The Ivy League might be an FCS Playoff participant in the future, according to The Harvard Crimson. The Ivy League’s current policy does not allow football programs to play in the FCS playoffs, in contrast to other sports in the conference that are allowed to compete in postseason tournaments. The NCAA declares the Ivy League champion(s) to be an abstention from the FCS Playoffs alongside the MEAC and SWAC Champions with the latter two participating in the annual Celebration Bowl.
The Ivy League has long-cited academic concerns with the proximity of the FCS Playoffs and the end of the academic semester to keep the policy in place. Another reason has been The Game between Harvard and Yale which traditionally occurs as the season finale. The Ivy League’s football postseason policy has been in place since 1945, reaffirmed in 1954, and remained that way even after the Ivy League moved from NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) to Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1982.
The current proposal originated from the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) but faces several additional hurdles before it becomes policy. The Ivy League athletic directors will discuss the proposal, the proposal will then move to the Policy Committee, and ends with the university presidents. It will be up to the 8 university presidents to accept or reject the proposal to allow Ivy League football teams to compete in the postseason. The proposal has not reached the university presidents’ according to the report.
The Ivy League consists of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale and plays a 10-game schedule. It is not known how a policy change might impact the schedule (if at all) or when the policy would take effect. The most recent Ivy League team to participate in a postseason contest was Columbia in the 1934 Rose Bowl against Stanford. The Lions won 7-0 with Al Barabas scoring the lone touchdown.
Photo Credit to Harvard University Athletics
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