“We’ve got a tremendous way to finalize our season, [and] I don’t think we can do any better than that,” Murphy said. “[But] I know my fellow coaches of the league may feel very differently.... I don’t think there’s any question—if I’m the Brown coach or I’m the Princeton coach or I’m the Penn coach, I may have a much different take on it.”

Viewing the situation from Providence, R.I., Estes is one of those coaches who sees things differently.

“In the past, it’s always been about the Harvard-Yale game, and they feel maybe the playoffs would be a bit of a letdown after that,” he said. “I think the rest of the league would like to have the opportunity...to play in the playoffs.”

Harris says she feels Ivy League fan support for existing games and rivalries stands independent from whether teams compete against national competition in the playoffs.

“I think our fans care about Ivy League football,” she said. “Rivalry games are going to draw the most fans [to] a given game, and whether or not a team is going on to the FCS playoffs, I don’t think is going to [have an] impact.”

Tradition, therefore, continues to dominate when it comes to Ivy League football.

“The Ivy League presidents are not interested in allowing participation in the playoffs because they value Ivy football as it currently exists,” Harris said. “The focus for our teams is on the regular season and the value of Ivy League play. The tradition and history of Ivy League football is paramount.”

A COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE?

Even if the Ivy League did participate in the FCS playoffs, the question remains whether the conference champion could even contend with the best teams from around the country, who are not burdened with the same academic restrictions on recruiting that Ancient Eight squads deal with.

“I think the general conception of the Ivy League is...[that its teams are] not going to be able to compete with the North Dakota States, the Sam Houston States, or the Georgia Southerns,” McDonnell said.

But McDonnell, who covers all of the subdivision’s programs, believes that perception is the wrong one.

“You can make the argument that some teams that made the field this year didn’t have as good of a season as Harvard did, or Penn, and that’s what the strange thing is,” he said. “It’s not like they have bad players in the Ivy League; some people don’t realize that. I look at [senior running back Treavor] Scales from Harvard, I look at [Crimson senior quarterback] Colton Chapple, those are guys we talk about all the time. It just stinks we’re not able to talk about them at a championship level.”

Murphy agrees that the league’s top squads would do fine in a national tournament.

“The best teams over the years from the Ivy League could compete at the highest level, I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Murphy said. “And I say that not as conjecture, but having been in [the playoff] four times as a head coach at Maine and as an assistant coach at Boston University back in the day.”

McDonnell even says that in the league’s best seasons, two or more Ancient Eight squads could earn tournament bids.