The FCS Notebook is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick hitters, and commentary on various topics.
A new FCS Notebook will be published multiple times a week.
Ivy League Considering Allowing Its Teams Into The FCS Playoffs
The Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is pushing for the conference and its membership to allow teams into the FCS playoffs, The Harvard Crimson reports.
The proposal would need final approval from all of the Ivy League presidents.
An eight-team conference, the Ivy League declines its auto-bid into the FCS playoffs every year. A ban on Ivy football teams participating in the playoffs has been in place since 1945, citing academic reasons.
Sources indicated to HERO Sports that back in the 2000s, the Ivy League took a vote to allow its football teams into the postseason and fell one vote short.
The push is occurring again, led by student-athletes. Ask any Ivy League head coach or player on or off the record, and they will tell you they’d love to play in the FCS playoffs.
A storied Ivy League team or two in the 24-team bracket would add some depth and more intrigue to the FCS postseason. The top-heavy national title picture may not change, although some past Ivy League teams may have been good enough for a quarterfinal run.
This hasn’t happened in the last two years, but previously some Ivy teams have been ranked in the final Top 25 media poll.
2021:
No. 24 Princeton
No. 20 Dartmouth
2019:
No. 25 Yale
No. 22 Dartmouth
2018:
No. 11 Princeton
No. 18 Dartmouth
Dartmouth currently ranks No. 22 in this week’s media poll.
How much support this will have with the Ivy League presidents and when it would take into effect if approved is unknown. But in the era of student-athlete empowerment, suppressing Ivy League football player’s ability to compete for a national title seems silly.
Past FCS Notebooks
Expect Big Changes In The FCS Playoff Committee’s Top 10 Between Now And Selection Sunday … READ MORE
FCS Playoff Committee Releases In-Season Top 10 Ranking … READ MORE
Tentative FCS Playoff Broadcast Schedule + Minimum Bids To Host + Seed Adjustments … READ MORE
