Wikipedia's entry on the Ivy League notes, "The term has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions and a reputation for social elitism."
The term became official in 1954 when the eight members of the Ivy League finally committed to a league to govern virtually all of their members' sports (exceptions such as skiing remain). As on the mark as Wikipedia's definition is to overall life in the Ancient Eight, it remains even more accurate when it comes to sports.
The NCAA has never been accused of being an adaptable body, particularly in their refusal to ever adopt a Division I football playoff and to change rules to respond to variations in playing and competing conditions over time. The Ivy League takes this conservatism to an extreme. In football, the Ivy League does not allow its champion to compete in postseason play, the only conference to do so in all of Division I. In basketball, the Ivy League also continues to be the only conference without postseason play (the Pac-10, the next most recent holdout, added a postseason tournament in the 2001-02 season).
In baseball, the Ivy League is a little more flexible, splitting into two divisions and having the winners meet to determine the champion of the Ivy League. This allows some necessary drama to develop in regular season play without eroding the importance of finishing at or near the top of the league (a criticism the Ivy League has often leveled at other sports conferences that pick their NCAA tournament representative based on postseason success).
Though the Ivy League would like to think of itself as the last remaining bastion of athletic purity, it instead comes off as an unresponsive monolith. While the rest of the NCAA acknowledges the commercialization of big time sports, and the interest that postseason conference tournaments bring, the Ivy League remains convinced that the regular season should decide everything in all sports. While the league's devotion to saving scholarship money for financial aid is admirable and worthy, that does not mean that any submissions to the realities of big-time athletics is a bad thing. I know the Athletic Department recognizes this because they have sponsored events during games (I caught an EBAs t-shirt at my first-ever Dartmouth football game and the Ledyard National Bank Chuck-a-Puck competition is a personal favorite).
The only sport Dartmouth competes in with a postseason tournament is hockey, where the Ivy League only exists as a subsection of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. As anyone who has attended either a women's or men's hockey tournament game has seen, there is tension and excitement at a level rarely found in any other events. This is why all other conferences have postseason play, in addition to the increased revenue it draws. Postseason tournaments allow teams whose seasons become only about personal pride by the midpoint and allow them to dream, even if only for a few minutes, that they could reach the NCAA tournament in whichever sport they are competing in.
I know there are reasons for the Ivy League's stance. Having just a regular season champion ensures that the team that is consistently the best throughout the season always represents the Ivy League in postseason play, and guarantees teams that one fluky upset will not allow some cheeky upstart to steal their thunder. Plus, postseason tournaments take away valuable classroom time for athletes and further discredit the image of the student-athlete. Postseason tournaments, however really do not add more than a weekend to the regular season, and while their belief in a meritocracy of sport is admirable, it ruins a casual fan's dream of the underdog.
I single out the Ivy League because for an organization whose members pride themselves on being on the cutting edge of academia, it is trailing far behind in the athletic field. Every other Division I conference has left them behind, but the Ivy League still clings to its antiquated ways. Professional sports in the United States follow a playoff system, though not every team makes it. Maybe this can be the Ivy League's opportunity. Rather than following the field, limit postseason opportunities to the top four teams, and play the tournament at the home venue of the No. 1 seed.
This would allow for postseason excitement and would reward teams for a successful regular season, in effect creating an Ivy League we could all be proud of.
