Ivy League - Competition and Athletics

Competition and Athletics

Ivy champions are recognized in 33 men's and women's sports. In some sports, Ivy teams actually compete as members of another league, the Ivy championship being decided by isolating the members' records in play against each other; for example, the six league members who participate in ice hockey do so as members of ECAC Hockey, but an Ivy champion is extrapolated each year. Unlike all other Division I basketball conferences, the Ivy League has no tournament for the league title; the school with the best conference record represents the conference in the Division I NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament (with a playoff, or playoffs, in the case of a tie). Since its inception, an Ivy League school has yet to win either the men's or women's Division I NCAA Basketball Tournament.

On average, each Ivy school has more than 35 varsity teams. All eight are in the top 20 for number of sports offered for both men and women among Division I schools. Unlike most Division I athletic conferences, the Ivy League prohibits the granting of athletic scholarships; all scholarships awarded are need-based (financial aid). Ivy League teams' non-league games are often against the members of the Patriot League, which have similar academic standards and athletic scholarship policies.

In the time before recruiting for college sports became dominated by those offering athletic scholarships and lowered academic standards for athletes, the Ivy League was successful in many sports relative to other universities in the country. In particular, Princeton won 26 recognized national championships in college football (last in 1935), and Yale won 18 (last in 1927). Both of these totals are considerably higher than those of other historically strong programs such as Alabama, which has won 13, Notre Dame, which has won 12, and USC, which has won 11. Yale, whose coach Walter Camp was the "Father of American Football," held on to its place as the all-time wins leader in college football throughout the entire 20th century, but was finally passed by Michigan on November 10, 2001. Currently Dartmouth holds the record for most Ivy League football titles, with 17.

Beginning with the 1982 football season, the Ivy League has competed in Division I-AA (renamed FCS in 2006). The Ivy League teams are eligible for the FCS tournament held to determine the national champion, and the league champion receives an automatic bid (and any other team may qualify for an at-large selection) from the NCAA. Through the 2009 season, all eligible teams have declined the invitation, citing rules governing the league's academic concerns posed by the extended December schedule. The Ivy League plays a strict 10 game schedule, compared to other FCS members' schedules of 11 or 12 regular season games, plus post-season, which was expanded in 2010 to five rounds with 20 teams, with a bye week for the top 12 teams. Football is the only sport in which the Ivy League declines to compete for a national title.

Although no longer as successful nationally as they once were in many of the more popular college sports, the Ivy League is still competitive in others. One such example is rowing. All of the Ivies have historically been among the top crews in the nation, and most continue to be so today. Cornell's 38 national championships in men's rowing makes that program perhaps the most decorated varsity athletic program in the country in any sport. Most recently, on the men's side, Harvard won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, and on the women's side Brown won the team championship in 2007, 2008 and 2011 NCAA Rowing Championships and Yale won the NCAA title for the I-eight event (the most elite event) in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Additionally, Cornell's men's lightweight team won back to back to back IRA National Championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Ivy League schools are also very competitive in men's lacrosse and both men's and women's hockey.

The Ivy League is home to some of the oldest college rugby teams. These teams meet annually to compete in a tourney. The 2006 Ivy League Tournament was hosted by Yale, and the 2005 tournament was hosted by Penn. Though the women's rugby teams at the Ivy League schools are much younger, they too compete in an annual Ivy League Tournament, often hosted by Brown.