Princeton–Yale Football Rivalry
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The Princeton–Yale football rivalry is an American
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...
between the Princeton Tigers of
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
and the
Yale Bulldogs The Yale Bulldogs are the college sports teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA national championships ...
of
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. The football rivalry is among the oldest in American sports.


Significance

The rivalry is one of the oldest continuous rivalries in American sports, the oldest continuing rivalry in the history of
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
, and is constituent to the Big Three academic, athletic and social rivalry among alumni and students associated with
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, Yale and Princeton universities. The
Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby () is an American Graded stakes race, Grade I stakes Thoroughbred racing, race run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is run by three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of . Colt (horse), Colts and geldin ...
and Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show example American sporting events that are older or have been engaged continuously longer than this contest. Princeton claims 28 collegiate football national championships. Yale claims 27 collegiate national football championship. The rivalry has also been played beyond the gridiron, with Princeton's Undergraduate Dean of Admissions hacking the Yale undergraduate admissions website in 2002. Princeton and Yale first met on the gridiron in 1873 and soon dominated the sport. Princeton has been considered the best football program of the nineteenth century. Princeton played the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
in 1890, a contest considered the first major
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South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
intersectional football matchup. Princeton won, 116–0. Yale's record was 100–4–5 in the 1900s. In the mid to late 20th century a saying regarding the fortunes of the Yale football program gained currency among different constituencies. As reported in the November 9, 1970, issue of ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'', the saying offered that the alumni would rather beat Harvard, the coaches would rather beat Dartmouth, and "the players would rather beat Princeton". Some past teams and participants have been noteworthy: During the 25 seasons spanning 1869 through 1894 the consensus collegiate national champion was either Princeton (16 titles) or Yale (13 titles); Three of four
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...
winners affiliated with
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
football programs participated in the rivalry: Clint Frank and
Larry Kelley Lawrence Morgan Kelley (May 30, 1915 – June 27, 2000) was an American football end who played for the Yale Bulldogs football program from 1934 to 1936. He was the captain of the 1936 Yale Bulldogs football team that compiled a 7–1 record ...
for Yale, and
Dick Kazmaier Richard William Kazmaier Jr. (November 23, 1930 – August 1, 2013) was an American businessman and naval lieutenant. He played college football as a halfback for the Princeton Tigers from 1949 through 1951 and was the winner of the 1951 Hei ...
for Princeton. Frank won the first
Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...
in 1937 and Kazmaier won the Award in 1951; Twenty nine members of the
College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...
have been associated with Yale's football program. Twenty six members of the Hall of Fame have been associated with Princeton's football program; Princeton won the 1950 and 1951 Lambert Trophy. Princeton last claimed a collegiate national championship in 1950. Yale shared the Lambert in 1960 with the
Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
team; The first time a
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recorded a football game was the November 14, 1903, Princeton–Yale contest.
Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions ...
manned the camera; Twenty-five teams, eleven representing Princeton and fourteen representing Yale, have won outright or shared the Ivy League football title; Only The Rivalry, between Lafayette and Lehigh, has been contested more often in football. The Princeton–Yale football rivalry, many contests scheduled on
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at the
Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the ...
or in the
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during the late nineteenth century, is older and has been played more often than the Harvard–Yale, Army–Navy, Cornell–Penn, Columbia–Cornell, Penn State–Pitt, Amherst–Williams, Minnesota–Wisconsin, Indiana–Purdue, UNC–UVA, Auburn–Georgia, Cal–Stanford, or Andover–Exeter football rivalries. Yale leads the series, 81–55–10.


Notable contests

;1873 College of New Jersey captain Cyrus Dershimer led the Tigers to victory, 3–0, November 15, 1873, in the inaugural contest. "A leather covered, egg-shaped projectile was tossed and kicked on a field that measured 120 yards in length and 75 yards in width." The College of New Jersey's trustees adopted the current name in 1896, announced during the school's sesquicentennial celebration. ;1876 Yale won, 2–0, on
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
in
Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...
. The contest was the first football game of any type played on Thanksgiving Day. ;1879 The 1879 game, a season-ending scoreless tie in Hoboken, was
Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Sta ...
's last game at Yale. Walter Camp captained the Yale team. The programs, College of New Jersey 4–0–1 and Yale 3–0–2, were named consensus co-national champions. Remington, reputed to dunk his uniform in animal blood "to look more businesslike on the field," removed from New Haven to take care of his ailing father, then headed to the
American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...
. Remington's illustrations of
cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
s there became iconic images of the mythic West. The contest has been considered the first in the series "played off school grounds" on a Thanksgiving. ;1884 The 1884 contest ends in a scoreless tie in front of a noteworthy 15,000 spectators in New York City. ;1888 Yale outscores opponents 698–0 during the season. Defeats College of New Jersey 10–0 to end season with 13–0 record. ;1890 Yale won, 32–0, on Thanksgiving Day, in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. The victory is first of 37 consecutive wins, with 36 shutouts. Yale football letterwinner Federic Remington depicts on canvas a Yale athlete scoring a touchdown that is displayed prominently in Ray Tompkins House, the administrative headquarters for Yale athletics. ;1891 Yale won, 19–0, at the Polo Grounds. Yale swept its 13-game schedule and held scoreless all thirteen opponents; in turn, Yale scored 488 points. ;1893 The College of New Jersey's best team in the nineteenth century was the 1893 team. The squad defeated Yale, 6–0, on Thanksgiving Day in New York City. Princeton's victory was the only loss suffered by four time consensus
All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
n and College Football Hall of Famer Frank Hinkey during his Yale career. The victory ended Yale's thirty-seven game win streak. ;1897 The Yale Banner 1956 opens its feature "end of an era", reporting Yale's football history up to the impending start of round-robin play among the appointed eight Ivy League programs in a few months, with the following quote, supposedly "from a father of a former player": "And those girls in Blue! Mothers, sisters, sweethearts, their radiance is over you now. The loving worship of fair women for brave men, which preserves the courage of the human race is yours now.One and all of them would tear out their heart strings to bring you victory. Yale calls you. Where Yale calls there is no such thing as fail. Now go. Do or die like heroes and gentlemen and may the God of Battles crown the Blue with victory!" Yale won the game, 6–0.
Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...
, a composer who championed American vernacular stylings in American classical music, spectated the contest on November 20. The victory inspired the composer's ''Yale–Princeton Game''. Ives proposed successfully to Harmony Twichell after the 1905 contest in
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
. Rev. Joseph Twichell, Ives's
father-in-law A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity (law), affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship. A person i ...
, was a member of an investigative committee, convened at the behest of the
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, to determine the extent of brutality, as well as character-building, on college and prep school gridirons post the notorious 1894 Harvard–Yale game. Groton founder Endicott Peabody was a committee member.
1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
Scoreless tie nets undefeated season for both programs and co-national championship. The season is first played under auspices of the NCAA's forerunner, the IAAUS, formed to reform unsportsmanlike play in the sport. The
forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes grid ...
is now legal. ;1914 Yale, by 19–14, won its debut at
Palmer Stadium Palmer Stadium was a stadium in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It hosted the Princeton University Tigers football team, as well as the track and field team. The stadium held 45,750 people at its peak and was opened in 1914 with a game ...
on November 14, 1914. Palmer Stadium is the second largest stadium in the country. Yale Bowl is the largest. ;1922
Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an American sportswriter and poet known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you playe ...
's Team of Destiny, the 1922 Princeton Tigers football team, completed an undefeated season with 6–0 victory. Bill Roper's squad is acknowledged as national champions for the season. ;1934 November 17 was the last time eleven football athletes, future Downtown Athletic Club trophy winner Larry Kelley among them, as a unit played without substitutes to the final whistle from the opening kickoff in a major college football game. Yale defeated Princeton, 7–0, in front of 53,000 fans at Palmer Stadium. Larry Kelley scored on an 80+ yard pass play as Yale was an obvious underdog versus one of Princeton's all-time great teams. Princeton sought its sixteenth straight victory in a streak extending back to the 1933 season. Princeton coach Fritz Crisler, the acknowledged father of two-platoon football, guided the Tigers to a 7–1 record one year after an undefeated season and a national championship. The 1934 team outscored opponents 280–38. The contest inspired two monographs. "Football's Last Iron Men: 1934, Yale vs. Princeton and One Stunning Upset" by Norman Macht,
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, Bison Books, published in 2010, and "Yale's Ironmen: A Story of Football and Lives In The Decade of The
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and Beyond" by ''New York Times''
sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...
and Yale alumnus William N. Wallace, published by Iunverse Press in 2005. ;1937 College Football Hall of Fame member Fritz Crisler coached his final game for Princeton versus Yale in 1937. Crisler's record was 2–3–1 versus his Yale counterparts (1–3 versus Ducky Pond) but he led Princeton to consensus national championships the two seasons he defeated Yale. Crisler coached against Yale's Downtown Athletic and Heisman Trophy winners Larry Kelley and Clint Frank, and he coached in the Ironmen game. He lost the 1937 contest, 26–0. ;1949–1951 The 1949–1951 contests, each won by Princeton, featured Dick Kazmaier, the eventual winner of the 1951 Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award,
Walter Camp Award The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information direc ...
, and
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. Kazmaier received 506 first place votes (first, second and third place votes are tallied) and 1,777 total points with the second-place finisher receiving, by contrast, 42 first place votes in the balloting. Kazmaier was a double threat—to run or to pass—in the
single wing offense In American football, American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap (football), snap is tossed rather than handed. Formations with ...
. Princeton won 21–13, 47–12 in New Haven (most points ever scored by a visiting team at the Bowl) and 27–0. Kazmaier appeared on the cover of the November 19, 1951, issue of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'', two days after the 27–0 victory. Kazmaier dominated the contests; he, for example, tossed three touchdown passes and ran for another touchdown in the 27–0 victory his senior season. (Earlier in the season Kazmaier and teammates crushed Harvard, 54–13.) Kazmaier won the coveted Heisman Trophy for the season. ;1955 Princeton captain and future athletic director Royce Flippin led the Tigers to a 13–0 at packed and partisan Palmer Stadium. Over 46,000 spectators saw contest. "Overall, Yale is our biggest rival", Flippin remarked years later, "so we took the game seriously." Yale defeated an able Army team the week before and was ranked nationally but Princeton provided unsolved problems for Yale. Flippin, who was later also athletic director at
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, opened the scoring in the third quarter and Princeton won, 13–0, after Joe DiRenzo returned an interception for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Robert Casciola, later a head coach the program, was on the field for Princeton. ;1960 The 1960 Ivy League football season ended with Yale 7–0 and Princeton 6–1. Yale, captained by Mike Pyle, who switched to
offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...
from center for the season, won before 65,000 spectators at the Bowl. The 1960 Yale team is the program's sole undefeated, untied team since 1923. The team was ranked 14th in the season-ending AP poll, in front of 16th ranked
Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...
and 19th ranked
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. Pyle captained the
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during its 1963 NFL Championship season until the end of the 1969 season. ;1967 Yale won 29–7 at Palmer Stadium, the first of fourteen consecutive victories versus Princeton. The Tigers had enjoyed a six-game winning streak versus the Bulldogs. Calvin Hill and Brian Dowling led the Bulldogs during the contest. Cheerleading captain
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lead Yalies post-contest. Bush was arrested by local police for attempting to tear down a goalpost. ;1979 Yale won 35–10, led by future three time Super Bowl winner Ken Hill. The running back gained 129 yards on 19 carries. Yale was undefeated at 5–0 in the League and Princeton 4–1 before kickoff. Yale clinched sole possession of the football title with the lop-sided victory. The next day's Sunday ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' game story headline announced "Yale Takes Game, Ivy Crown And Purloined Mascot Home". At halftime
Handsome Dan Handsome Dan is a bulldog that serves as the mascot of Yale University's sports teams. In addition to a person wearing a costume, the position is filled by an actual bulldog, the honor and title being transferred to a successor upon death or retir ...
XII, named Bingo (and, in fact, a female pedigreed bulldog in the care of Yale professor Rollie Osterweiss), was returned to caregivers. Princeton undergrads Mark Hallam, Jamie Herbert, Rod Sheperd, and Scott Thompson posed as members of the Yale cheerleading squad and requested Bingo's appearance for publicity photographs. Osterweiss obliged the perpetrators. Bingo, adorned with an orange and black scarf, was handed off to actual Yale cheerleaders at halftime. ;1981 Princeton, in Palmer Stadium, ended a fourteen-game loss streak to Yale, 35–31, November 14. Bob Holly, a future Super Bowl champion with the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...
, passed for 501 yards and
wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...
Derek Graham accounted for 278 yards, both Princeton records. Rich Diana ran for a Yale record 222 yards. The Princeton Athletic News deemed the contest the Princeton game of the century. Yale was 8–0 including a nationally televised "upset" victory versus
Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
. Yale Head Coach Carm Cozza's record was 14–1 versus Princeton before the final whistle. Princeton had a 3–4–1 overall record, and had lost to Maine 55–44 the week before. Holly, a right handed quarterback, scored the winning touchdown on a left roll out with four seconds remaining. ;1988
Jason Garrett Jason Calvin Garrett (born March 28, 1966) is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He was most notably the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys from 2010 to 2019. Garrett played college f ...
,
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of the 1988 Princeton team and Asa S. Bushnell Award winner as the Ivy League Player of the Year,
quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
ed a 24–7 victory over Yale in New Haven. Garrett, who played professionally in three leagues and won two
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
rings with the
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, is the former head coach of the Cowboys. Garrett was named NFL Coach of the Year for the 2016 season. ;1997 Princeton defeated Yale 9–0 in front of a little more than 6,000 spectators on a blustery and cloudy afternoon at the Meadowlands, home to the NFL
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...
and
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
. The following day's New York Times game story, by William N. Wallace, began: "A century ago Princeton – Yale was the game, played at the Polo Grounds in New York from 1887 to 1896 before capacity crowds." That was not the case across the
Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
just west of the mentioned Polo Grounds, now home to a rundown
New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the ...
development. The Princeton Tigers football team spent the season on the road while Princeton Stadium was constructed. The Yale game was the sole game Princeton played in New Jersey in 1997. Palmer Stadium had been demolished for the construction of Princeton Stadium on the same site. William Powers, once an All Ivy punter for Princeton, contributed $10 million to the Princeton athletic department. Princeton Stadium's playing surface is named in honor of his family.


Game results


See also

*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games This is a list of List of sports rivalries, rivalry games in college football. The list also shows any trophy awarded to the winner of the rivalry between the teams. NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ...
*
List of most-played college football series in NCAA Division I This is a list of the most-played college football College rivalry, series in NCAA Division I. The The Rivalry (Lafayette–Lehigh), Lafayette–Lehigh rivalry, known as "The Rivalry," is the most-played in Division I at 159 games. Lehigh and Lafa ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Princeton-Yale football rivalry College football rivalries in the United States Princeton Tigers football Yale Bulldogs football