HANOVER — The Dartmouth College football team had done all it could. Now it was time to wait.

Minutes removed from capping their season with a resounding 56-28 victory over Brown — propelled by a standout, seven-touchdown performance from senior quarterback Jackson Proctor — the Big Green gathered in the south end zone. A crowd of family, friends and other Dartmouth diehards spilled out of the stands and onto the field in anticipation of another Ivy League crowning. Hundreds of pairs of eyes were glued to the videoboard at Buddy Teevens Stadium. All they needed was for Yale to hold onto its late lead over Harvard. So they waited.

The eruption of cheers following a failed Harvard fourth-down conversion in the waning moments of regulation was a bit premature, the ensuing pass interference call from the referee staving off the Big Green celebrations for the time being. The Crimson were still alive.

When the stream of the nationally televised clash between Harvard and Yale buffered, players and fans alike were incredulous. A frenetic sequence of events unfolded in the final two minutes of play, only increasing the tension. Dartmouth kept waiting.

With Yale holding a 34-23 lead, each Harvard advance downfield seemingly delayed the inevitable. The Crimson had already clinched a share of the Ivy League title the previous week, but they could clinch the program’s first outright title in a decade with a comeback win. When Harvard scored a touchdown with 18 seconds left, that door — which had nearly been shut — was slightly ajar. The deficit now shrunk to five points, the Crimson needed to recover an onside kick.

There would be no more drama, though. The Big Green’s time spent agonizing over the result in Cambridge, Mass., ended when Harvard’s onside kick failed, securing a 34-29 victory for Yale and ensuring a second consecutive three-way tie atop the conference.

The wait was over. Dartmouth, for the fourth time in five seasons, was an Ivy League champion.

Pandemonium ensued. Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” blared from the speakers. Players flocked to snag their championship hats. Athletic director Mike Harrity handed the Ivy League trophy to Sammy McCorkle, his second conference championship in as many seasons helming the program.

Just as he was last year at Brown, McCorkle was once again hoisted into the air by his players, clutching the trophy in his right hand as the celebrations commenced.

“It means everything to us,” senior defensive end Ejike Adele said of capturing the program’s second consecutive title. “Obviously, we never want to tie; we always want to go 10-0. But the way that this team did it was incredible. All the things that we’ve gone through, especially us as a (senior) class the past few years, and for it to culminate in this, we’re just so happy.”

Said McCorkle: “I guess I owe (Yale coach) Tony Reno a steak dinner in New York. … Obviously, you don’t want to make it that hard for yourself, but we put ourselves in a situation where we (had) a chance to win an Ivy League championship. And that’s what we did today.”

Here are three storylines from Saturday’s game:

Proctor dazzles in final game for the Big Green: The Kent, Wash., native saved his best for last.

Proctor threw for 308 yards and four touchdowns on Saturday, completing 18 of his 26 passes. He also torched the Bears on the ground, rushing for 171 yards and three scores. His 479 yards of total offense set a program record, while his seven total touchdowns tied a program record.

Arguably his most impressive stretch came at the close of the second quarter. After Brown had leveled the score, 14-14, Proctor marched Dartmouth 75 yards down the field in 52 seconds, capping the drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Chris Corbo, his team-high seventh touchdown reception of the season.

Proctor and the Big Green offense needed only 54 seconds out of halftime to reclaim a two-touchdown advantage. Proctor hit Grayson O’Bara in stride along the Dartmouth sideline and the junior wideout did the rest, darting 72 yards down the field for six points. O’Bara finished the game with four receptions, 124 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

It was a monumental 106-second stretch in the game, deflating the Brown balloon just as fast as it had inflated. It was clear Proctor “was in a groove,” McCorkle said.

Proctor, in his final game for Dartmouth, credited his teammates for his historic performance.

“We had a good game plan going into (Saturday), and we trusted it all week,” Proctor said. “Obviously, the O-line did a great job, receivers caught the ball, running backs did a good job. So, I mean, I couldn’t have done it without any of those guys.”

Adele leads dominant Big Green pass rush one more time: Dartmouth entered Saturday leading the conference in sacks (19). Adele and senior linebacker Micah Green each recorded a sack against Brown, which saw the Big Green end the season in second place with 21 total sacks, trailing Yale by one.

Still, four Big Green pass rushers finished inside the top 10 among the conference’s sack leaders, led by Adele and senior linebacker Braden Mullen, who each notched five. Josiah Green and Thaddeus Gianaris each tacked on three sacks this fall as well.

Adele expressed his pride for a group that simply “wanted it more,” a hunger set in place long before the 2024 campaign began.

“Pass rush Saturdays” began last offseason in the winter, according to Josiah Green. The workouts were entirely optional but strongly encouraged, Green said, and involved any players who were still on campus. Regardless of the weather — Mullen recounted one instance last winter when they operated in a 20-by-20-yard patch of snow and ice outside of Thompson Arena — the group would gather to get some pass rush work in.

The weekend work all paid off this season for a “relentless” group of players, Adele said.

“That’s all pass rush is — it’s effort,” said Adele, who finished the season with 54 tackles, including a team-high 12 tackles for loss. “I’m really proud of the job that we’ve done as a unit, putting pressure on quarterbacks all year and helping us win games.”

Another three-way tie atop the conference: Before the 2023 season, there was only one instance in the Ivy League’s history, dating all the way back to 1956, where three teams shared a title. Dartmouth, Harvard and Penn — each team having compiled a 5-2 record — shared the title in 1982.

That number has now risen to three. Unlike last season, Yale was not in the title hunt entering the final Saturday of play this season, but its two victories in the 2023 and 2024 campaigns kept Harvard from winning the conference outright. While Dartmouth has benefited from both wins, so too did Columbia this year, which won its first Ivy League title since 1961.

McCorkle said the back-to-back seasons of three co-champions is a testament to the grind of the Ivy League and the balance across the league.

The season’s conclusion also once again prompts discussion about the postseason and the FCS playoffs, in which Ivy League teams do not participate. Earlier this month, a report from The Harvard Crimson, the school’s student newspaper, revealed that the conference is considering lifting its postseason ban after receiving a proposal from the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. That decision is now in the hands of the Ivy League presidents.

Proctor, who served as a member of the committee, said that players in the Ivies deserve a chance to “hang with the best.”

“The competition in the Ivy League is probably the best it’s ever been,” Adele added. “There are definitely teams in this league deserving of having a chance at a postseason, but it’s not in our control. We control what we can control, and that’s trying to win an Ivy League championship every year. That’s what we did.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.