March Madness Ivy League History

Princeton’s upset against Arizona followed by a Sweet Sixteen run in the NCAA Men’s 2023 Division 1 tournament captivated many March Madness fanatics this year, especially since Ivy League Men’s basketball isn’t known for defeating top ranked teams. 

The First NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball tournament was held in 1939 and consisted of 8 teams. Between 1939 and 1985, the tournament incrementally expanded to its current 64 team model. 

A team can gain a spot in the NCAA tournament in two ways. The first is by winning their conference championship, the second being selected by the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee. That means every year, one member of the Ivy league gets a guaranteed spot in the tournament.

The Ivy league has received 76 Bids into the Men’s NCAA Tournament, 26 of those bids went to Princeton, 24 to Penn, 7 to Dartmouth, 6 to Yale, 5 to Cornell, 5 to Harvard, 3 to Columbia, and 2 to Brown. 

The Ivy League NCAA Men’s basketball tournament record is 43 wins and 85 losses, a dismal 0.34 winning percentage. On the bright side, they have had some respectable Cinderella runs.

In 1944, Dartmouth made the Championship but ended up losing to Utah. Princeton, Penn, and Dartmouth have all made the Final 4. No Ivy League team besides those three have made it past the Sweet 16 since Penn’s 1979 run. 

Cornell has appeared 5 times in the tournament. Their first was in 1954 where they lost to Navy, and then lost the third place game to North Carolina State, reaching fourth place in the east region.

In 1988, Cornell received a 16 seed and lost in the first round to Arizona. It wasn’t until 2008 that they received another bid as a 14 seed but ended up losing to the 3 seed Stanford in the first round. They entered the tournament as a 14 seed in 2009, but again lost to the 3 seed Missouri. In 2010 Cornell received a 12 seed and made a run to the Sweet 16 after beating the 5 seed Temple and the 4 seed Wisconsin. Sadly, Cornell lost 62-45 in the Sweet 16 against the 1 seed Kentucky. Since then, Cornell has not qualified for the Men’s NCAA Tournament.

Regarding Women’s Ivy League Basketball, the tournament began in 1982. Cornell women’s basketball had their first and most recent appearance in the 2008 NCAA Women’s Tournament. Yale has never played in the Women’s tournament. Harvard has appeared 6 times and was the only 16 seed to upset Stanford, a 1 seed. 

So what does the future look like for the Ivy league in Basketball?  In 2021, the NCAA announced an interim policy in which students can use their name, image and likeness to generate money, in accordance with state laws. In 2022, New York Governor Hochul signed legislation (S.5891-F/A.5115-E):

…this legislation prohibits a college or collegiate athletic conference – including the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) – from upholding any rules preventing students from earning compensation as a result of the use of the student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness, from participating in collegiate athletics competition because of such compensation. It also prohibits a college or collegiate athletic conference from providing compensation to a student for use of name, image, or likeness and allows players to use professional representation provided by attorneys and athlete agents licensed in New York State. Additionally, the new law requires colleges participating in NCAA Division I athletics to provide student-athletes services in the form of assistance in degree completion, career development, financial and mental health, discrimination and harassment training, and leadership training.

So why does this relate to Cornell Basketball? This new amendment does not allow for schools to pay athletes, but does allow for NIL collectives. These booster and fan-funded organizations are “set up to raise money that is then used to legally pay college athletes” and could therefore incentivize them to join Ivy League athletic programs and help make the school more competitive in sports like basketball.