Some will tell you the Ivy League's indefensible stance on football advancing to the playoffs has no impact on recruiting. Here's an excerpt from John Feinstein's 2018 book Quarterback: Inside the Most Important Position in the National Football League that suggests otherwise:“I was interested in the Ivy League in general. We made a trip east the summer before my senior year and visited Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn. I like them all, but I really liked Coach Murphy and, well, Harvard was Harvard. My mom was completely sold on Harvard.
“I honestly think I would have ended up there if not for the postseason thing. It wasn’t as if Utah was telling me they were dying to have me. In fact, the thought was that I’d redshirt as a freshman, which was fine. But I had always thought of college football as ending with our team playing in a bowl game – any bowl game. I wanted that to be part of my college experience.
“The Ivy League doesn’t let its champion play postseason. I had trouble understanding that, and it really was kind of a downer for me when making my decision.”The speaker? Quarterback Alex Smith, the senior class president at California's Helix High School who went on to earn an economics degree at Utah in just two years with a 3.74 GPA.
Oh yeah. And who, by the way, became not just a first-team All-American but the overall No. 1 pick in the 2005 NFL draft. Chosen by the San Francisco 49ers, Smith is a 13-year NFL veteran and three-time Pro Bowl selection who walked on Harvard because he wanted more than The Game at season's end.
Interestingly, Feinstein's book looks not just at Smith but also at the career of former Harvard quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who went to Cambridge despite the postseason ban.
Feinstein's book includes this excerpt from when Smith and Fitzpatrick were paired together in a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe:
"The introductions tend to be fairly lavish, if only to remind the crowd just how important each celebrity golfer is in his own world.
"And so, it wasn't surprising that when Smith stepped up onto the tee, the starter grandly announced, 'Please welcome the number one pick in the 2005 NFL draft, from the Kansas City Chiefs… Alex Smith!'
"A moment later, it was Fitzpatricks' turn to be introduced. He had asked that the starter not mention his Harvard education, whom he was playing for, or any success he'd had in his career. Instead, the starter followed Fitzpatrick's request and said, 'Please welcome the two-hundred-and-fiftieth pick in the 2005 NFL draft . . . Ryan Fitzpatrick.' "
