This is the exact same thing that is done by Noah Welch and his classmates on the hockey team. So, if and when Fitzpatrick and company are celebrating a 10-0 season and a perfect four years against Yale on Saturday, just wonder what could have been.

Because this team will be one of only two Harvard classes ever to win four in a row against Yale—the other two won national championships—shouldn’t Fitzpatrick and his mates have a chance to win some kind of a national championship, no matter how insignificant the Ivy presidents deem it to be?

It’s too late for Fitzpatrick and Edwards and Everett. If they defeat the Elis today, their senior campaign will rank right up there with those of 1922 and 1968—the team that came back to tie Yale 29-29 after trailing by 16 with just 42 seconds to play—but they will not have the same chance to compete for something extra.

Harvard football is having a renaissance and it has shown that is possible for it to remain competitive in the classroom in the world of the Division I-AA football.

Welch and his teammates on the hockey team prove that. So just ask yourself once more: Isn’t it time we treat them the same?

—Staff writer Robert C. Boutwell can be reached at boutwel@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.