After four decades of waiting, Penn football finally gets a shot at the FCS playoffs
The Ivy League dropped to what was long known as Division I-AA football in the 1982 season. This fall will be the first in which its teams will be allowed to play in that level's postseason.
You can walk into Franklin Field on an autumn Saturday morning, as Penn football coach Ray Priore does, and feel like it’s the old days.
The view from the big metal gate off 33rd Street remains much like it did when the Eagles played there: the horseshoe-shaped stands, the brick wall beneath them, the track that has hosted nearly as many stars as the gridiron inside it.
But there’s a difference between nostalgia and staleness, and in recent years, Ivy League football has been on the wrong side of it: declining relevance in the FCS and declining attendance from younger generations (and with that, the risk of declining donations from future alumni).
Finally, this year, the Ancient Eight is doing something new. For the first time since the conference dropped to what was long known as Division I-AA starting with the 1982 season, the Ivy League is allowing its teams to play in the football playoffs: one automatic qualifier per year (with to-be-determined tiebreakers if the title is split), then any at-large picks for the 24-team field.
It’s been a long time coming, and Priore will be the first to say it. He’s been part of the Quakers’ staff in various roles since 1987, including head coach since 2015, and has seen many teams worthy of a moment they never got.
Penn hasn’t won a title since 2016, and hasn’t come close since a second-place finish in 2022. This year’s team might not be the one to end the drought, but the possibility of making the playoffs brought extra energy to the squad’s spring practices.
“Did I ever think I’d see it in my lifetime? I’ve been here for 38 years,” Priore said, recalling how his predecessor Al Bagnoli and former Harvard coach Tim Murphy fought loudly for the cause. “I think it’s great for Ivy League football, and I think it’s great for kids that we’re trying to recruit — they want to see themselves play at the next level. Through my time here, we’ve had some teams that we feel probably could have done some damage.”
What actually got the league to change its mind — at least, in the league’s official telling — was a petition from its Student-Athlete Advisory Council. And it wasn’t just the football players in the group. Athletes from a wide range of sports backed the push, understanding the bigger-picture stakes for sports in the conference.
“I think the biggest deciding factor was all the student-athletes across the Ivy League supported it,” said Penn quarterback Liam O’Brien, a member of the council. “So it wasn’t the coaches going to the [schools’] presidents or the [league’s] board. It was a Brown soccer player, it was women’s sports supporting us, it was other men’s sports supporting us. … They were the ones that said, ‘Yeah, our football players, our football teams should get that opportunity.’”
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He got the scale of the challenge he faced, too.
“Oh, I know — I heard it got shut down multiple times,” the rising senior said.
And as he alluded to, it wasn’t just a matter of convincing the league office. Though the conference has just eight members, there are still a lot of cats to herd: coaches, athletic directors, and, above all, university presidents. Their opinions matter most, and they often have many other things to focus on besides sports.
O’Brien said he didn’t hear much during the decision-making process about which way the vote would go. Reflecting on it now, he said he’d like to know more about how it happened. But when it came down, he didn’t ask.
“I just heard their decision, which was yes,” he said, “and took it and ran.”