CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — It’s been more than a century since there was this much at stake in The Game.
When Harvard and Yale renew their rivalry for the 141st time on Saturday, the winner will earn the Ivy League’s first-ever FCS playoff berth, giving the conference champion a chance to compete for a national championship for the first time since the sport's leather-helmet era.
“Definitely a lot more on the line, outside of just being one of the biggest
rivalries in college football,” Harvard coach Andrew Aurich said this week as he prepared his team to face the Bulldogs on Saturday at the Yale Bowl. “So if that motivates them even more than what should be an easy game to get motivated for, that’s great.”
First played in 1875 – six years after Rutgers and the school that was not yet Princeton engaged in something barely resembling the college football seen today – the game that came to be known as The Game has grown into one of the great rivalries in sports.
In the early years, the schools regularly competed for (unofficial) national championships, with Yale winning 18 and Harvard eight before the college football center of gravity shifted to the South and Midwest. As the sport became big business, Harvard, Yale and their Ivy League brethren receded into the background to retain their focus on academics.
But the chance to qualify for the NCAA playoffs is reminding them what used to be.
“It’s always fun to look at the national champions at all the Ivy League schools,” Harvard safety Ty Bartrum said. "You realize, 'Wow, there’s deep history here. We were competing on a national stage a while ago.'
“(It’s) just added motivation," he said. “The 10-0 Harvard Ivy League teams, the unanimous (conference) championship seasons, all the 10,000 men of Harvard that deserved a playoff run that they didn’t get. I think we’re playing for them as well.”
Traditionally held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, for most of its history The Game has been their regular-season finale. In some years, like this one, it’s also the decisive game in the Ivy League championship race; in others, it is one last opportunity to salvage your season by spoiling your archrival’s.
And until now The Game has also been The End: In the 1920s, Harvard and Yale (and Princeton) decided to forego any postseason opportunities so the students could turn their attention to exams. The rule continued when the Ivy League was formed as an athletic conference after World War II.
But the Ivies lifted their ban on postseason football this season, and in the very first year of eligibility the conference’s automatic berth for the FCS playoffs will come down to The Game. The players say they were excited when the change was announced, but now they are just trying to focus on Saturday.
“For me, this is the last guaranteed game of football that I have, so I’m literally going to treat it like it is the only game of football that I will ever play,” Yale running back Josh Pitsenberger said. “No one really cares about the playoffs right now.”
Although Harvard (9-0, 6-0 Ivy) has already clinched a share of a third straight Ivy League title, Yale (7-2, 5-1) would claim the playoff spot with a victory based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. That would also make the current Yale seniors the first class to go 4-0 against Harvard since the Truman administration.
“It’s a feeling I’ve been chasing, so I can’t say what it means to me” to beat Yale, said Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig, a senior. “But I know it’s everything to the school. When you commit to a school like this, that’s the cornerstone, one of the reasons why you come here.”
Lest they forget, Aurich displayed on the scoreboard during practice this week a picture of the Yale fans storming the field at Harvard Stadium last year after the Bulldogs won 34-29, depriving the Crimson of an outright Ivy title for the second straight year. (Aurich took the picture himself, knowing it would come in handy.)
“It’s just motivation to remind us that if we’re not locked in, it’s going to be a sea of blue on that field after the game. And we’re trying to prevent that,” Craig said. “(It was) the worst feeling I’ve ever felt. Losing sucks. But losing to Yale is worse than regular losing. I can definitely say that.”
One of four unbeaten FCS teams, Harvard is looking to complete its first undefeated season since 2014. But the bigger goal is the school’s ninth national championship, and its first since winning the Rose Bowl to claim the 1919 title.
The Crimson haven’t played a postseason game since, leaving them with an all-time record of 1-0.
And that makes this year's game one of the most anticipated in the rivalry since the two schools — both unbeaten — met in 1968, when the Crimson scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds for a moral victory commemorated in the school paper with the headline, “ Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”
And maybe The biggest Game ever.
“You’re not putting me in the corner on that one,” Aurich said. “There are a lot of people who would be angry if I try to make a determination into that, as a Princeton grad who’s only been here two years.
“For these guys,” he said, "it definitely feels that way for them.”
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