Historically, the Ivy League has operated differently from other Division I athletics conferences.
These differences range from not offering athletic scholarships to prohibiting graduate students from playing, to barring standard redshirting — a process through which athletes sit out a season in order to extend their college athletic career by an extra year.
Until last month, postseason play was also banned for Ivy League football players, preventing them from competing in NCAA playoffs. In December 2024, the Ivy League’s Council of Presidents passed a student-organized proposal to overturn the almost 80-year-old postseason ban. The decision allows Ivy League teams to enter the NCAA D1 Football Championship Subdivision, beginning in the 2025 season.
The proposal came from the conference’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, composed of student-athlete representatives from each of the eight Ivy League schools. Ivy League D1 SAAC Representative Leah Carey ’25, a softball player at Brown, spearheaded the proposal in 2023.
This was the first time that a student-led committee’s proposals led to a rule change, according to Carey.
“What makes this a story, beyond the headline, (is) how it started,” said Mason Shipp, a Yale football player and SAAC member who led the proposal alongside Carey and Cornell lacrosse player Chloe Maister.
“Change happens every single day,” Shipp said. “But change like this doesn’t happen often.”
What it takes to change a rule
Momentum for the ban’s reversal has “been brewing from a student perspective for a while now,” said former kicker Austin Alley ’24.5, who served on the Ivy League Football Committee that advised SAAC’s proposal. Alley previously served as one of Brown’s SAAC representatives.
Reversing a league role requires proposals to win votes in each of the three upper divisions of the league’s governing body, according to former Ivy League D1 SAAC Chair Morgan Chall, who served in the position from 2019 to 2020, and as a student representative from 2017 to 2020.
These upper divisions were established at the same time as the ban, almost 80 years ago. They include committees of the eight university presidents, senior non-athletic administrators from each school and a committee of all eight Ivy athletic directors.
While the proposal passed unanimously through SAAC and near-unanimously through the committee of Ivy League athletic directors, it stalled in the Policy Committee, where non-athletic administrators cited academic and injury prevention concerns, according to Alley.
Competing in the FCS tournament could extend football’s season — which typically ends in November — through early January, increasing conflicts with class attendance and overlapping with final exams, Shipp said. More games also increase the chance of player injury, he added.
Convincing academic administrators and presidents that extended play would not compromise the league’s commitment to academics and player safety was crucial to the SAAC’s argument, Carey and Shipp said.
Brown football alum and Head Coach James Perry ’00 said the team is excited to deal with the challenges of a longer season “because the trade-off is definitely worth it.”
Perry was a member of the 1999 Ivy League championship-winning team at Brown, which would have advanced to the FCS playoffs had the ban been lifted. He added that playing in the postseason was also a goal the team pushed for back when he was a player.
Student-athletes call for change
The drive from student-athletes is what made this effort different from previous ones, according to both Carey and Shipp.
The proposal focused on remedying equity concerns by extending football teams the same postseason opportunities as other sports, he said. The student-athletes also argued that lifting the ban could improve the Ivy League’s recruiting and competitiveness, he added.
“It has a very, very real effect in our recruiting efforts,” said Perry. “It’s a sense of fairness and support the kids can tap into.”
Carey said that she believes SAAC’s success will inspire future efforts to improve programs for student-athletes in the Ivy League.
In recent years, the NCAA has introduced name, image and likeness rights, seen signature conferences reshuffled and revised longstanding transfer portal rules. Just this month, women’s wrestling was added as a championship sport and equal pay structures were approved for women’s basketball teams in March Madness.
According to Harris, the Ivy League is “extremely well-situated” as the NCAA undergoes rapid transformation.
“There have been incredible changes over the past six years that we have weathered, and been successful, so we expect that to continue,” she added.
Chall added that the December decision is demonstrative of the power that Ivy League student-athletes have to make change.
“There’s definitely inherent pushback,” she said. “Traditional values of the Ivy League are what make the conference so special. … It has hindered, in some ways, competitiveness as other conferences advance.”
But it’s also part of what makes the conference unique, she added.
What’s next for SAAC
SAAC members are still deliberating multiple changes for the future of the league, according to the executive board.
SAAC plans to pursue more student visibility in the league’s leadership, like short presentations from a SAAC member at athletic director meetings and more frequent conversations with every level of Ivy League governance, according to Carey and Shipp.
Administrators are “making a lot of decisions on our behalf — and doing great work for us — but they don’t necessarily always hear from us,” Shipp said.
Harris said the office is already discussing ways to improve engagement between SAAC members and athletic directors, contingent on athletes’ class schedules.
Vice President for Athletics and Recreation M. Grace Calhoun ’92 P’26 did not respond to requests for comment.
“I hope student-athletes are able to continue this push,” said Carey, a graduating senior.
“We may not have a formal vote” in the process, “but we can really have our voice be heard,” she added.
Maya Davis is a staff writer and member of the data desk at The Herald. She is a senior from Brooklyn, NYC, on the varsity gymnastics team and is pursuing degrees in Biology and International Affairs. She loves digging into new stories--- everything from sports to UNews to health--- and is interested in international reporting and investigations.