In 2013, the playoff will expand to 24 teams. The Ancient Eight champion will not be one of them.

“Other commissioners would love to see the Ivy League be part of the playoffs, but they understand it’s a long-standing traditional decision,” said Robin Harris, the Executive Director of the conference. “They would love to see us and they mention it occasionally, but they understand that we’re not participating.”

Crimson coach Tim Murphy says that the Ivy presidents have been mostly quiet on the issue during his 13-year tenure, despite the fact that—according to Brown coach Phil Estes—the league’s coaches will often ask to have playoff participation put up for discussion among the conference’s presidents.

“I think [the coaches would] all be in support of it,” Estes said.

So far, though, the presidents haven’t budged.

“There was a point, maybe back in 1998-99 [when] there were a few presidents that tried to make a push to put it on the agenda,” Estes said. “But it didn’t go anywhere from there.”

Currently, the Ivy League remains an active member of the subdivision, meeting two or three times per year with its commissioner and maintaining regular communications about FCS administrative issues. But it continues to remain rigid when it comes to joining the playoff.

“The position on this issue is the same. There’s been no serious discussion about changing it since I’ve been here,” said Harris, who joined the Ivy League in 2009.

ACADEMICS VERSUS ATHLETICS

The most commonly-cited reason for the conference’s lack of participation in the playoffs is academics.

This past year, the tournament ran from Nov. 24 through Jan. 5, meaning it overlapped with the finals period of every Ivy League institution except Princeton.

“Postseason play would undermine the student identity of our student-athletes by carrying the season on into exam times and through a greater portion of the year,” University President Drew G. Faust said in November.

But football remains the only one of Harvard’s 41 varsity sports that is ineligible for postseason play, and other Ivy League teams are routinely asked to balance the academic-athletic scheduling conflict.

Earlier in May, for example, the women’s golf team traveled to its NCAA Tournament, which took place during the spring reading and finals period. Players were often required to take finals early in the morning before heading out to play a full tournament round of golf.

“I found it pretty difficult,” said freshman Christine Lin, who took an exam at 8 a.m. in the coaches’ room of the Stanford Golf Course, where the Crimson was competing. “On the one hand I really wanted to play well in golf, but I also had my exam to focus on.... It was pretty hard to split the difference and switch my focus from one to the other.”