunday afternoon displayed the Harvard logo, Aurich said his phone lit up with 25 messages instantly. Being in the playoff means plenty for the guys in the Harvard locker room – but also for those who came and went before them. To represent the talent deprived of the national spotlight, at least come postseason time, for the past 100 years across the league.
“More so for the 10-0 Harvard, Ivy League teams, the unanimous championship seasons … I think we’re playing for them as well,” safety Ty Bartrum, Harvard’s captain, said prior to the Yale game.
One of those 10-0 Harvard teams was led by former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
“We would have loved it … it would have been interesting, but it was always the company line back then of ‘Well, the Harvard-Yale game is the most important game,’” Fitzpatrick told USA TODAY Sports. “But I think as alumni, we are very excited for these kids to get the chance to play in the playoffs – if they earn the right to.”
Fitzpatrick doesn’t think the possibility of playing in the FCS postseason year in and year out will change much about the rivalry. Harvard will still sell out its stadium once every two years when Yale comes to town.
“It’s a game that we’re always going to talk about, that you’re always going to look forward to,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t know that it’s going to change it much, other than, unfortunately, maybe human nature looking forward to ‘What if?’”
Now Harvard finds itself in a similar position to reigning Bowl Subdivision national champion Ohio State, which lost its most important regular-season – “The Game” – to Michigan for the fourth consecutive season last year. The Buckeyes, who were seeded No. 8, went on to win it all with an average margin of victory of 14.5 points in the first-ever expanded College Football Playoff in which they won four games.
Aurich had “OSU” written down when he addressed the team Sunday.
“They did a great job of not letting that (loss) beat them twice and actually they used that and fueled them and went out dominated people,” Aurich said of the Buckeyes.
He added: “Representing a lot of people, we take that seriously. I know there’s a lot of eyes to see how we can compete with these teams in the playoffs. I’ve been confident that we would do well if we ever got the opportunity, so we’re just excited about it.”
How will Ivy League far against FCS powerhouses?
Something Fitzpatrick has always been curious about is how Ivy League teams would stack up against FCS stalwarts such as Montana or Montana State or powerhouse North Dakota State, which has won nine titles since 2011.
Those programs can extend 63 scholarships per season and can dip into the transfer portal, advantages over the Ivy League, which offers no athletic scholarships.
“It would mean everything, to go out and perform as well, and kind of put the Ivy League on the map,” Craig said. “Because I think it’s definitely slept on.”
Wide receiver Andrei Iosivas of the Cincinnati Bengals was a two-sport star at Princeton. Duke’s Cooper Barkate is a graduate transfer from Harvard who has 55 catches for 895 receiving yards and six touchdowns for the Blue Devils this season.
Fitzpatrick, arguably the most visible ex-Ivy League player, wants Harvard to schedule a road game against a team from a conference such as the Big Sky, both to serve as a barometer and an exposure opportunity for the team.
“I think it’s gonna benefit the Ivy League in the sense that people who don’t live in the Northeast are going to have a newfound respect for the type of football that’s played in the Ivy League,” he said of the league’s postseason inclusion.
Rivalries go by the wayside in the Ivy League’s new status.
“To me, this is a league thing, where we want our teams that are playing to have success because it’s going to give our league more clout in the future which leads to consistency of two bids or more,” said Aurich, a Princeton graduate who also was an assistant coach at his alma mater.
Beyond the excitement of the weekend and this being a “wonderful opportunity for our student-athletes,” Harris said this will only aid programs’ recruiting efforts. High schoolers were already picking Ivies, and additional exposure can’t hurt.
“It’s been wonderful to see the attention paid this week to the Ivy League participating for the first time in the FCS Championship, and I’m sure that’s going to help with our coaches’ (recruiting),” Harris said. “I can imagine that will only improve moving forward.”