Welcome back oh great and wonderful college football fans! It’s JoJo back again to report on the conference with the 13th most-challenged conference! In GCR employee news, I have officially started student teaching for the semester, which is my last semester before I graduate in December! Even though I will be very busy these next few months, I will do my best to watch as many college football games as possible, and stay up-to-date with postings!
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The 13th most-challenged conference, according to the pre-season strength of schedule (PS-SOS) algorithm is none other than the Ivy League! On our most recent vacation this summer, G and I visited Harvard in Cambridge, and I visited Columbia in New York City last summer! Now, the Ivy League is the conference ranked third in “JoJo’s Most Schools Visited In Each Conference” behind SoCon and the SEC! Which Ivy League school should I visit next? The Ivy League is also the only conference to play a 10-game schedule, which the other conferences play 11- or 12- game seasons! Additionally, starting last season, they are now eligible for the 24-team playoff! Last season, we had a couple standout teams such as the Harvard Crimson, the Yale Bulldogs, and the Dartmouth Big Green! The Harvard-Yale game is always a fierce rivalry, so it is a must-watch game every season! I can’t wait to watch and see who wins this year! I am also interested to learn which team is going to lead the conference this season! Will it be one of the powerhouses from last season, or will an underdog take the lead this year?
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As a further reminder, the FBS is made up of the Core 4 (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, Notre Dame) conferences and the Group of 6 (American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac 12, Sun Belt, UCONN) Conferences. The FCS is made up of the other D1 conferences (Big Sky, Big South/Ohio Valley, CAA, FCS Independents, Ivy, MEAC, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Patriot, Pioneer, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, and UAC). Non-D1 teams are either Division II, Division III, or NAIA. In the table below, (4) indicates a challenge against a Core 4 team, (G) indicates a game against a Group of 6 opponent, (F) indicates a non-conference FCS foe, (D) indicates a non-D1 game, and (N) indicates a neutral-site game. The mean PS-SOS for the Ivy is 4.146 and the average PS-SOS member rank is 173.9 out of 266. With no further ado, we are proud to present the 2026 Ivy League Football Conference.
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That’s it for today! Tune in on Saturday for the 10th of the series aka the 12th most-challenged conference, and the most challenged conference in the FCS! Thank you for reading and for helping us grow by sharing our work with others! Until next time, JoJo and G
