CRUZ CONTROL: Ivies Lose Without Post-Season Play

In case you missed it, the women’s basketball season ended last weekend in a state of confusion. Three teams—Cornell, Dartmouth, and Harvard—all finished with identical 11-3 records in league play.

The conundrum is that only one team can be crowned as the Ivy champions Dealt the difficult task, the collective brain trust of the Ivy League resorted to coin flipping as the most efficient way of deciding who plays whom.

Really guys, a coin flip?

And now, because of this seemingly ridiculous decision, Cornell gets to play only one game to win the championship while Dartmouth and Harvard must play two. Cornell didn’t receive this advantage because they deserved it over the other two teams. They were simply the beneficiaries of an arbitrarily-made decision.

This begs the age-old question that plagues Ivy league aficionados: if every other conference in America has a post-season tournament, why don’t we? No one really knows. But we do know this:

As the rules are now, many regular season games become irrelevant halfway through the season. Given the destructive effect a loss can have in a league with no postseason play, three or four losses typically spell the end of your season.

By the mid-way point, only a number of teams have a legitimate shot at the title, and consequently, only a number of fans care. Isn’t there something inherently wrong with a system that effectively renders a majority of its regular season games worthless?

Now, one could easily make the argument that Ivy League regular season play is, by its nature, a tournament that weeds out contenders and chooses the best team. Because the Ivy League only receives one spot for the NCAA tournament, the team that gets selected should be the team that has had the most impressive regular season.

Sure, this makes conference play more cutthroat, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to exciting play. Since the Ivy League, at least in basketball, isn’t in the business of producing contenders for the national championship, I believe it is safe to assume that the purpose of Ivy League basketball is to enhance the collegiate experience.

Here’s a radical concept: A postseason tournament actually *gasp* increases the energy on campus!

Just take a look at American University’s men’s basketball team.

The small school from Washington, D.C. has never been in the NCAA tournament. But after a magical regular season run, the team has been afforded with the opportunity to play a winner-takes-all championship game against Colgate to get into the big dance.

And what’s the atmosphere like now? Students rushed the court after their semi-final match. The whole campus has become afflicted with March madness. And they haven’t even made it to the dance yet!

As a men’s basketball beat writer, I know more than most just how stagnant the experience at Lavietes has been this past season. God bless the band, because without them the silence would be deafening. By February 8th (when the men’s team picked up their third Ivy loss), the season was essentially over for the Crimson. From a fan’s perspective, why bother showing up?

But having a post-season tournament all of sudden makes every game have some appeal.

Whether it be jockeying for a good season in the tournament or trying to secure home-court advantage, every team has something to play for.

Another point to consider for a post-season tournament – increased national recognition. Regardless of how big or small a conference is, ESPN invariably shows every conference championship game.

On the men’s side, Cornell clearly deserves a shot at the NCAAs. They’ve gone undefeated and have thoroughly dominated their Ivy foes.

But what about Brown?

They’ve compiled an impressive 19-9 record (11-3 Ivy) and have beaten NCAA-quality opponents (They defeated American 68-55 earlier this year) during the season. However because of the Ivy’s archaic system, the Bears are done with the 2008 season.

Under a post-season tournament, even if Brown didn’t win the championship, a deep run could garner some national recognition. And such recognition could lead to an NIT invitation. Shouldn’t players and fans be rewarded for a good season?

Beyond simply rewarding teams, introducing a post-season tournament in the Ivies would stir up fan fervor across all eight campuses.

Instead of feeling apathetic towards your school’s team because they’re already out of contention by early February, fans can feel legitimately excited every year that their team has a chance of winning the title.

And if a case arises like the Cornell men’s basketball team this year – where a team is clearly better than its league peers – they should have no trouble proving their supremacy in a high-stakes tournament pool. If they were to falter in said tournament, where they really that good to begin with?

It’s time to leave behind the archaic and join the rest of the country in practicality.

Besides, everyone loves brackets more than coin flips anyway.

—Staff writer Mauricio A. Cruz can be reached at cruz2@fas.harvard.edu.