Ivy decides against basketball tourneys

THE IVY LEAGUE athletic directors have decided not to move forward with proposals for conference tournaments in men's and women's basketball, the league announced Thursday.

The coaches had proposed a four-team tournament, but it would need to have cleared three stages to be adopted. The first stage was the athletics directors, who discussed the issue at their annual meetings in Red Bank, N.J.

"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," Ivy League executive director Robin Smith said in a statement.

Proposals for a conference tournament seemingly are offered every few years, but the league has remained steadfast in its desire to retain the 14-game double round-robin schedule with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"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," Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky said. "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."