The Ancient Eight: College Football’s Ivy League and the Game They Play Today

by John Feinstein

Inside the Ivy League, college football’s oldest teams, amid a rapidly changing and increasingly monetized collegiate sports world—from award-winning and bestselling author of A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled, and contributing columnist for The Washington Post, John Feinstein. There is a tremendous amount of history surrounding the Ivy League, dating back to Princeton playing in what is considered to be the first college football game, in 1869, against Rutgers. That history, however, is not what this book is about. This book is about Ivy League football today—specifically, the 2023 season. Why? Because Ivy League football is underrated—there are typically about a dozen former Ivy players in the NFL. To play in the league, you have to be smart and a good student and a good football player. The rivalries are as intense as in the SEC or the Big Ten, even if the linemen aren’t quite as large. There are some arcane rules—not letting the league champion play in the NCAA postseason, not allowing eligible graduate students to play, and insisting on playing ten straight weeks with no bye. But there is also a real purity—not one that’s made up for marketing purposes—in the Ivy League. ​ The story of the 2023 season began with tragedy when longtime Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens suffered fatal injuries in a bicycle accident in March; one of his players died of cancer the day of the accident. But Dartmouth would fight through the tragedies to win a share of the Ivy title, along with both Harvard and Yale—the result of a nail-biting 138th meeting of those two schools in The Game. On the field, inside the locker room, and around campus, The Ancient Eight explores the phenomenal stories of the young men who play in today’s Ivy League and the men who coach them.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published November 12, 2024

About the author

John Feinstein was an American sportswriter, author, and sports commentator.

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Feinstein has long been one of my favorite sports authors – whenever I saw a book that he wrote, it immediately gets put on my “need to read” shelf. So, when I saw this one about Ivy League football, I immediately requested an advance copy and started reading. I also saw a couple reviews of the book – one glowing, one not so much. I felt that this was in-between and while an okay book, I don’t believe it was one of his better works.

I’ll start with the disappointing aspects. The first is that one of Feinstein’s great strengths is his ability to tell stories about his subjects, primarily coaches and athletes, with a great human touch and makes the reader that these are people with real issues, not just glamorous celebrities. While he does this at the beginning with coaches from all eight Ivy League schools, the items about the players are not as interesting and instead read more like clippings from press conferences.

Which leads to the second part that disappointed me – most of the book is a rehashing of the 2023 Ivy League football season complete with game descriptions, quotes and updated standings each week. While many times that is fine for a book of this nature, it isn’t the usual Feinstein style and for that, my satisfaction came up a little short.

But this doesn’t mean everything about the book was disappointing. The stories about the coaches mentioned earlier were great. Especially with the passing of Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens and the outpouring of support that came from all the Ivies. The dialogue about how many coaches in the league stay in their positions for long periods of time, no matter their records, was also good reading. Same goes for other passages that talked about the history of the league – some of which were interspersed with the 2023 game notes. Also, of course, no book on the Ivy League would be complete without mentioning the Harvard-Yale match called simple “The Game.” Although…here there are four references to the famous headline “Harvard beats Yale 29-29” but at least they make sense in their use and not just added to make the story juicier.

Overall, it was an okay read, but I would not recommend it to hardcore Feinstein fans like me. There just wasn’t enough of the material that makes him a great writer and instead it felt more like a product to just get out there and sell.

I wish to thank Hachette Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Patten · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read my first John Feinstein book in middle school, 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮, about the rise of Duke basketball in the 1970s. I’ve been a fan of his ever since, from 𝘈 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 (about the PGA Tour) to 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦 (about minor league baseball). Therefore, I was excited to be given the opportunity to read an advance copy of his book about Ivy League football, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘌𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Last year I read his book on the Army-Navy rivalry (𝘈 𝘊𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘞𝘢𝘳), so I was also excited to read another football book of his. If you haven’t read Feinstein, generally he embeds himself with a few key players and follows them around for a certain period of time.

Unfortunately, this book was a rare miss for a myriad of reasons.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱:
- Subject matter. I like college football, I liked the other college football book Feinstein wrote. This book follows Ivy League football, which is an intriguing topic I know little about.
- Cinderella. Since this book is about real life, there’s not really a spoiler here. Feinstein writes about the 2023 Ivy League season. In September 2023, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens died from injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident earlier in the year. Dartmouth went on to win the conference after he died. It’s a little Disney, but a feel good real life story. Of course I wanted to read that.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:
- Too much. Feinstein tries to tell the whole story of the season and it’s too much. There are too many characters, too many minute details of various games told in chronological order. It becomes a bog after a while.
- Repetitive. For some reason, Feinstein repeats quotes and anecdotes throughout the book. And I don’t mean once or twice - it happens dozens of times. I think “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29” is explained on four different occasions. Jack Ford’s entire biography is given in two separate, non-adjacent chapters. I feel like he wrote each chapter each week of the season and never went back to make them cohesive.
- There is no focus on Dartmouth winning. The final “action” chapter is Harvard-Yale. That’s fine and understandable, because it’s The Game and the book is about the Ivy League. But the most compelling story - Dartmouth tying for the conference title - is told as an afterthought. This should have been the underlying thread of the book.
- Structure. The book is basically just written in chronological order, game to game, with reports of what happened in each game. Yeah, we get a little bit of background, but there’s nowhere near the kind of depth he gives in his other books.

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁:
John Feinstein has written a lot of great, fascinating and memorable books about a variety of sports subjects. He’s one of the best sportswriters out there, but I can’t recommend this book.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, though not quite what I hoped it would be or what it purports to be.

What this book claimed to do and what I hoped it would do was to celebrate the tradition of the scholar athlete in Ivy League athletics, and to highlight how this conference has held out from the corrupting influences that have badly damaged college sports in order to preserve the original and far more nobles goals of college athletics.

Feinstein touches on this, but the book is more important of a state of the union-style report on what’s what in Ivy League football today. This was fun to read and Feinstein is always reliably entertaining as a storyteller, but there was a far better message that the book hinted at and then kind of swept under the rug. It’s worth a read, but a bit of a letdown if your expectations were taken from the publishers summary of what the book was intended to be.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Mark B. Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Feinstein's 50th, and tragically, last book he wrote is the first book of his I have read. I have been a huge fan of his regular columns in the Washington Post, and he was deeply missed with his always superb analysis of the NCAA Tournament Bracket that would come out on the Monday following Selection Sunday. And he would always point out how poorly the committee would treat the mid-majors and 1-bid conference teams in their seedings. His sudden death on the Thursday before Selection Sunday left a deep hole in the Post's special Tournament Section this year.

I will read many more of Feinstein's books (hopefully) and several are already sitting on my to-read pile, but this one is special and I'm glad it's the first I read. Both my parents went to Cornell, so I grew up following Ivy League football. My very first college game that I attended in person was at Schoellkopf Field in 1970 for Cornell's homecoming. I saw Ed Marinaro play as a senior in his incredible run to being the Heisman Trophy runner-up that year. Feinstein, in his elegant, explanatory style, captures the essence of football in the conference that will never change teams. The 8 schools will always be in the Ivy League - none will leave for another conference for better money, nor will another team join the League. Feinstein, with his amazing ability to get full access for whatever subject he wants to write on, (starting with Bobby Knight back in 1986 an ending with a plethora of players and coaches from the Ivy League in 2023), captures the complete magic of the roller-coaster ride that is the 10-week Ivy League season. No Conference Championship, no bowl games, no post-season playoffs. Just 10 weeks of football to determine the conference champion (or champions as the case may be. Starting with the tragedy of Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens' ultimately fatal accident in the Spring of 2023 and wrapping up with the end of the season and the (surprising) number of coaching changes after the season, the book keeps you wrapped in attention throughout the entire turbulent ride. Highly recommended!

[Stephen Morrissey · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the era of NILs and College Football Playoffs that hew more to the moneymaking side of college athletics, Ivy League football remains refreshingly stable: a conference that prioritizes tradition and academics; coaches that bond across universities; and high-caliber play that leads some into professional play (Ryan Fitzpatrick being the most well-known recent Ivy grad to succeed in the NFL ranks).

Feinstein's "The Ancient Eight" captures some of this magic, following the eight teams of the storied conference through the 2023 season. The book focuses upon the tragedy of Coach Teevens' fatal biking accident before the season starts, as well as a surprisingly high turnover of coaches at the end of the season as Harvard's Murphy retired and Cornell's Archer and Columbia's Fabish. The games are told in dramatic detail, though the author could have used a more focused editor in deleting out repetitive concepts (I think every chapter references the 1968 Yale-Harvard game that resulted in a tie and a humorous Harvard headline that "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29," which is amusing the first few times and burdensome for the rest).

The shining aspect of the book is the players: the student-athletes come across as principled, hard-working, and level-headed in their ambitions to earn a powerful degree and become the best possible football players they can be. Absent is the noise and melodrama that afflicts money-grubbing conferences elsewhere in the country, and demonstrates that in a few corners of college athletics, something more than TV deals and sponsorships are worthy of attention and ambition.

[Jack Poss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little sports book, that hits close to home. Wish there was more about like fan and student culture (or realistically lack thereof) at games and traditions and things along that line. Also, it felt like the chapters were written separately and a bunch of background/historical information kept repeating.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical excellent work from John Feinstein, as he presents the tumultuous 2023 Ivy League football season…We get wonderful personal vignettes, a little history and his admiring look at what maybe the last bastion of true amateurism in major college football…Good Stuff!!!

[Lauren Cademartori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read for a class🥀

[Bobby Nash · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tough to get through. I would have been better off reading game recaps from press releases. Just summarized an entire conference’s season with not much depth and insight.

[Patrick Schultheis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but it was a sloppy effort by the author. I have read many of his other books, and generally like him. This one had way too much repetition, misspellings and similar things

[Clayton Baum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting tidbits about a league that I don’t usually follow, but it felt like I was reading 200 pages of ESPN box scores. For some reason, Feinstein treats his audience as if they have short term memory loss and repeats every major point he makes about ten times throughout the book. To cap it all off, he himself forgets to talk about Brown, which might not seem huge, but in a league with only 8 teams, it’s almost kind of impressive to ignore a team to his extent.

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

Purchased this as a gift for someone that took me to a Penn game at Franklin Field a while back. Thought he would enjoy it but decided to read it myself first
I’m a long time fan of the author’s books but this was a total disappointment.

Quite. Few errors, noticeable repeats of stories, a find of not very important games. Might just drop off at a book donation center

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adjacent to the title page of THE ANCIENT EIGHT is a page-long list of John Feinstein’s remarkable sports books, which focus on golf, basketball, football, tennis and baseball. Having read many of his works, it is safe to say that he often covers subjects that roam somewhat off the traditional path of the sports world.

This time, Feinstein has chosen college football’s Ivy League, an elite football conference of eight Eastern schools that includes some of America’s most prestigious learning institutions. While Ivy League football traces back more than 150 years, that storied history is not what this book is about. Instead, Feinstein visits the contemporary Ivy League, where we meet coaches, players and other participants.

While many sports fans might believe that the Ivy League is the minor league of college football, Feinstein informs us that NFL teams often have players from these schools on their rosters. NFL scouts value these athletes for their skill and ability on the football field, as well as their achievements in meeting high academic standards.

The eight schools of the Ivy League comprise a group of teams playing a unique college football season. While many conferences are expanding and now playing 12-game schedules, plus a conference championship and a bowl game, the Ivy League has a 10-game schedule that includes seven league games. The entire season is played in 10 weeks, and there are no bye weeks. There are also no postseason games, although the conference announced just recently that it would consider a proposal that would allow its teams to compete in the FCS playoffs, an NCAA division for smaller football programs.

Feinstein begins the story of the 2023 Ivy League football season by introducing us to coaches Sammy McCorkle of Dartmouth and Tim Murphy of Yale. Coaches in the Ivy League do not have the notoriety of their fellow coaches from major schools who earn multi-million-dollar salaries and appear in television commercials. They are rarely mentioned in the sports pages unless a tragedy strikes or before the traditional final game of the season between Harvard and Yale. We meet McCorkle and Murphy as they face an automobile accident involving Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, which will have a substantial impact on the season.

THE ANCIENT EIGHT progresses through the season, and we become acquainted with coaches and players from Harvard, Yale, Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, Princeton and Cornell. Each school has a story to tell regarding their history in Ivy League football, and players from each squad explain what football life in the conference is like. Feinstein also talks about many individual games as the teams battle through the season, which he recounts in dramatic fashion. Though games are played in front of small crowds and in smaller venues, the accounts are still suspenseful as they often come down to last-second plays.

John Feinstein has the wonderful ability to provide the human detail of athletic endeavor. These players and coaches exhibit a purity and unique appreciation for the game that is sometimes lacking in the world of major college athletics. It is captured beautifully in THE ANCIENT EIGHT, and football fans will enjoy this engaging account.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was bittersweet read, as it was Feinstein's 50th and final (RIP) book; albeit not his best story.

Still ... In an era were colleges / universities are playing leapfrog across the various sports conferences in an effort to better position themselves as a college playoff contender, it was refreshing to read about the Ancient Eight, aka the Ivy League, who unlike many other Division 1 leagues will never try and be (read add teams) more than they are. Feinstein wrote about the original eight and not the wannabes - Brown, Columbia, Cornell (the so-called blue collar team of the league), Dartmouth College, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale.

While the minute details about each game and their key players was often monotonous, it was the arcing stories that described the individual schools, their coaches, camaraderie, and traditions that was most interesting. The stories about how Feinstein came to write this book and then the concern shown when Dartmouth's Buddy Teevens had his bicycle accident brought tears to my eyes.

Some other things that I found intriguing:

It is a given that fans will ALWAYS come onto the field during post-game for the purpose of greeting players & coaches.

The Ivy League is cutthroat with class. Things happen, but the players and coaches do not make excuses. They figure out where the problems are and try and develop solutions before the next game, which brings me to the next fact.

The Ivy League football season is ten weeks, period. They are restricted to playing 10 games, total - 7 conference games and 3 non-conference games. They have no bye weeks, so typically start two weeks after the rest of Division one. Also, although they will begin participating in FCS playoffs in 2025, their final game is between Harvard and Yale. There are no trophies. The game ball is the prize. It is given to the coach of the winning team and the coach gives it to the Captain of that year's team, and yes I said Captain - one captain per team. On a side note: the Columbia vs. Cornell game is known as the Empire State Bowl and is often the last game of the season for those two teams.

Next, that Harvard / Yale game is known as, "The Game," and was first played in 1875, but it is not the oldest. To put things in perspective, some call the Ohio State / Michigan match-up "The Game," but they have only been playing since 1897, which is 22 years less than Harvard / Yale.

Feinstein wrote about one coach's experience regarding player recruitment in Texas and the number of Ivy League scouts down south at the same time. The camaraderie demonstrated was inspiring.

The Ivy League does not provide Athletic Scholarships. Instead, they focus on need-based financial aid for all admitted students, including athletes. A financial aid package offered to a recruited athlete will be determined solely on their financial need; not their athletic ability.

Also, throughout this book, I noticed that each player or coach interviewed spoke very well, a reflection on their education.

Finally, five of the Ivy League's eight Athletic Directors are women. Impressive!

Overall, a good read.

[John Mullarkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This college football book by John Feinstein is about a season (2023) in the Ivy League. As always, Feinstein chooses an interesting element of the sports world. Likewise, it focuses on a few of the players and especially the coaches and tells their stories. Most notably that of Dartmouth and their longtime coach, Buddy Teevens - who tragically died from injuries sustained in a biking accident, and his successor, Sam McCorkle. The team underdogs to begin with, faced huge odds as they navigated the course of the 10-game schedule. Each of the seven other squads have “stories” embedded within their teams (including the various paths many of the players followed that led them to their respective schools) and we learn of them from week to week. There is definitely an element of intrigue developed throughout the season. However, unlike other Feinstein works, this seems a bit like a recap of the schedule - there are lots of bits and pieces that I found somewhat hard to keep track of - too many players and coaches are mentioned throughout the book and although some are memorable (Tim Murphy, coach of Harvard, Cornell QB, Jameson Wang, Columbia Lions’ tough losses under coach, Mark Fabish) others get mixed within the game results and standings. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of John Feinstein, or of the Ivy League - or college football, it is well worth checking out. The Ivy league has a unique history and format and this is a quick peak into how it stands out from the other leagues.

[Ken Heard · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Feinstein can really get into the heart of whatever he's covering. He's shown that with the many books he's already written about college football, basketball, golf, pro quarterbacks, et al. This time, he takes on the Ivy League conference in football.

I am a huge football fan, poring over college scores and stats each week, but I tend to skip over the Ivy League games because they aren't that relevant to me. (I'm a Big 10 fan). But this book does get into the story and drama of the season and shows the true heart of college football. These guys don't have much hope of following into the pros, yet they play each week for the pride of their school,

I did find that Feinstein tended to repeat himself often in this short book. There were times when he referred to Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevin's bicycle accident and subsequent death several times as if they were the first reference to the incident. He also on at least five occasions, referred to the 1968 Harvard-Yale game that ended in a tie and wrote about the headline appearing "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29".

There were also repeated quotes from coaches and game recaps throughout the book. The book was short, only about 240 pages. Maybe he had to add that to make the printer's quota for pages.

But, still, this is a Feinstein book so the reader will learn new things. It was a quick read and the sports recaps were fun to read. I'll be sure to check out the Ivy League scores in the paper and online with more interest this coming fall.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Broke my rule, established in 2020, of not reading any more Feinstein books because I felt sadness about his recent passing. I'm going to try to minimize hypocrisy by not dwelling on how remarkably repetitive the book is (same anecdotes, background biographical notes, quotes, season trends etc. coming up over and over), as I see from a search in my goodreads log that I've said that already about 3 of his prior books.

So instead I'll say that I loved his columns over the years as well as Season on the Brink, and even after he wore out (for me) the model of book-length insider sportswriting he retained a special ability to (a) identify interesting slices of the sports world (here a deep dive into 2023 season of Ivy League football, culminating in 3-way tie for the conference championship) and (b) paint a vivid portrait of the characters and their experiences. Compared to other current sportswriters, he's much lighter on analytics and game strategy, gentler in his hot takes (at least with players/coaches. He can be pretty harsh re administrators), and more interested in what it's like to do your best but lose or to get fired when you think you had the team going in the right direction etc.

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly, this is about the 35th book by John Feinstein I've read and it may be the last since he died earlier this year. One of my favorite authors of all time. A real good look into the Ivy Football League with teams such as Harvard, Yale, Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown. Feinstein does a great job of not just talking about the scores of games, but the players and especially in this book, the coaches. Tragedy came down on this league in 2023, the year Feinstein covers a season in this league. Like he does in so many books, he puts the reader as if they are in the locker rooms and stands of these games, practices and meetings. You start to root for teams just based on the interviews that have come earlier in the book. If you liked his book The Last Amatuers, you'll love this book as well. Almost seems like a sequel to that book. Does the book get a little repetitive like in his last book on Duke? Yes, yes it does. That is something he didn't often do in his earlier books that seemed to occur more and more in his later books is that he didn't know how to end them or chapters, but overall still a great writing and reporting job. RIP to one of my favorite writers of all time.

[Chris Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Feinstein’s last book ; how sad. He deserves a 5 . However this story is more about the wonderful student athletes in the Ivy League who play the game for the pure joy of it . Mr. Feinstein captured it beautifully. In today’s Ivy League football players are unique birds. In many ways they do not fit in. Football is a brutal but beautiful game and it affects you like nothing else. You fall in love with it ; everything about it. The best line in the book is the description of getting admitted to and being able to play football at one of these schools is like a “golden ticket”. It is just that . I know the feeling. One of the things that surprised me in the book was the low attendance at Ivy League Football games today. It never used to be that way. Other than the Harvard- Yale game the athletes are pretty much playing in front of friends and family. All the more credit to these great student athletes and coaches. Make no mistake each and every one of these schools is lucky to have these great student athletes as part of its Alumni. They go out into the world and win . God bless them all.

[Bobby Smieszny · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the forward, Feinstein mentions he’d need to write a book twice as long to cover all the stories he’d learned over the season; I wish he had. I did not know much about Ivy League football before reading this, so I did pick up some interesting fact. However, most of the book is recapping different games each week of the season, which was expected. What I grew tired of was rehashing what was discussed in prior chapters two to three times at later points in the book. While understanding the implications of game results is important, I felt at times we were spinning in circles talking about the same games multiple times. A good example of this is a quote by Jack Ford about shaking his fist when watching Yale games. He is quoted in some form three times, and twice in the same chapter. There are some good human interest stories in this book, but it bogs itself down along the way. I typically enjoy Feinstein’s writing, but this is not his best work.

[Mike Heenan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Although I was looking forward to a historical summary of Ivy League football, this book mainly focuses on the 2023 season and the important athletes and coaches from that year. I don't know a lot about Ivy League football so I did enjoy learning about the one specific season but I feel a more detailed history would have been a more interesting read.

The book feels a bit repetitive at times, with similar stories repeated in different chapters. I liked the focus on the coaches and their background but feel the cover and title gives off a bit more of an impression that this book would cover a longer time period.

[Kevin Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I have to agree with some of the criticisms of this book - in particular the repetition of some stories, quotes and antidotes, I found myself pulling for the various players and coaches who appear in this book. Part of the appeal is the fact that the Ivy League is about a lot more than competition and championships and tradition means something. Contrast that with the current state of affairs in the major college football where tradition means little and conferences change almost monthly.

Consequently, I read this book quickly and with pleasure. Once I finished it, I went online to see how the various schools did in 2024 (the book was about the 2023 season).

[Jack Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

In light of what is the current state of college athletics at the high major level, it was refreshing to read the story of football’s true ‘Last Amateurs’! Players we can actually call ‘Student-Athletes’ and mean it! It was interesting to read about the competitive camaraderie that existed in the Ivy League! Players that value the degree! Where the transfer portal is an afterthought and players participate for their love of the game! I know I’m old, but I truly miss the good old days of college athletics!
Thanks John! I enjoyed reading your take on sports! It aligned a lot with mine! You will truly be missed by me! RIP.

[Timothy Henson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed reading books written by John Feinstein, so I was glad to see that he had written a new one. This book is centered a year in the Ivy League and the school's football teams. I learned quite a bit from this book about the life of football at Ivy League institutions, and in the world of big time college football, how unique it is to be not only a player in the Ivy League but a coach too. When you read this book, throw all your perceptions of college football players out the window. I highly recommend this book to any football fan.

[Sarah Jezioro · Rating 3 out of 5]

very repetitive

Easy and good read. However, the boom gets overly repetitive multiple times throughout the book. The author states he interviewed 82 people for this book but yet keeps repeating verbatim the same things. For example he repeatedly mentions there is no post season, he keeps saying that each game basically comes down to a play or two in the fourth quarter, and many other examples.

[Abigail Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fascinating for me because we have a son pursuing the possibility of playing for one of the schools right now. Aside from that the book was extremely repetitive, retelling the same stories or anecdotes 3 and 4 times. It would have been much better to follow the players and coaches over a second season and/or go more in depth on the personal side of things and the recruitment process. If not for my personal situation the book rate 3 stars

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt workmanlike, and to be honest, it was a chore to reach much of it. There is a great story wrapped up in Ivy League football (or any Ivy League sport), but Feinstein got so bogged down in minutiae and play-by-play that he was able to only hint at that bigger story. A could-have-been good book marred by lazy editing and rote writing. It's unfortunate to note that Feinstein died shortly after completing this book.

[Lstcyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

good concept; poor execution

Usually a big fan of the author’s books but I can’t get over how many times he repeats the same story and sometimes in the exact same words. Yes, we know Harvard tied Yale and there was a famous headline about it. How many times do you think you need to tell us in a relatively short book. Not that many!

[Justin Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book. It is very repetitive and reads like a recap of the 2023 season. The author interviewed 82 people for this book to give a unique perspective on being a player in the Ivy League, but the stories weren't there. They were just brief clips of the player's background. It is an "easy read", but I struggling to finish because there was nothing to pull me in.

[Bill S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering how much I've enjoyed other works from the author, plus my bizarre interest in the topic (I'm a Brown alum), this was a big disappointment. Poorly written - several stories are repeated multiple times, lack of depth in the storytelling, and full of minute and not very important details. Mostly just not very interesting.