Harvard adds Top 10 Big Sky foes as Ivy playoff era begins

Harvard’s schedule move was less about filling dates than about changing the way the Ivy League is judged. The Crimson added six future nonconference games against four first-time opponents, including reigning national champion Montana State and 2025 NCAA quarterfinalist UC Davis, as Ivy programs began planning for a postseason path that now runs through the FCS bracket.

The series stretch across 2027, 2028, 2031 and 2032. Harvard will host UC Davis in 2027, then travel to Davis, California, in 2031. Montana State, out of Bozeman, Montana, will visit Cambridge in 2028. Wofford, a 10-time FCS playoff participant from Spartanburg, South Carolina, is also headed to Harvard Stadium in 2028. Richmond, a perennial postseason qualifier from Richmond, Virginia, will play in Cambridge in 2031 and return again in 2032.

For Harvard, the logic is obvious. Strength of schedule now matters in a way it did not when the Ivy League stayed outside the playoff field. Ranked wins carry weight, and so does the number of Division I opponents on a slate. In a league that still plays only 10 regular-season games, every nonconference date has become a strategic decision, not just a regional road trip.

Andrew Aurich said Harvard was “excited to expand the Harvard Football brand to new parts of the country and maximize the student-athlete experience,” and the schedule backs that up. Aurich, the fifth person to lead Harvard football since Ivy League play began in 1956, enters his third season in 2026 after guiding the Crimson to Ivy League championships in both 2024 and 2025. Harvard went 17-4 overall under Aurich through two seasons, including 8-2 in 2024 and 9-2 in 2025.

The backdrop is the Ivy League’s long-awaited entry into the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The Ivy League Council of Presidents approved participation in December 2024 after a year-long process initiated by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and the league’s playoff participation began with the 2025 season. Harvard earned an at-large bid that year, while Yale claimed the league’s first automatic qualifier.

That shift is changing how Ivy schools think about relevance. The NCAA’s FCS Oversight Committee has also recommended expanding the regular season to 12 games beginning in 2026, another sign that the subdivision is moving toward more flexibility and more résumé-building opportunities. Harvard’s new list of opponents suggests the Ivy is no longer content to be measured only inside its own standings. It wants national credibility, and it is scheduling like a program that expects to be in the conversation every year.