Ivy League football teams will have the opportunity to compete for the FCS national title starting in 2025.
The league announced Wednesday that its teams will be eligible for the FCS playoffs next season. The Ivy League has banned teams from the postseason for decades, dating to a 1945 agreement that banned athletic scholarships for football players.
“The Ivy League is proud of a storied tradition of impact, influence and competitive success throughout the history of college football. We now look ahead to a new chapter of success and further enhancing the student-athlete experience with our participation in the NCAA FCS playoffs,” Ivy League President Robin Harris said in a statement. “I want to commend the students of our SAAC for their thoughtful and thorough proposal and their commitment to the league’s legislative process.”
Harvard was tied with Dartmouth and Columbia at the top of the conference this season at 5-2, but scored head-to-head wins over both teams. Officially, the Ivy League recognized all three teams as co-champions.
As part of the postseason arrangement, the winner of the conference will receive an automatic bid to the 24-team FCS playoffs. In the release, the league said it will “develop tiebreakers to determine how automatic qualification will be awarded if there are co-champions in the future.”
The addition of an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs for the Ivy League leaves the MEAC and SWAC as the only two FCS conferences not to receive an automatic bid to the playoffs.
However, the two champions of those competitions meet each year in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta. Jackson State defeated South Carolina State 28-7 on Saturday for its first Celebration Bowl title.
The FCS playoffs currently award 10 automatic bids for conference winners and the field is filled with 14 at-large teams. The top four seeds – Montana State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State and South Dakota – are in the semifinals as South Dakota visits top seed Montana State and SDSU plays at NDSU on Saturday. The winners of those two matches will play against each other for the national title on January 6.
