Tigers won’t get to play for national title and that’s a shame
The question had to be PRINCETON >> asked.
Bob Surace knew it was coming and was ready to fiercely argue in favor for his Princeton football team to get a spot in next week’s FCS playoffs.
Of course he also knows that’s impossible because the Ivy League does not allow its football champion to compete for a national title. “It’s an empty feeling,” Surace said after his Tigers roared to an outright Ivy title with a 42-14 win over Penn on Saturday. “It’s the unknown. We would want to play. It’s going to be Tuesday at 4:45 and we’re going to feel sick to our stomachs because we don’t get to practice.”
That’s a shame and it’s time for the Ivy League to fix it.
Here’s the short version: The Ivy League de-emphasized athletics somewhere around the 1950s and by the 1980s it had stopped playing top-division football. Rivalries like Princeton-Penn and Yale-Harvard remained, but playoffs and by extension an opportunity to win a national title was off the table. Which brings us to Princeton. Ranked No. 9 in the FCS poll and undefeated, the Tigers set the Ivy record for points in a season, averaging a whopping 47 per game. Quarterback John Lovett and receiver Jesper Horsted are two of the most explosive players in the country.
Wouldn’t you want to see them get a crack at North Dakota State or James Madison — the last two FCS national champions.
“We’re all frustrated by it,” Lovett said. “I don’t understand why we’re not able to play in the FCS playoffs. We’ve certainly beaten teams who have had good playoff runs over my five years here. As far as that’s concerned, it’s a question that can’t be answered. I believe in my team. We believe in each other and that’s what has gotten us to this point. We wouldn’t be worried about facing anyone.”
The league continues to evolve and players are more athletic, offenses more innovative. It’s clear now, the Ivies are more than capable of holding their own against top-tier FCS competition.
If it was up to the coaches and athletic directors, it would be done already. It’s not. It’s the hands of the slow-tochange university presidents.
“We just got to educate,” Surace said. “The presidents are brilliant people — ours is — but when Cornell’s president is worried we’re going to have to play Alabama, they haven’t done a great enough job educating their president. We’re not in the FBS playoffs. (The presidents) are brilliant and compassionate and I love this league, but they don’t know the hurt that our players go through.”
Perhaps there is reason for optimism. The league added conference tournaments in lacrosse and most notably men’s and women’s basketball. Commissioner Robin Harris worked hard behind the scenes to get the basketball tournament over the finish line (it was a hit by the way) and there’s no doubt she’s on the side of the coaches here. Surace laid down a challenge. “Robin Harris and the administration have done a great job, but if you don’t get football in the playoffs, it’s a black mark on her legacy,” Surace said. “Yale should have went last year, we should have went the year before, they would have figured out the three-way tie or maybe multiple teams would have went.
“Our president is all about excellence. If you look at how we increased socialeconomic diversity and all those things, it’s about opportunity. These guys should be on cloud-nine getting ready to play somebody and all we’ve got is the transitive property . ... That’s not football, you got to play the game. A game is you got to go up against them and do it on the field.”
Princeton would like nothing more than that chance.
“I know that we would fight our ass off to do it,” senior linebacker Tom Johnson said. “That’s all I can say about that.”
Contact Kyle at kfranko@trentonian. com or on Twitter @kj_franko