Whether you’ve been watching or not, it’s all-star season in professional sports. The Pro Bowl, where the sole requirement to play is professional player status, and the NBA All-Star game were held over the past few weeks. Had it not been for the Olympics, the NHL All-Star game also would have been held a few weeks ago.
Just about every sport in the Ivy League allows its best team to participate in postseason play, with the notable exception of football. This topic has been discussed and deliberated ad nauseam, so I’m not going to get into it again by restating that the policy of barring the Ivy League champion from the playoffs is ludicrous.
However, all of these recent all-star games gave me an idea for postseason play that is not unheard of in the Ivy League: Let’s have an Ivy League football all-star game. The reason why this idea isn’t so novel is that there was a series of Ivy League all-star games from 1989-1996. After an unofficially sanctioned game was held between Ivy League all-stars and Japanese all-stars in Yokohama, Japan in 1989, the series became official in June 1990, when the Council of Ivy Group Presidents approved an annual contest dubbed the Epson Ivy Bowl. The game was played each year in Japan, pitting a team of Ivy League seniors against a squad of Japanese all-stars. As one might expect, the Ivy League team won all games against the Japanese all-star teams, including the final game in 1996.
A game like the Epson Ivy Bowl must have been an incredible experience for the Ivy League football players and their Japanese counterparts. It garnered recognition from media outlets such as the New York Times, which undoubtedly helped spread knowledge of both Ivy League and Japanese football. Unfortunately, it seems like it would be extremely difficult to keep up such a game, because of both the cost of travel and the general lack of competition—the closest game was a 10-point Ivy League win in 1995, and that result was fairly atypical.
The Ivy League could definitely revive an all-star game if it wanted to, although it would have to be done differently. First, the game would have to be played in the United States. Foreign travel would be nice, but ultimately would be very expensive. If the game were to occur during college football bowl season—winter break—there’s a possibility it could be played at an NFL field. Considering the location of the Ivy League schools, Giants Stadium and Gillette Stadium would be the most logical locations.
But playing the game at an NFL stadium might not be practical, as such a location could be expensive and almost certainly wouldn’t fill up. Maybe a different venue would be better. Rentschler Field, the home of the University of Connecticut football team since 2003, has a capacity of 40,000 and is a central location for all Ivy League schools. If that would not work, the Ivy all-star game could go elsewhere, or could be played on a rotational basis at each Ivy League stadium.
A second tweak would be that the Ancient Eight all-star game would feature the top talent of Ivy Leaguers going head-to-head against each other, instead of against an unrelated team. The most equitable way to divide teams would be geographically. The four teams from the mid-Atlantic states (Columbia, Cornell, Penn, and Princeton) would take on the four New England teams (Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale). This way, more Ivy League players would be able to play in the game—only about 40 participated in the Epson Ivy Bowl each year—and there would be no bias as to which teams would play together.
Finally, the game would not be limited only to seniors. In order for the game to be respected as a legitimate all-star game, the teams would be comprised of the best players in the league. Surely, many of them would be seniors, considering that 20 of the 27 players who made first-team All-Ivy this year on offense or defense were seniors. But how could very talented players like Columbia’s own Jeff Adams, Dartmouth’s Nick Schwieger, Harvard’s Collin Zych, and Yale’s Adam Money be turned away? Simply put, they couldn’t be.
Right now, the idea of another Ivy League football all-star is just that—an idea. What the Ivy League needs to understand is that a game like this could provide revenue while building the reputation of the league. Television networks would likely be interested in airing this game, and I’m fairly sure that with the powers of the Ivy League combined, the game could find a few sponsors. The game could also be a major boost for players with dreams of playing at the next level, as an Ivy League all-star game might coax out a few scouts to see what the league has to offer. If you’ve seen Ancient Eight football, you know that there are players in this league that have something to offer at the next level. Now they just need a venue in which to shine.
Matt Velazquez is Columbia College senior majoring in history.
sportseditors@columbiaspectator.com
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