Ivy League football to add bye week and start season earlier in 2027
The Ivy League has been the last conference in college football to kick off its season due to its shortened schedule. This change will better align the league with other teams competing in the FCS.
The Ivy League will be starting its football season earlier next season.
On Monday, the conference announced that it would be kicking off its 2027 season on Sept. 11 and instituting a league-wide bye week during the weekend of Oct. 23. Each team’s first game will be against an Ivy opponent.
The Ivy League, which plays a 10-game season, is consistently the last conference in college football to kick off its season due to its shortened schedule. All other FCS teams play a total of 12 regular season games.
Penn and the rest of the Ivy League will kickoff the 2026 season on Saturday. The Quakers are slated to take on Bucknell (1-2), a team already three games into its season.
» READ MORE: New coach Rick Santos shares insight into Penn’s changes, starting QB, and what’s ahead
The announcement comes after the conference’s first season participating in the FCS playoffs. The Ivies, in an effort to maintain a sense of tradition, had barred its schools from participating in the postseason since the 1945 signing of the Ivy Group Agreement. This changed after a proposal from the conference’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee was approved by the Ivy League Council of Presidents in December 2024. The league’s winner now receives an automatic bid to the playoffs.
When it was first announced that the Ivy League would be participating in the FCS playoffs, there was speculation that the conference would also adapt to a 12-game schedule. With Monday’s announcement, that now seems unlikely in the coming years.
Last season, competing for an FCS championship for the first time, the Ancient Eight sent two teams to the playoffs. Yale received an automatic bid after winning the Ivy title and Harvard received an at-large selection. While the Crimson were trounced by Villanova in the first round, the Bulldogs won their first playoff matchup against Youngstown State before falling in the second round to Montana State.
Including the playoffs, Yale played 12 straight games last season.
Next year’s change will allow the Ivy’s schedule to align better with the rest of the teams competing in the FCS. It will also ensure that the conference’s playoff teams do not have a competitive disadvantage due to a lack of rest. The Ivy League had traditionally played 10 straight games without a bye week.
