Princeton Tigers football The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision ( formerly Division I - AA ) . Princeton ’ s football program is the oldest in the world , having devised the sport along with Rutgers University in 1869 , and has a legacy that includes the most national championships of any college or university . History . First football game . Students from The College of New Jersey ( now Princeton University ) traveled to New Brunswick , New Jersey on November 6 , 1869 to play Rutgers College ( now Rutgers University ) in a new variant of rugby called football . Rutgers won the inaugural game 6 runs to 4 runs . A week later , Rutgers students traveled to Princeton , New Jersey for a rematch , which Princeton won . Since the teams split the two games series , they were both retroactively awarded a share of the national championship for the 1869 season . Early history . Due in part to their invention of the sport , the Tigers were one of the dominant forces in the early days of intercollegiate football , winning 22 of the first 40 national titles ( between 1869 and 1909 ) . As the sport transformed at the hands of figures like John Heisman and Yale ’ s Walter Camp and more schools began competing , Princeton and the rest of the Ivy League slowly faded out of national championship contention . The Tigers won their last national championship in 1950 when Dick Kazmaier , the 1951 Heisman Trophy winner , was a junior . Formation of the Ivy League . When Brown , Columbia , Cornell , Harvard University , Princeton , and Yale Universities , Dartmouth College , and the University of Pennsylvania formed the Ivy League athletic conference in 1955 , conference rules prohibited post - season play in football . Princeton had always abstained from post - season play , but other future member schools had participated in bowls . The new policy further insulated Princeton and the Ivy League from the national spotlight . Despite an undefeated season in 1964 , Princeton was not among the top 10 teams in the season - ending AP Poll . NCAA Division I subdivision split . The NCAA split Division I collegiate football into two subdivisions in 1978 , then called I - A for larger schools , and I - AA for the smaller ones . The NCAA had devised the split , in part , with the Ivy League in mind , but the conference did not move down for 4 seasons . Unable to play competitively against long - time rival Rutgers anymore , Princeton stopped scheduling them as a football opponent after 1980 . Then in 1982 the NCAA created a rule that stated a program ’ s average attendance must be at least 15 , 000 to qualify for I - A membership . This forced the conference ’ s hand , as only some of the member schools met the attendance qualification . Choosing to stay together rather than stand their ground separately in the increasingly competitive I - A subdivision , the Ivy League moved down into I - AA starting with the 1982 season . Despite often finishing its seasons ranked in the championship subdivision , Princeton cannot play in the NCAA Football Tournament per Ivy League rules . Recent history . Since the formation of the Ivy League , Princeton has achieved only moderate success on the gridiron , with seven Ivy League championships and 10 Big Three championships since 1955 . Most recently , Princeton instituted a head coaching change as ten - year coach Roger Hughes was replaced by Cincinnati Bengals assistant offensive line coach Bob Surace . Surace played center at Princeton and graduated in 1990 . Stadia and facilities . Palmer Stadium . In 1914 , Princeton built Palmer Stadium , the third college football stadium ever built and what was the second oldest standing college stadium until its demolition in 1996 . Palmer Stadium was modeled after the Greek Olympic stadium and seated 45 , 750 spectators . In the 1990s the university decided to demolish it for a new stadium rather than undertake a long and expensive renovation process , as Harvard had with its stadium in 1984 . Princeton University Stadium . During the construction of the new stadium , the Tigers played a season of nine away games , plus a homecoming game against Yale at Giants Stadium in 1997 . Princeton University Stadium opened on September 19 , 1998 and seats 27 , 773 . After eight years of natural grass fields , FieldTurf artificial playing surface was installed for the 2006 football season and named " Powers Field " in honor of William C . Powers , Princeton class of 1979 , who was an All - Ivy punter for the Tigers and donated $ 10 million to the football program that year . Practice facilities . Since October , 2009 , the Finney - Campbell practice fields to the east of Princeton University Stadium have been undergoing resurfacing to be outfitted with FieldTurf . When finished in early 2010 , the fields will consist of nearly of playing surface , two full football fields , and lines for men ’ s and women ’ s lacrosse .