Ivy football season finally gets started

Jack Drewry

Banner Sports Sponsored by the Patriots Foundation

Dramatic changes in college football have taken place this year. The NCAA championship FBS playoffs have been expanded from 4 to 12 teams. USC and UCLA have joined the Big Ten. Stanford and California have also come East as new ACC members. The Ivy League has remained the same.

Most of the rest of the country’s college football teams played their third or fourth games of a 12-game regular season this past Friday and mainly Saturday. Meanwhile all the Ivies of the East were contesting their first games of a 10-game regular season.

ACC Boston College, led by Black junior quarterback Thomas Castellanos from Waycross, Georgia, is now 3-1 after an exciting 23-19 victory over Big Ten opponent Michigan State in last Saturday’s rain. The Eagles will face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers this weekend in Chestnut Hill. They are also 3-1.

Ivy League Harvard is 1-0 behind Black signal caller Jaden Craig of Montclair, New Jersey, following a 35-0 drubbing in the Saturday soaker of Pioneer League Stetson University from Florida.

They are facing Ivy League opponent Brown University this weekend.

Boston College is on track for a major post season appearance as a Football Bowl Series (FBS) team. Meanwhile Harvard’s potential accomplishments are more limited. The best the Crimson can presently hope for is an Ivy League Championship.

Despite fielding Football Championship Series (FCS) teams, the Ivy League does not allow its football players to participate in the after-regular season series. All other Ivy sports are permitted to engage in their respective NCAA post-season championships. The only reason for the discrimination against football seems to be tradition.

Harvard football coach Micky Fein (left)) and head coach Andrew Aurich during pregame warmups. PHOTO: DYLAN GOODMAN/HARVARD ATHLETICS

Harvard’s brand-new head football coach Andrew Aurich was asked by the Banner about tradition at last Wednesday’s post practice press conference and what he would say to fans who would like to see his team eligible to play 2023-24 FCS Champion South Dakota State in January. He advised, “Write to the Ivy Presidents!”

Indeed, it is the traditionalists of the Ivy League who oppose any changes to the football program. Likely a losing battle for them as they try to prevent the inevitable. Fortunately, the NCAA Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy and the Ivies approach to it signal a shift.

NIL rules now allow college athletes to be paid for their commercial use. NFL draft prospect Shedeur Sanders, QB for his father Deon’s Big 12 Colorado Buffaloes, has already earned over five million dollars this year. Ivy League athletic directors are now encouraging their athletes to take advantage of NIL by starting their own businesses.

Coach Aurich told the Banner there is nothing to prevent his players from endorsing, for instance, McDonald’s. He is posed to break new ground as he succeeds Tim Murphy, who retired in January after 30 years as The Crimson’s head coach.  Aurich now praises the use of drone tapes by his staff to improve team performance.

The coach seems to delight in finding ways to support and encourage his players. After Saturday’s victory, he greeted each player individually as they came through the locker room door with his own two young children nearby. He brought senior wide receiver Scott Woods II from Lorton, Virginia, to the post-game press conference.

Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig steps into the pocket. PHOTO: DYLAN GOODMAN/HARVARD ATHLETICS

Woods, who is Black, commented in response to a question from the Banner that Harvard has become a new family home for him. His mother and father traveled from Virginia for the game and were rewarded by his outstanding performance. Scott rushed for 15 yards, returned three punts, and scored the Crimson’s first touchdown on a 46-yard reception from Jaden.

Craig’s parents were also at the game, having come up from New Jersey with the maternal grandparents. Jaden also had great numbers Saturday. He completed 12 of 20 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns. All despite not having one of his prime targets from last year’s successful season, Tim Neville, present on this year’s roster. Neville now catches touchdowns for the University of Virginia.

Neville played three years at Harvard with 62 receptions for 698 yards and eight touchdowns as his teams amassed a 22-8 record. Because his freshman year was the Covid-cancelled season, he graduated with a remaining year of eligibility that he could not use at Harvard due to graduate student restrictions.

This season so far at Virginia, he is averaging 15 yards per reception. In their September 7th 31-30 victory over Wake Forest, he had four receptions for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

The Ivy League bans the participation of graduate students in NCAA athletics. Instead of continuing his career path in Cambridge, Neville had no choice but to go elsewhere if he wanted to still compete on the gridiron. Jaden Craig acknowledged to the Banner he would have loved to have had him in his arsenal this year at Harvard.

The Ivies have yet to articulate a legitimate rationale for preventing graduates from remaining on campus to pursue their athletic dreams while obtaining additional Harvard degrees. A recent saga has been completed by 2020 Harvard graduate Seth Towns.

Townes, who is Black, is an outstanding basketball player and native of Columbus, Ohio, who graduated from Harvard with two years of eligibility remaining because of injuries. He was forced to leave Cambridge in order to continue his career and went back home and played for Ohio State. Injuries continued to plague him, and he eventually transferred to Howard where he used up his basketball eligibility.

This fall, he will back on the hardwood court at Harvard. This time as a coach. Head Coach Tommy Amaker, who is Black, has had the wisdom to bring Seth back. With his Big Ten and HBCU experience, he will be an asset to the program. Perhaps he will also be a living testament to the Ivy League folly of forcing extensive travel to continue the pursuit of an athletic career.