Harvard at New Hampshire
New Hampshire (1‑2) hosts Harvard. No market line yet; the model calls it close to even.
How they got here
Last three games · 2025 season
Harvard · 9-2
Picked #195 to start the year.
L 7–52 @ Villanova #84 of 668
lost by 45 as a 2-point favorite
L 28–45 @ Yale #163 of 668
lost by 17 as a 6.5-point favorite
W 45–43 vs Pennsylvania #216 of 668
won by 2 as a 23-point favorite
W 31–14 @ Columbia #242 of 668
won by 17 as a 29.5-point favorite
W 31–10 vs Dartmouth #183 of 668
won by 21 as a 11.5-point favorite
W 35–14 @ Princeton #219 of 668
won by 21 as a 17.5-point favorite
W 31–7 vs Merrimack #220 of 668
won by 24 as a 27.5-point favorite
W 34–10 vs Cornell #247 of 668
won by 24 as a 32.5-point favorite
W 59–24 @ Holy Cross #225 of 668
won by 35 as a 14-point favorite
W 41–7 vs Brown #247 of 668
won by 34 as a 16.5-point favorite
W 59–7 @ Stetson #263 of 668
won by 52 as a 35.5-point favorite
Last three games
New Hampshire · 1-2
Picked #173 in the preseason · now #202.
1-2 in its last three — but nothing on this résumé beats a top-40 team yet.
What’s at stake
Harvard
- Harvard football is one of the oldest and most storied programs in American college sports. The Crimson represent a tradition of excellence that began before the sport had rules—a legacy built by Percy Haughton's golden age, Tim Murphy's three decades of sustained Ivy dominance, and 20 conference titles. The 2025 season promised everything; it delivered heartbreak.
New Hampshire
- New Hampshire needs 5 more wins in the final 8 to reach bowl eligibility.
- New Hampshire is the Walter Payton Award program that put Durham on the FCS map with 14 straight playoffs, and Ricky Santos — the award winner himself — is now the head coach proving the standard was never an accident.
The series
Harvard leads the series 8-0
8 meetings since 1929 · Harvard has won the last 8
- 2024Harvard 28–23
- 1939Harvard 46–0
- 1935Harvard 41–0
- 1934Harvard 47–3
- 1933Harvard 34–0
Face-off
What each fanbase carries into this one.
Harvard
The chipYale got the Ivy League's first automatic FCS playoff bid by winning The Game. Harvard, at 9-1, got the at-large bid. Then Yale won their playoff game; Harvard lost 52-7. The chip is that Yale claimed the banner moment—the first Ivy playoff victory—while Harvard, historically the more prestigious program, imploded.
What this game touches
One game, everything lost. Harvard went 9–1 in 2025, undefeated heading into The Game against Yale on November 22. One loss to Yale (45–28) cost Harvard the outright Ivy title and automatic FCS playoff berth. A week later, Villanova beat Harvard 52–7 in the first round, ending the season at 9–2. The wound is not historical—it is fresh. A season of excellence was undone by a single moment and then a collapse.
New Hampshire
The chip · vs the national mediaThe room says New Hampshire made 14 straight FCS playoffs, won the Walter Payton Award twice, and still gets called a cold-weather afterthought — that the Granite State program has earned its place at the FCS top table and national media has been slow to acknowledge it.
What this game touches
The 14-year playoff streak that ended in 2018. New Hampshire made 14 consecutive FCS playoff appearances from 2004 to 2017 — one of the longest streaks in FCS history. The streak ended in 2018. Ricky Santos, now head coach, has restored playoff appearances in 2022 and 2024, but the program has not returned to the sustained dominance of the run that defined it.
Conditions
66°F · 6 mph wind
New Hampshire is worth +12.2 points (±10.8) more at home than on the road since 2018 — top tenth of FBS, 100th percentile.
33% at home, 0% on the road against FBS opponents (1–2 home, 0–11 away).
Our model gives every stadium the same flat 2.3-point home edge (why); the books use about 3. Against the closing line this stadium reads -4.5 at home vs. away over 52 games — inside the ±8.3 noise, so the flat number is the honest one here.
The visitors travel about 54 miles to get here.