The Ivy League
By Matt Shetler
The Ivy League is an eight member Division I
athletic conference that competes in 33 men’s and women’s
Division I sports. All institutions in the Ivy League are
private institutions of higher education located in the
Northeastern United States. The Ivy League headquarters are
located in Princeton, New Jersey and the commissioner of the
league is Jeffrey. H Orleans, a post he has held since 1984.
The Ivy League was founded in 1954, but the use of
the phrase is no longer limited to sports, as it now refers to a
higher education philosophy, associated with some of the
nation’s oldest schools. All of the schools represent the top
one percent of the world’s academic institutions.
Current members of the Ivy League include: Brown
University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth
University, Harvard University, Princeton University, the
University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. Other names
associated with the Ivy League include the Ivies and the Ancient
8. Seven of the eight schools were founded before the American
Revolution, with the exception being Cornell, which was founded
in 1865.
As long as intercollegiate sports have existed, the
Ivy League has been competing. Boat clubs from Harvard and Yale
met in the first sporting event between two colleges in 1852.
Ivy League football dates back to the 1900 season, when Yale won
the league title with a 5-0 record.
Unlike most Division I programs, the Ivy League does
not offer athletic scholarships. In the time before recruiting
and athletic scholarships dominated college sports, the Ivy
League was on par with the rest of the country, with success in
many sports. In football, Princeton won 24 recognized national
championships, with Yale also winning 19. In retrospect, these
totals are more than national football powerhouses Notre Dame
(12 championships) and USC (11). Yale also was NCAA football’s
all-time wins leader throughout the entire 20th
century. The Michigan Wolverines passed the Bulldogs in 2001 to
claim the top spot.
In basketball, the Ivy League champion receives a
bid to the NCAA Tournament. Although there is no post-season
tournament, the regular season champion gets the bid each
season.
Although the Ivy League isn’t as successful
nationally in the major sports, it is still very competitive in
many others. One of these sports is rowing. All eight schools
are recognized nationally as the best crews in the nation. Ivy
League schools also excel in men’s and women’s hockey, swimming
and rugby.
Being as old as the league is, it has some very
longstanding rivalries. Harvard and Yale are nationally
celebrated football rivals, as well as in crew. Penn and
Princeton also have a strong men’s basketball rivalry. On only
five occasions, since the Ivy League was founded, have neither
school not won or shared the league title.
The Princeton Tigers have had a few good showings in
the NCAA Tournament over the years. The Tigers have won three
games in tournament history and have come close many other
times. The most notable came in 1996, when the Tigers upset the
heavy favorite UCLA Bruins. In 1998, the Tigers also defeated
the UNLV Running Rebels to advance to the second round. Penn
has won a total of thirteen tournament games, with the most
recent coming in 1994, with a first round upset of the Nebraska
Cornhuskers.
