Ivy League Admission
The Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

There will be no Ivy League basketball playoffs for the foreseeable future.

If you’ve ever wondered why there isn’t an Ivy League playoffs for, say, men’s and women’s basketball, wonder no more. In the past, both the men’s and women’s teams in the Ivy League compete in what is termed a double round-robin schedule. That means that each team plays each Ivy League college twice over the course of the season. As an example, Princeton faces Columbia two times each year. So if the Tigers fall in their first matchup, they’ve got an opportunity to even the season series against the Lions.

Recently, however, the Ivy League athletic directors met and one of the items on the agenda was to decide if the Ivy League should have a playoffs like many other leagues such as the ACC or Big East. How exciting! But alas the athletic directors decided to maintain the status quo — to keep the system that is currently in place for the foreseeable future. If there ever an Ivy League playoff? Yes, it happens quite a bit. But it’s a one game playoff in the event of a statistical tie in the standings. The winner of the one game playoff earns the right to advance as the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Do you think this was a bad decision on the part of the Ivy League athletic directors? Do you think there should be an Ivy League playoffs in men’s and women’s basketball? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting below! And, while you’re here, which Ivy League school do you think will receive the men’s and women’s automatic bids next year to March Madness? We’re curious to hear your projections.

Do you think Harvard admissions statistics will be impacted this spring by Linsanity? Do you think the university’s yield will be through the roof? Do you think more applicants will apply to Harvard next year than ever before? And, if so, do you think star New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has anything to do with it? At The Ivy Coach, we do!

Linsanity will have an impact on Harvard admissions statistics. The data supports this projection.

Remember Doug Flutie? He had a solid NFL career as well as a great CFL career. But before he played pro football, he was the QB at Boston College. You might recall (or maybe you’ve seen replays) of his Hail Mary pass that beat Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Hurricanes. According to “The Washington Post” article on Linsanity and Harvard Admission, “Boston College gave birth to the Flutie Effect in the 1980s, when applications for the freshman class jumped 30 percent in the two years after Doug Flutie threw a Hail Mary to beat Miami, the defending national champion, and win the 1984 Heisman Trophy. The theory: A school’s athletic success could create positive publicity that lifts the academic side as well.”

We know applications to Duke rise as they advance further in the NCAA Tournament (guess applications won’t increase next year…sorry Duke). And remember Jim Larranaga’s George Mason squad? We wrote extensively about the impact Mason’s Final Four run had on its admissions statistics. The average SAT score of applicants went up by 25 points. And so many more students ended up applying to the Virginia school.

Drew Faust, the Harvard president, believes like us that Harvard’s admissions statistics will reflect Linsanity. And the research by Jaren and Devin Pope, research we’ve referred to quite a bit over the years, supports Faust’s claim. Big basketball or football runs matter. A Harvard graduate competing on the biggest stage in basketball — that has to count for something. And for those of you who think Jeremy Lin is going away now that Mike Woodson is at the helm of the Knicks, think again. Jeremy Lin may be taking fewer shots, but he’s playing as good as ever. Linsanity is for keeps. If anyone’s going to have to adjust, it’s ‘Melo.

Harvard University, which recently secured the automatic bid to the NCAA Tourney, will face off against Vanderbilt University in the Round of 64. Harvard, a university that hasn’t been to the NCAA Tourney since 1946 and hadn’t won an Ivy League title until splitting one last season (they lost a tie-breaker to Princeton with 2.6 seconds left in the game), will be facing off against a university that dubs itself “The Harvard of the South.” Vanderbilt students and alumni should know, though, that there are Duke t-shirts that dub Duke “The Harvard of the South” as well. Vanderbilt, there’s only one Harvard. The school should learn to embrace its own identity! After all, it’s not too shabby!

Harvard will make its first appearance since 1946 in the NCAA Tourney very soon, facing off against Vanderbilt.

According to “Boston.com’s” article on the NCAA Tourney and Harvard, “Sitting in a function room in the school’s athletic administration building, with an eight-seat crew shell suspended from the ceiling above them, the players waited as two other regions were announced. During commercials, they tapped away on their cellphones while fans — at least one wearing a Jeremy Lin Harvard jersey — milled around. When they were finally announced, the players jumped into the air and hugged. ‘To make the tournament and see our name come up to make it legit, all the specifics didn’t mean anything to me,’ guard Oliver McNally said. ‘I love the sport of college basketball. I love the tournament; I think it’s the best sporting event. This is one of the dreams I’ve had in my life.’”

We’ll be rooting for Cinderella and when they face off against Vanderbilt, Harvard will certainly be Cinderella. Vanderbilt just upset #1 seed Kentucky University in the SEC title game and are now making their third straight NCAA Tourney (their fifth in six years). But, just as noteworthy, they’ve lost their last three games in the Round of 64! Let’s see if Harvard University can make that four straight and maybe even pull off a run to the Sweet 16…and beyond.

Check out this post on Harvard and March Madness or this one on College Admissions and March Madness.

Harvard’s in the Tourney, baby. Back in December of 2011, we predicted that no Ivy League college would be able to compete with the Harvard men’s basketball team this season. We were somewhat wrong. They didn’t blow away the competition. But they did secure their first outright (they don’t share it with any other Ivy League team) title in the university’s long history. That means that Harvard University will be in March Madness this month — they’ll be competing in the Big Dance for the first time since 1946! The drought is officially over!

Harvard has ended a very long drought. They'll be competing in March Madness this year.

Last year, Harvard clinched a share of the Ivy League title but Princeton beat them by a point in the one-game playoff to earn the right to represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament. It was a grueling finish for the Crimson so, this year, they didn’t leave anything to chance! Led by Coach Tommy Amaker, his squad puts to an end 112 years (you read that right) of men’s basketball mediocrity. With a 26-4 finish on the year and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, this Harvard team did what no Harvard team had done before. Not even Jeremy Lin can claim the feat of leading Harvard into March Madness.

Do you think the Harvard men’s basketball team will be able to pull off an upset in Round 1? Do you think they’ll get a good seed? Do they stand a chance at making it to the Sweet 16? Remember the Ivy League basketball teams, while Division I, don’t offer athletic scholarships. And team members need to meet the Ivy League Academic Index. So when they face off against a university like Duke, UNC, and Syracuse, know that the playing field isn’t exactly even. But that doesn’t mean Harvard can’t win. Our bet’s on an upset. A big one.

The University of Pennsylvania upset Harvard University this past Saturday, throwing a wrench in Harvard’s path to the Ivy League basketball title. There are now a number of outcomes that could take place and Harvard, the alma mater of star Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, doesn’t necessarily come out on top in all of them. Let’s walk you through the potential Ivy League basketball outcomes for the year.

Harvard University's loss to the University of Pennsylvania in men's basketball action jeopardizes Harvard's title chances.

According to a “Harvard Crimson” post on the Harvard basketball team,  ”If Harvard wins its weekend matchups with Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday, it will secure at least a share of the Ivy League Title. When those two teams came to Cambridge, odds makers gave Harvard a roughly 94 percent chance of winning each game. Those percentages will be lower when the Crimson take to the road, but Harvard will still be expected to emerge victorious in both contests. Its fate is no longer solely in its hands though, as the Quakers now will also have a say in who represents the league in the Big Dance.”

If Penn manages to go undefeated in its next three games and Harvard goes undefeated next weekend, Penn will face off against Harvard again for the chance to gain the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, there’s a chance that Yale could face Harvard for the right to the automatic bid to March Madness. And let’s not forget that Harvard isn’t guaranteed a chance to go to Big Dance. If they lose their next two games, they put their fate in the hands of Penn and Yale. Not to mention…there’s a scenario in which Princeton could claim a share of the crown, too!

Who do you think will win out this year? Will Harvard take the crown all for themselves or will Yale, Penn, or Princeton ruin their plans? Let us know your thoughts by posting below! And guess we were wrong when we predicted earlier this year that no Ivy League school would be able to compete with Harvard this year. We thought they were in another class. Woops!

Even Spike Lee was wearing a Harvard Lin jersey at Madison Square Garden over the weekend as the Knicks faced off against the Mavs. Lin did not disappoint.

Ivy Leaguer Jeremy Lin is no fluke. He still has the Knicks winning. He’s still scoring. He’s still stealing the ball. And he’s still finding his teammates for assists. Last night, he dismantled the Atlanta Hawks with 17 points, 9 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds. He had 21 points in a loss to the Nets before the Hawks game and on February 19th, he had his finest game as a pro against the defending NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks. Against the Mavs, Lin scored 28 points and dished out an astonishing 14 assists to go along with 4 rebounds and a ridiculous 5 steals. 5 steals! This Harvard athlete sure does have staying power.

On the biggest stage in sports, competing in front of the toughest crowd there is, Jeremy Lin didn’t go away after a week in the spotlight. His numbers didn’t slip. His minutes haven’t decreased. He’s distributing the ball, incorporating Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, and now J.R. Smith into the potent New York offense. Melo seems to understand that things have changed since he stepped off the hardwood prior to sitting out with an injury. He’s come back to a completely different team…one in which Lin is very much the key asset.

While Lin won’t be competing in the Olympics and he was left off the All-Star Team (he started shocking the world too late into the season to make the All-Star Team), he will be incorporated into All-Star Weekend this coming weekend. The Harvard standout who scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of the SAT is a fantasy basketball must-have. And he’s the delight of Harvard’s PR team. After all, he’s a Harvard PR machine!

As the Supreme Court takes up affirmative action based on race once again, we wonder if the Supreme Court will ever take up Affirmative Action based on athletic ability. Recruited athletes, after all, have better odds in the college admissions process than minority applicants who don’t happen to be recruited athletes. Basketball and football players in particular gain admission to highly selective schools in spite of subpar grades and SAT scores. The standards are truly lowered for athletes. It might be trite to say but it’s trite because it’s true.

The Supreme Court is taking up affirmative action based on race. But what about based on athletic ability?

At Ivy League colleges, the eight member institutions use what is called the Academic Index system. Each of the eight Ivy League schools computes an average Academic Index for the student body. While each applicant to an Ivy League school has an Academic Index, the system was designed to measure recruited athletes against the rest of the incoming class. Recruited athletes must meet a minimum Academic Index to compete in the Ivy League (though indeed there have been exceptions to this rule in the past). And let’s just say that the Academic Index of a typical recruited basketball player isn’t exactly on par with the Academic Index of a first-chair violinist.

If you’re a top running back who is drawing the attention of a ton of Division I scouts and you’ve got respectable SAT scores and grades, you’ve got a much better shot at admission to an Ivy League school that a violinist with perfect or near-perfect SATs and high school grades. It is how it is, unfair as it may be. Do you think the Supreme Court of the United States should take up the issue of affirmative action for athletes? Do you think athletes should have just as good of a chance of admission as other applicants? This would inevitably hurt the quality of the teams universities could field. Your football team may not be as competitive. Does this change your opinion? Let us know your thoughts on athletes and college admission by posting below!

Ivy League scholarships are myths. For years, we’ve rolled our eyes when parents brag about how their child received a full scholarship to Princeton. Or a full scholarship to Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, Penn, Columbia, or Cornell. The fact is, the eight Ivy League colleges don’t offer “scholarships.” If by scholarship, these folks mean financial aid, then the answer is yes — Ivy League colleges all offer financial aid. But scholarship implies merit. If these parents knew that Ivy League colleges don’t offer scholarships but only financial aid, would they still be as boastful?

When in line at a grocery store (or anywhere else for that matter), don't tell people you got a full ride to an Ivy League college. There's no such thing unless by full ride you mean full financial aid.

It’s one of the differentiating factors of the Ivy League for athletes in particular. Ivy League athletes don’t receive scholarships. They’re recruited, yes. But they don’t pay lower tuition costs because they happen to be recruited athletes. There are no athletic scholarships in the Ivy League and it’s one of the pivotal reasons why Ivy League schools often cannot compete with their Division I peers. But, at times, they can compete. At times, the underdog has its day. Jeremy Lin is a Harvard grad. Historically, Princeton has staged remarkable runs in the NCAA Tournament. In spite of not receiving athletic scholarships, Ivy League athletes make a habit of proving they belong at the top of their sport.

So if you’re a mom in the grocery store wearing a Princeton sweatshirt, bragging to the lady behind you in line how your son just received a “full ride” to Princeton, think twice. The lady in the grocery store might know that Princeton does not offer full rides…unless of course by “full ride” you mean full financial aid! If that’s what you’re bragging about, then go right ahead! Like Bill O’Reilly, we just want to keep people honest!

Check out this post on Ivy League Tuition Costs.

Are there other overlooked players who could be pro sensations on Ivy League sports teams? Jeremy Lin makes you think there might be.

Harvard superstar Jeremy Lin’s story is just getting started. If you thought his numbers were going to drop when Amar’e Stoudemire returned to the lineup for the Knicks, you’d be mistaken. With Amar’e back last night against the Toronto Raptors, Jeremy Lin delivered perhaps his best performance yet. While torching Kobe’s Lakers for 38 points was impressive, last night, Jeremy Lin hit the game-winning three-point bucket to seal the Knicks’ sixth straight win — on the Raptors’ home court no less. It was a come-from-behind thriller orchestrated by the Harvard superstar.

For all the doubters who feel the sample size is too small to proclaim Lin a phenom just yet, Jeremy Lin continues to dazzle. He dished out a career high 11 assists last night to go along with 27 points on 9 for 20 shooting. He has become a floor general for the Knicks, the likes of which they’ve been needing for years — since the 80′s on Mark Jackson’s first stint in New York. Not Chris Childs, not Charlie Ward, surely not Stephon Marbury, not Nate Robinson, not Chauncey Billups…none of them proved to be the answer to the Knicks’ decades-long search for a quality point guard. But Harvard superstar Jeremy Lin seems to be that answer.

Do you think that there are other players who could become professional sensations overlooked in the Ivy League? Do you think pro scouts will now pay more attention to the Ancient Eight since Jeremy Lin has become such a global sensation? Do you think that Jeremy Lin is the exception to the rule or are there others like him in Cambridge, Hanover, New Haven, Ithaca, etc.? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting below. At The Ivy Coach, as you can see, we’ve got the Linsanity bug like the rest of the world!

Did you really think that we wouldn’t post about the Harvard athlete who is dominating the headlines around the world? It’s not like we haven’t written about Mr. Jeremy Lin before. If you’ll recall, we wrote about the Harvard grad back in July of 2011! At The Ivy Coach, we like to be ahead of the trends. Jeremy Lin, the recent Harvard graduate who has captured the attention of basketball fans around the world, indeed speaks to the American Dream.

Jeremy Lin, a former Harvard athlete, is now a global sensation. Linsanity is the new Tebowmania.

Overlooked by all Division I basketball programs that offer athletic scholarships (the Ivy League, while Division I, does not offer athletic scholarships), Jeremy Lin was an absolute sensation in Ivy League basketball play. But it wasn’t enough to get drafted by the NBA. That didn’t stop this Ivy League athlete. After walking onto his hometown team, the Golden State Warriors, it seemed like Lin might well be able to eke out a few years on the bench in the NBA. But then he was waived. And subsequently waived by the Houston Rockets. The New York Knicks signed him as a third-string point guard, behind the injured Baron Davis and the elder statesman Mike Bibby. The Knicks didn’t know what they had!

Given a temporary shot at the starting job, Lin lit up Madison Square Garden as fans chanted “MVP!” He scored 25 points, 28 points, 23 points, 38 points, and 20 points while dishing out around 8 assists a game! And who did he score 38 against? Kobe Bryant’s Lakers! Stories like this just don’t happen in professional sports. Too many folks get paid to scout. They get paid to know that they have a superstar riding the pine. And not only is this an incredible story of an underdog basketball player from the Ivy League who happens to be a phenomenon ala Tim Tebow on the gridiron, he also happens to be one of only a handful of Asian American players to have ever made an NBA roster! And he’s the first Asian American to start an NBA game!

We’ll be writing much more about Jeremy Lin in the days and weeks ahead but we wanted to give you a little appetizer of this global sensation out of Harvard University! This Ivy League athlete sure did make good and make his mommy and daddy proud of him. So all you Tiger Moms out there, we imagine you’ll be following him closely.