Columbia—the Cincinnati Bengals of the Ivy league—rose from the cellar this season after it posted as many Ivy wins in 2003 (3) as it had in the previous three seasons combined. That might be why Columbia was the only bottom tier Ivy school to see an increase in crowd turnout over its 2002 totals.

Another important step would be scheduling home games against high-powered regional schools. Grabbing a nationally-ranked team like Delaware, Villanova, Maine or Colgate can generate the excitement necessary to draw students and alumni out to the old stadium.

Of course, Ivy League restrictions only let member institutions to play an abridged 10-game season, as opposed to the 11 or 12 game schedules that are allowed by the NCAA. With seven of those 10 coming against Ivy rivals and one or possibly two coming against historical nonconference rivals, the flexibility to pursue a game against a top-ranked opponent is lacking.

Adding an extra game to the schedule would seem prudent, but that would be inconsistent with the goal of athletic pursuit as the Ivy League administrators define it (or whatever they’d be inclined to say to mask their deep-seated abhorrence of NCAA football).

Then, there’s the surefire way to generate excitement and increase attendance. The prospect of competing for a national title always seems to get people fired up.

Oh wait, that’s right. We’re not allowed.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears every Friday.