RSS
Facebook
Twitter
E-PrinceReader Comments
Basketball: Many support current system over Ivy tournament proposal
Published: Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Few issues in Ivy League athletics are more hotly debated than the automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. Unlike the other 30 eligible Division I basketball conferences, the Ivy League does not have a postseason conference tournament; instead, the ...(back to the article)
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. We do not take responsibility for the opinions, facts, or claims presented by individual commenters, and reserve the right to moderate or delete inappropriate comments.
Coach Banghart basically hits all the major points. The Ivy League would be best off sending the best team to the dance, and that's the regular season winner. Harvard had a pretty strong resume in a weak bubble last year and still missed the dance. There were a handful of years when other Ivy League teams might have had an at-large bid, but it's not nearly consistent enough to warrant having the chance the conference winner goes to the NIT.
If anything, other conferences that play a full round-robin schedule should switch to the Ivy model if they're not consistently earning at-large bids. The lacrosse tournament is necessary since the home/road splits are uneven and lead to unbalanced schedules.
One of the greatest rewards of winning the league championship is the bid that goes with it to the NCAA Tournament. It hardly seems right to possibly take back that part of the prize based on a weekend tourney where a season of achievement can be undone by a cold night of shooting or the sickness of a key player. The worthiest team is the one that has prevailed over the long haul.