ivy league 2024

[rolldodge]

Ivy League got hosed in tourney. Not sure what they can do about when teams like umd, psi and uva can throw up all over themselves at the end of the season and still get in. Ivy needs better advocates, clearly, when it comes to this process.

Its the same process that got them 6 bids in 2022. Its far from perfect, but it goes both ways.

[Oldlilaxer]

Hate to say it, because I'm a Cornell fan, but they had their own fate in their hands ( Home Field, 1st seed), and blew it. I don't think Penn was good enough to be selected, and they beat Cornell twice.

[a fan]

Ivy League got hosed in tourney. Not sure what they can do about when teams like umd, psi and uva can throw up all over themselves at the end of the season and still get in. Ivy needs better advocates, clearly, when it comes to this process.

Its the same process that got them 6 bids in 2022. Its far from perfect, but it goes both ways.

Well, they could cap it at three bids per Conference. I wouldn't mind putting more pressure on the teams that get six bites at the apple to have a little more pressure to win.

Can't see that happening. We're left to enjoy what should be a terrific tournament.

[Lax3]

Hate to say it, because I'm a Cornell fan, but they had their own fate in their hands ( Home Field, 1st seed), and blew it. I don't think Penn was good enough to be selected, and they beat Cornell twice.

Bingo. There should be no Ivy whining this year and I’m a huge Ivy fan. Cornell and Yale each needed to win on Friday and they didn’t. Guaranteed Buczek and Shay both knew exactly where they stood late Friday night. On the outside looking in. Tough to see but completely fair.

[masondixonlax]

Hate to say it, because I'm a Cornell fan, but they had their own fate in their hands ( Home Field, 1st seed), and blew it. I don't think Penn was good enough to be selected, and they beat Cornell twice.

Bingo. There should be no Ivy whining this year and I’m a huge Ivy fan. Cornell and Yale each needed to win on Friday and they didn’t. Guaranteed Buczek and Shay both knew exactly where they stood late Friday night. On the outside looking in. Tough to see but completely fair.

[jrn19]

Always appreciate the honesty and fair nature of the Ivy fans.

Things just didn't break their way. They were the 3rd best conference overall IMO, slightly ahead of Big East; but the Big East had a clear #1 team in the regular season and the Ivy didn't. Cornell was probably the best team, but took a loss to Penn and another in Ivy semis. Denver, in part due to beating Cornell in the regular season, could withstand a conference tournament loss and Cornell could not. Results (Michigan winning Big Ten, Denver losing in SF and Georgetown winning BE, Cornell losing in SF) just all broke against them. Tough break, but it was a fair decision IMO

[faircornell]

Subjectively, this was a good year for the Ivies. From memory:

Five Tewaaraton Nominees
Brandau: Yale
Carroll: Penn
King: Harvard
Kirst: Cornell
Mackesy: Princeton

Better than typical record against the ACC and Big10

Cornell playing ND in Long Island in an electric and exciting game

Penn and Princeton beating Duke and UNC on the same evening

Matt Brandau leading the NCAA in regular season points (I assume that he will be a Tewaaraton finalist)

Generally positive media coverage

five teams regularly in the Top 20

Probably other things that I have not mentioned, but there have been worse seasons for the Ivies on the national stage. Several Ivy grads will be in the tourney playing as graduate students. Several Ivy alum coaches will be coaching in the NCAA tournament as well. When the USILA awards come out, there might be further recognition of the Ivy League's strong regular season.

[CU77]

Pretty good considering the relative locations' travel and the fact the host team lost the first night.

Well, that's first night attendance only. Sunday's attendance was 888 (which is still not too bad!)

[Asleep@theswitch]

Worth noting that the selection committee had Big10 and ACC representation but no Ivy.

[Lager]

Subjectively, this was a good year for the Ivies. From memory:

Five Tewaaraton Nominees
Brandau: Yale
Carroll: Penn
King: Harvard
Kirst: Cornell
Mackesy: Princeton

Better than typical record against the ACC and Big10

Cornell playing ND in Long Island in an electric and exciting game

Penn and Princeton beating Duke and UNC on the same evening

Matt Brandau leading the NCAA in regular season points (I assume that he will be a Tewaaraton finalist)

Generally positive media coverage

five teams regularly in the Top 20

Probably other things that I have not mentioned, but there have been worse seasons for the Ivies on the national stage. Several Ivy grads will be in the tourney playing as graduate students. Several Ivy alum coaches will be coaching in the NCAA tournament as well. When the USILA awards come out, there might be further recognition of the Ivy League's strong regular season.

Don't forget Cornell beating a top 5 cuse team!

[bearlaxfan]

Worth noting that the selection committee had Big10 and ACC representation but no Ivy.

IL probably has a rule against it. //s

[NYlax222]

Agree with those that question how B10 got four, Ivy 1. Broader issue to me is the AQs. I'm not for expansion of the tourney (water down regular season), but I just dont' think its healthy that teams that the coaches would rank as Top 10 teams dont' make a 17 team tourney. All for the 'little guy' conferences having a chance, but, at the expense of really outstanding teams like - Cornell, Penn, etc. It was very wrong two years ago when the 4th ranked team (ND) left out, and, while i realize Committee generally followed the 'rules' of the selection process, just doesn't feel good that teams coaches will rank within Top 10/12 aren't in this tourney. While in a single game, everyone has a puncher's chance, to me, half the AQs would be heavy underdogs to the 'bubble out' teams like Cornell or Penn. The "eye test" should matter - which allows to recognize a Win/Loss in Febuary is not the same as in early May. Regardless, will be great tourney, but wish NCAA would change its process so as to minimize leaving out teams that likely will end coaches poll within Top 10.

[bearlaxfan]

The top 4 could or 5 could leave and form their own league. Maybe like the ACC, they could assure themselves of 3 ncaa bids yearly at least. And it would free up their scheduling a bit. And Ivy hockey is weird, ECAC and Ivy leagues for the 6 teams.

This is only 1/2 tongue-in-cheek: could the league break up for certain sports?

[keno in reno]

You all will be smiling next week when the young, exciting Princeton squad runs Maryland off the field. But that doesn't justify the argument put forth here; Maryland deserved the bid over all the unselected teams. Everyone knew that was going to happen. It worked in their favor 2 years ago and imploded this year.

The Ivy screwed its own membership by not allowing its players the same eligibility as the opposing teams. Princeton could have been at Notre Dame's level this year if they just kept their own players. Michigan doesn't steal a bid without those guys, and Syracuse and Georgetown are worse too. And that's just the effect of one team's transfers.

[Ivyman]

If it's important for whatever reason to have every conference represented, how about having 2 play-in games for the teams with the worst RPIs? Or even 3? Think of something else to call those games to avoid "expanding the tournment." Keep top 13 RPI teams.

[Ozstriker]

Am I wrong to think a win against an Ivy team is considered a “good” win ie uva over Harvard, Denver over Cornell, umd over Princeton, but the Ivy’s don’t get that same credit for their wins (Penn over Duke, Cornell over Cuse, Yale over Denver)?

Also, does anyone know if pre-season polls are used in SOS calculation? Or is it like NCAA football where the polls that determine who makes the national championship tourney don’t start til mid-season, when you have an actual set of data vs pre season hype.

[LaxAllStars]

Cotter Carc & QK

On Ivy Tournament & NCAA bracket reacts

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show ... er-e2jadst

[Double Sessions]

If it's important for whatever reason to have every conference represented, how about having 2 play-in games for the teams with the worst RPIs? Or even 3? Think of something else to call those games to avoid "expanding the tournment." Keep top 13 RPI teams.

I might feel differently next year when four Ivies get in , but I think I’m with you. I don’t want to water down the regular season but with 76 teams now playing and AQs in place to incentivize expansion, leaving room to relegate more AQs to play-ins seems appropriate with DI participation. Hockey has a 16 team tourney with 64 teams playing.

One twist, I think we should also be open to at-large play-in games across conferences the way hoops does those like 10-seed play in games. A Wednesday night Cornell v. Army or Penn v. BU this week would be pretty sweet.

Again, your always going to have teams disappointed on the margin, and lord knows the Ivies have gotten grief for getting 6 in, but there’s a lot of parity at the top of DI; tons more high schools are playing all the time, so there must be thoughtful ways to include teams that beat everyone they’re supposed to beat and notch wins against the top seeds.

[Cornell95]

If it's important for whatever reason to have every conference represented, how about having 2 play-in games for the teams with the worst RPIs? Or even 3? Think of something else to call those games to avoid "expanding the tournment." Keep top 13 RPI teams.

I might feel differently next year when four Ivies get in , but I think I’m with you. I don’t want to water down the regular season but with 76 teams now playing and AQs in place to incentivize expansion, leaving room to relegate more AQs to play-ins seems appropriate with DI participation. Hockey has a 16 team tourney with 64 teams playing...

The real difference between the NCAA hockey and lacrosse is more about the number of conferences than the number of schools (acknowledging that these are correlated at one level)
Hockey - 6 conference AQs, 10 at large
Lacrosse - 9 conference AQs, 7 at large... and the ACC isnt one of those AQs but obviously always has multiple teams with high RPI

I would be a fan of expanding the field, but havent settled on a format that I think is equitable. Do we really want the lowest RPI AQs squaring off midweek in play-ins so whoever wins those contests gets stomped even harder by a top 5 team on short rest/prep? The direction NCAA hoops has gone with regional 10seeds needing to faceoff is an interesting wrinkle, just not sure how you approach it with a much smaller field (especially if you dont want to rehash conference matchups... the bubble this year included 3 Ivy teams for instance)

[random observer]

Tbh I don't think they Ivy's were snubbed this year just as I didn't think the ACC teams were snubbed in 2022. The RPI system isn't perfect, but it's the best we've come up with at the moment and all the teams know the system going in. The Ivy's had some great OOC wins, but a few too many that they let slip the other way. Yale blowing the big lead to Penn State, Cornell not getting over the finish line against ND, Harvard collapsing in the fourth quarter against UVA, Brown falling just short again Maryland, Cornell losing at Denver in a game where they were the better team -- any of these results flip and things look very different come selection Sunday. With only so many OOC games to compare teams, the margins are really thin.

Do I think 4 B1G teams getting in and only 1 Ivy getting in is a fair reflection of the comparative quality of the conferences? Absolutely not. But that's what happens when you have bid stealers and small sample sizes. At the end of the day I have no qualms with the system because ultimately it came down to the results on the field rather than hypotheticals. It was the same two years ago, and to this day I roll my eyes when people act like a ND team that lost to every good team they played and feasted on down ACC peers was actually the biggest threat to the best college lacrosse team this century.