Welcome back college football fans as we dive into the second in our series ranking the 25 D1 football conferences in terms of pre-season strength of schedule. Last time we talked about the lowly Pioneer League and this week we step up a notch to the unique Ivy League. These 8 storied institutions still play the traditional 10 games in 10 weeks schedule, starting on September 21st this year and finishing during FCS rivalry week. They do not participate in the FCS playoffs. 10 games, winner is champion, done. They don’t play any non-D1 schools this year and no FBS schools. Of the 30 non-conference games, they do spread out a little with 8 (including an independent) other conferences, but all 7 members of the Patriot league play at least one Ivy team for a total of 12 games. The Colonial is second with 4 games. In the table below (F) indicates a non-conference game against a fellow FCS league team. I give you the Ivy League.
| Team | 2023 Record (Rank) | 2024 PS SOS (Rank) | Home Games | Away Games | Opp 2023 Rec |
| Cornell Big Red (1) | 3-7 (251) | 2.39 (212) | (38-14/.731) Albany (F), Yale, Harvard, Penn, Dartmouth | (23-29/.442) Colgate (F), Bucknell (F), Brown, Columbia, Princeton | 61-43 (.587) |
| Columbia Lions (2) | 3-7 (247) | 2.38 (213) | (30-22/.577) Lafayette (F), Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, Yale | (28-29/.538) Georgetown (F), Wagner (F), Penn, Brown, Harvard | 58-46 (.558) |
| Dartmouth Big Green (3) | 6-4 (174) | 2.36 (216) | (28-25/.528) Fordham (F), C Connecticut (F), Brown, Penn, Harvard | (23-28/.451) Merrimack (F), Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Cornell | 51-53 (.490) |
| Penn Quakers (4) | 6-4 (173) | 2.31 (220) | (28-24/.538) Colgate (F), Bucknell (F), Columbia, Harvard, Yale) | (28-25/.528) Delaware (F), Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell | 56-49 (.533) |
| Brown Bears (5T) | 5-5 (205) | 2.29 (222) | (26-25/.510) Bryant (F), Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Penn | (29-23/.558) Georgetown (F), Rhode Island (F), Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth | 55-48 (.534) |
| Princeton Tigers (5T) | 5-5 (203) | 2.29 (222) | (26-26/.500) Howard (F), Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn | (29-25/.537) Lehigh (F), Mercer (F), Yale, Harvard, Columbia | 55-51 (.519) |
| Yale Bulldogs (7) | 7-3 (155) | 2.03 (243) | (21-31/.404) C Connecticut (F), Lehigh (F), Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown | (27-24/.529) Holy Cross (F), Penn, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia | 48-55 (.449) |
| Harvard Crimson (8) | 8-2 (142) | 2.01 (802) | (31-32/.492) Stetson (F), Holy Cross (F), New Hampshire (F), Columbia, Princeton, Yale | (20-20/.500) Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Penn | 51-52 (.495) |
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That’s it for today. Tune in Thursday for the next conference. Who do you think the most-challenged conference will be? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and sharing with others, G
