Ivy League to Join FCS Playoffs in 2025

The winner of the Ivy League championship will be eligible for an automatic bid in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs starting in 2025. The Tigers have never played in the postseason — but now they have their chance. 

The proposal was brought by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and received final approval from the Ivy League presidents, the league announced Wednesday.

Head coach Bob Surace ’90 said in a press release that he was thrilled with the move. “I am most excited for the players that get the opportunity to enhance what is already an incredible experience in a historic league,” he said. 

Although Princeton claims 28 national championships, those titles were decided by polls and were won from 1869-1950. The first “Ivy Group Agreement” was made in 1945 and applied just to football. It banned postseason play and athletic scholarships. When the Ivy League Athletic Conference was organized in February 1954, revamped conference rules prohibited postseason play for football, and the sport is still omitted from the postseason section of the 2023-2024 Ivy League manual. 

“While winning an Ivy League Championship will always be the primary goal of our football program, the opportunity to compete in the FCS playoff will add an exciting new element to the experience of our football student-athletes,” athletics director John Mack ’00 said in the release.

In 1978, the NCAA organized two different levels of Division I college football — the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the FCS, formerly I-A and I-AA. Ivy League schools joined the I-AA division in 1982. 

FCS schools are  allowed to offer 63 full football scholarships — though the Ivy League doesn’t offer any. FBS schools are allowed to award up to 85 scholarships to football players, and it formerly had an average attendance requirement of 15,000, though that was phased out in 2023. 

If Princeton wins the Ivy League title next year, it won’t be playing against Georgia or Alabama for the crown — those are FBS teams. But now the Tigers — and all the Ivy League teams — have the chance to go up against nonconference opponents for even bigger honors.