Ivy League Football Plans Would Leave Huge Gaps In FCS Football Schedules

PHIALDELPHIA, PA – According to an online report by Mark Blaudschun of Sports Illustrated’s “The Media Guides”, the Ivy League is considering two possible courses of action concerning their 2020 college football schedules that would have a deep impact across FCS football schedules.

“According to several sources within the Ivy League itself, the League is formulating a restart plan, which could be finalized and released in the next few weeks,” the article states.

Two plans were mentioned in his report, but both solutions involve only a seven game schedule of only conference opponents being played (either in the fall of 2020 or the spring of 2021).

If these are the only two plans that are actively being considered by the Ivy League, it means that, effectively, all out-of-conference games involving Ivy League opponents are cancelled for the fall.

Here is a list of the out-of-conference games that are affected:

  • September 19th, Georgetown at Harvard
  • September 19th, Bryant at Brown
  • September 19th, Princeton at VMI
  • September 19th, Yale at Holy Cross
  • September 19th, Marist at Cornell
  • September 19th, Columbia at Lehigh
  • September 19th, New Haven at Dartmouth
  • September 19th, Bucknell at Penn
  • September 26th, Bucknell at Princeton
  • September 26th, Columbia at Georgetown
  • September 26th, Dartmouth at Towson
  • September 26th, Lafayette at Penn
  • October 3rd, Lehigh at Yale
  • October 3rd, Holy Cross at Harvard
  • October 3rd, Brown at Rhode Island
  • October 3rd, Cornell at Bucknell
  • October 10th, Brown at Holy Cross
  • October 10th, Central Connecticut State at Columbia
  • October 10th, Princeton at Army
  • October 10th, Sacred Heart at Penn
  • October 17th, Richmond at Yale
  • October 17th, Harvard at Lafayette
  • October 17th, Marist at Dartmouth
  • October 17th, Cornell at Colgate

No conference would be as deeply affected by the Ivy League’s potential decision as the Patriot League, and no school’s schedule would be more deeply affected than Georgetown’s.

With the cancellation of their Ivy League games (Harvard, Columbia), the Patriot League’s guidance against playing away games involving flights (San Diego), and other problematic games that involve flying a team to DC (Dayton), the only Hoya football games seemingly not in jeopardy of being cancelled are their seven Patriot League games.

Other schools that would be deeply affected by the Ivy League’s proposed plan are Bucknell, who have three Ivy League opponents (Penn, Princeton, and Cornell) and Marist, who have two (Cornell at Dartmouth).

Overall, four FCS conferences (Patriot League, CAA, Pioneer Football League, and NEC) would have multiple out-of-conference games cancelled, and FBS independent Army-West Point would cancel a game against Princeton.

At a bare minimum, Georgetown and Bucknell will need to rework their schedules in order to play more than eight games.

In FBS, there is a requirement for teams to play at least 50% of its games against other FBS teams to remain in the subdivision. In FCS, in order to be considered for the playoffs, if a team has fewer than six wins against Division I opponents, they are in jeopardy of not being selected for the postseason. As long as a school plays more than 50% of its schedule against Division I competition, they would be able to remain in the FCS.