Ivy League decides against basketball conference tournaments

The Ivy League announced Thursday afternoon that it will not be moving forward with a proposal for postseason tournaments in men's and women's basketball.

This decision was made during the conference's spring meeting of athletic directors in Red Bank, N.J.

I sent an e-mail to Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky asking how that decision was reached, and whether a decision to adopt the proposal would have had to be unanimous.

Here is the statement I received in reply:

The ADs' discussion focused primarily on the philosophical issue of whether a 14-game round-robin schedule is the best and fairest way to crown a League champion and automatic qualifier.

If the decision to reaffirm the status quo had not been made, then logistical issues including site, format, etc. would have been discussed at subsequent meetings.

Here's the official statement from the Ivy League office:

RED BANK, N.J. -- The Ivy League announced today that its directors of athletics have decided not to move forward with proposals for postseason tournaments in men's and women's basketball.

"After careful consideration of these proposals, the athletics directors decided that our current method of determining the Ivy League Champion and our automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship is the best model moving forward," said Robin Harris, Ivy League Executive Director.

In men's and women's basketball, the Ivy League plays a 14-game, double round-robin schedule where each team plays each other home and away. The team with the best conference record in each sport is awarded the Ivy title and the League's NCAA Tournament automatic bid.

The Ivy League athletics directors discussed the proposals at their annual meetings, which concluded Thursday afternoon in Red Bank, N.J.

The Ivy League Office will not comment further on this matter.