For decades, Ivy League basketball had a simple, no-nonsense approach to crowning a champion: the team with the best regular-season record won the league outright and secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. That changed in 2017 when the conference introduced a four-team postseason tournament, with the winner earning the league’s bid to March Madness. While the goal was to add excitement and align the Ivy League with the broader college basketball landscape, the tournament has done more harm than good. Logistically flawed, competitively unfair, and out of step with the league’s historical values, the Ivy League tournament is in desperate need of restructuring—or it should be scrapped altogether.

The History and Format of the Ivy League Tournament

Unlike other major conferences, the Ivy League historically prided itself on crowning a champion based purely on regular-season performance. Before 2017, if two teams tied for the best record, they would play a one-game playoff to determine the NCAA Tournament representative. While not perfect, this system rewarded consistency over the grind of the conference schedule, ensuring the best team over the course of the season got the NCAA bid.

The four-team Ivy League Tournament changed that dynamic. Now, the top four teams in the standings qualify for a single-elimination event, with the semifinals and final determining the conference’s March Madness participant. The host school rotates each year, and—unbelievably—the host institution doesn’t even need to be one of the four teams in the field. This past season, for instance, the tournament was held at Columbia, a school that finished at the bottom of the Ivy League standings. What sense does it make to stage the league’s most important event at a school whose season is already over?

Why the Ivy League Tournament is Broken

1. Devalues the Regular Season – The Ivy League has always emphasized academics and the integrity of competition. Allowing a lower-seeded team to get hot for two days and steal the bid from a team that dominated the season goes against that philosophy. It also discourages excellence, making the regular season feel far less meaningful.
2. Logistical Headaches – Unlike power conferences that host their tournaments at neutral sites with NBA-level accommodations, the Ivy League rotates its tournament among member schools. This means teams are sometimes forced to play their biggest games of the season in front of sparse crowds with little competitive advantage.
3. Unfair Scheduling – With only four teams qualifying, the tournament structure can disproportionately favor certain teams. A No. 1 seed that clearly outperformed the rest of the league has no real reward, as they still need to win two high-pressure games against teams they already bested in the regular season.
4. The Ivy League’s NIL Problem – Compounding the tournament issue is the Ivy League’s outdated stance on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. Unlike their peers across the country, Ivy League athletes still aren’t allowed to receive athletic scholarships, and they also face restrictions on NIL opportunities. In an era where college basketball players can now capitalize on their personal brand, the Ivy League continues to cling to archaic policies that put its athletes at a competitive disadvantage. Between the flawed tournament format and the league’s NIL stance, Ivy League basketball is struggling to keep pace with the modern college hoops landscape.

Should the Ivy League Change or Stay the Same?

The big question: should the Ivy League adapt to the evolving world of college basketball, or is it content to remain an outlier? While tradition is important, the current system is flawed and detrimental to the league’s credibility. If the Ivy League wants to maintain its reputation as a serious basketball conference, it needs to make some tough decisions—either restructure the tournament to better reflect competitive balance or go back to the old method where the best regular-season team wins outright.

With other mid-major conferences finding ways to reward their top teams and embrace NIL, the Ivy League is falling behind. The tournament needs a fix, and the league’s overall approach to modern college basketball needs a rethink. If change doesn’t come soon, the Ivy League’s basketball relevance could continue to fade into obscurity.