In the college football world, there’s a lot of talk about the playoffs right about now. That’s because this Friday, we start the experiment that is the new 12 team championship format in Division I-A football, which culminates in a January title game that will feel way more like the Super Bowl than a college bowl game. It’s the next step on the ladder of professionalizing college sports, or at least Division I football and basketball, where the vast majority of money is made. It’s also been a clear clarion call to all college athletic directors to put as much support behind your football program to try and make to the party, or at least be relevant enough to be a part of the discussion. In college football, you’re either in the playoffs or you’re trying to be.
Even if you’re in the Ivy League. To be clear, the Ivy League is in the lower tier Division I-AA or FCS, which competes in its own 24 team playoff that’s been around for quite some time. Teams like South Dakota State and North Dakota State dominate, basically the Alabama and Ohio State of I-AA. Some teams have used playoff success to springboard into I-A football, like James Madison and Sam Houston. But for most teams, the goal is simply to win your conference and get one of the automatic bids. That was true for everyone but the Ivies, whose policy was that no team was allowed to play post season football. Which means that after the final game of the regular season, a champion was named, and everyone went back to the library. The arguments seemed to be that extra games would get in the way of final exams and extending the season would add greater risk of injury to amateur athletes in a violent sport. And mind you, this policy was only for football, not track or basketball or wrestling or any of the sports where Ivy schools often compete with the best of them. So for years, no matter good Harvard or Princeton football might be, they weren’t playing in December and they definitely weren’t playing for a title.
That will now change, because beginning next season, members of the Ancient Eight will be allowed to play in the playoffs, aiming to being crowned the best in the second-best division. This decision, which historically had been frowned upon by Ivy presidents, was pushed heavily by the student athletes themselves, who clearly wanted to have their shot and seemed less concerned about what it might mean for their biochem final. The NCAA has agreed to give the Ivy champ an automatic bid, meaning one less at-large team, and the conference is already working on a system of tiebreakers if there’s more than one champ – this year there’s a three-way tie.
This isn’t the first time the Ivies have changed to reflect the modern era of college sports. It wasn’t long ago that they finally added a conference basketball tournament to pick its champion for the NCAA tournament – although only four of the eight schools are invited to play, making sure the winner is at least worthy of the distinction and we don’t have any fluke champions – just like getting into the schools themselves. But joining the college football playoffs, although long overdue, feels a bit different. And to be clear, I do not want to overstate the importance of the Ivy League, a common mistake when talking about these schools in or outside of athletics.
But when a conference that was largely created because they didn’t want to succumb to the upscaling of college sports gives in to a playoff that only exists to extend a playing season and draw more attention and relevance to the sporting enterprise, then you know the landscape of college sports is truly changing. Since 1956, the Ivies held a line that winning a conference championship of your peers was not only enough, but actually the most important thing. And that the sporting enterprise was central to the college mission, not vice versa. Which is why with this small change – and it really won’t make any real difference – we’re reminded that if you want to play the game, you have play by the new rules. And that incremental professionalization isn’t a challenge. It’s an expectation. That’s true for Columbia as much as it is for Clemson.
Which is why starting next year, you might see both of them in the playoffs.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.