The FCS football playoffs can be a touchy subject for some HBCU football fans. While the Celebration Bowl is widely accepted as a better postseason opportunity for the MEAC and the SWAC, there are some pockets of fans who’d prefer pursuing a national title rather than an HBCU national title. That aforementioned title picture got a little more crowded on Wednesday when the Ivy League announced that it will tart participating in the FCS playoffs.
Following a year-long process initiated by the Ivy League’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), the Ivy League Council of Presidents has approved a proposal to participate in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs beginning next season.
“The Ivy League prides itself on a storied tradition of impact, influence and competitive success throughout the history of college football. We now look ahead to a new chapter of success and to further enhancing the student-athlete experience with our participation in the NCAA FCS playoffs,” said Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris. “I want to commend the students on our SAAC for their thoughtful and thorough proposal as well as their commitment to the league’s legislative process.”
The Ivy League champion will now receive an automatic bid to the playoffs which will restructure the math slightly. The 24-team field will shift from 10 to 11 automatic bids (league champions) and drop the at-large bids from 14 to 13 to make up the 24-team field. In its release, the league said that it “will develop tiebreakers to determine how its automatic qualifier will be awarded when there are co-champions in the future.”
That leaves the MEAC and the SWAC as the only two FCS conferences without an automatic bid, but that’s because the two leagues participate in the Celebration Bowl. The foundational argument for the Celebration Bowl is that it provides a better payout and more national exposure for the participating schools.
The SWAC and MEAC get a guaranteed $2.4 million payout, with $1.2 million apiece going to the SWAC and MEAC to disperse to its teams. Conversely, teams must bid money to host a FCS first round game. The Celebration Bowl is televised nationally each year on ABC from the Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta.
The MEAC and SWAC are eligible for at large bids if a team isn’t playing in the SWAC Championship game or already qualified for the Celebration Bowl. Grambling and Southern would never receive invites because the Bayou Classic is played on the same weekend as the beginning of the FCS playoffs. Alabama State’s Turkey Day Classic on Thanksgiving would preclude it from any playoff invites as well.
FAMU was the last team from the SWAC to qualify for the FCS playoffs. They lost to Southeastern Louisiana 38-14 in 2021 after ending the regular season 9-2 but finishing second in the SWAC East to Jackson State.
Tennessee State (OVC) along with Hampton and North Carolina A&T (CAA) are eligible for automatic qualifiers and at-large bids from their respective conferences. TSU was the last HBCU team to make the FCS playoffs, qualifying this season as an at-large team. The Tigers lost in the first round to Montana 41-27. Prior to that TSU’s last FCS Playoff appearance came in 2013, when they defeated Butler 31-0 in the opening round before falling to Eastern Illinois 51-10 in the second round.
The Ivy League has banned teams from the postseason for decades dating back to a 1945 agreement that banned athletic scholarships for football players.