Jensen: A postseason plan for the Ivies
I've always been fine with the Ivy League resisting the modern world, staying away from a postseason basketball tournament. That's because the Ivies, immune to the pressures of expansion and realignment, have kept a complete round-robin. All eight schools play the other seven, home and away. A winner emerges, and if there is a tie, it is broken on the court. Clean and simple.
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I've always been fine with the Ivy League resisting the modern world, staying away from a postseason basketball tournament.
That's because the Ivies, immune to the pressures of expansion and realignment, have kept a complete round-robin. All eight schools play the other seven, home and away. A winner emerges, and if there is a tie, it is broken on the court. Clean and simple.
But if the schools have decided they should have a tournament - and the signs are pointing that way - here is the way they should do it.
The best argument for a tournament is that it increases the odds of getting a second team into the NCAA tournament. There have been plenty of years when the regular-season champion would qualify for an at-large berth. Given the recent higher level of Ivy play, top to bottom, this at-large hope should only continue.
Is there a risk that the "best" Ivy team won't get in, thus decreasing the odds of winning a game or two? Yes, that will happen, too. But some Ivy schools apparently are willing to live with this.
What's the best way to make sure that a really bad team doesn't have a great few days? Don't let the really bad teams in a postseason tournament.
Going with a four-team tournament takes care of the bad teams and increases the importance of the regular season. It's simple in its own simplicity: The upper half of the league has a shot at March Madness.
But how do you reward the regular-season champion? I've always liked the Patriot League model - the top seeds host the games.
That way there is zero chance an overall top seed could play on an opposing court simply because it was predesignated as a tournament neutral-court site.
Yes, that would mean you couldn't sell tournament tickets in advance, but that issue would be offset by the better team getting to sell tickets to its own fans, who are more likely to be excited about the whole thing anyway.
(And if you've noticed the endowments of these schools, this shouldn't be about ticket sales anyway).
The truth is, the Ivies have only one place worthy of being a neutral-court site host, and it's hard to blame the rest of the schools if they don't want all the games at the Palestra every season.
@jensenoffcampus