Playing for something: Ivy League football now competes for playoffs. Here’s what changed

For the first time since 1945, Ivy League football teams will have the opportunity to play in an NCAA postseason tournament, with Penn having a say in the proceedings.

Penn, along with other Ivy League football programs now have the opportunity to qualify for the playoffs in college football's Championship Subdivision, better known as the FCS. Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

by Sean McKeown

Published Sept. 18, 2025, 1:45 p.m. ET

With the new year comes a new opportunity, one that hasn’t been provided to the Ivy League football programs in 80 years: the chance to compete for a national championship.

Since the 1945 Ivy Group Agreement, Penn and all other Ivies have been barred from competing in NCAA football postseason play, until now. Last year, the Ivy League Council of Presidents approved a proposal from the conference’s Student-Athlete Advisory Commission to allow the winner of the Ivy League to compete in the FCS playoffs.

One of the players who spearheaded this change? Penn quarterback Liam O’Brien.

“I was part of a little football council. One representative from each football team got together, [and] we were the ones that kind of got it into motion a little bit,” said O’Brien, a senior. “It wasn’t just us that was successful in making it happen. It was a collective push from coaches, administrators, and a big shoutout to the Ivy League’s SAAC.”

Penn coach Ray Priore said he didn’t think he’d see such a change, which is remarkable, considering Priore is the longest-tenured football coach in the Ivy League, between his 10 seasons as head coach and a long tenure as an assistant.

“Been here for 39 years as an assistant and as a head coach, a handful of years here, I never thought I’d be able to see us going to the playoffs, but it’s here, which is really exciting for everybody,” Priore said.

Despite the start of the season being only days away, the Ivy League has yet to publicly announce how a tiebreaker system would choose a victor at the end of the season. It’s not uncommon to see championships shared by as many as three teams.

Priore, though, knows league leadership has a plan in place.

“I won’t go into them now, but the league does have a set of the tiebreaker rules,” Priore said. “And, obviously, the tiebreaker on the head-to-head thing is who beat who, right? So that’s the two championship winners [solution], easy. It gets a little more complicated when you get to three champions … that stuff is all worked out. And I’m assuming the [Ivy League’s] legal office will produce that info in a short period of time.”

For now, Penn will focus on what it can. That starts with Saturday’s season opener against Stonehill (1 p.m., NEC Front Row).

“So, honestly, everybody wants to win the FCS championship, but we have to focus on the day-by-day process,” senior wide receiver Jared Richardson said. “We have to start on Sept. 20 with Stonehill, we just have to take it week by week and put our best foot forward every week, and we will be a-OK.”