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Ivy League

 

 

   

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Athletics & competition

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 the ECAC Hockey League; 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 Basketball Tournament (with a playoff in the case of a tie).

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.

Harvard and Yale are celebrated football and crew rivals. Princeton and Penn are longstanding men's basketball rivals[37] and "Puck Fenn" and "Puck Frinceton" t-shirts are worn at games.[38] In only six instances in the last 51 years (from the 1955-56 season through the 2005-06 season) has neither Penn nor Princeton won at least a share of the Ivy League title in basketball,[39] with Princeton champion or co-champion 25 times and Penn champion or co-champion 24 times. Penn has won 20 outright, Princeton 18 outright, and 4 out of the 7 times Princeton has been a co-champion (and all of the four times Penn has been a co-champion), the other champion was Penn or Princeton. Rivalries exist between other Ivy league teams in other sports, including Cornell and Harvard in hockey (either team has won or shared the men's title each of the last 5 years[40]), and Harvard and Penn in football (either Penn or Harvard has won the title since 2000, and both teams have traded undefeated seasons since 2001[41]). In addition, no team other than Harvard and Princeton has won the men's swimming conference title since 1972, with Harvard winning the 34 year series 19-15 as of 2006.

Unlike most Division I athletic conferences, the Ivy League prohibits the granting of athletic scholarships; all scholarships awarded are need-based (financial aid).[42] Ivy League teams out of league games are usually against the members of the Patriot League which have similar academic standards and athletic scholarship policies. Its members include American, Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette College, Lehigh University and Navy.

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 24 recognized national championships in college football, and Yale won 19. Both of these totals are considerably higher than those of other historically strong programs such as 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.

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. (Other historical top crews include Cal, Washington,Wisconsin and Navy). Most recently, on the men's side, Harvard won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, and on the women's side, Harvard and Brown won the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Rowing Championships, respectively. The Ivy League schools are also very competitive in 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 the University of Pennsylvania.

Athletic teams

Conference facilities

School[43]

American Football stadium

Basketball arena

Ice hockey rink

Soccer stadium

Name

Capacity

Name

Capacity

Name

Capacity

Name

Capacity

Brown

Brown Stadium

20,000

Pizzitola Sports Center

2,800

Meehan Auditorium

3,100

Stevenson Field

3,500

Columbia

Wien Stadium

17,000

Levien Gymnasium

3,408

N/A

Columbia Soccer Stadium

3,500

Cornell

Schoellkopf Field

25,597

Newman Arena

4,473

Lynah Rink

3,836

Charles F. Berman Field

1,000

Dartmouth

Memorial Field

13,000

Leede Arena

2,100

Thompson Arena

5,000

Scully-Fahey Fields

1,500

Harvard

Harvard Stadium

30,898

Lavietes Pavilion

2,195

Bright Hockey Center

2,850

Ohiri Field

1,500

Penn

Franklin Field

52,593

The Palestra

8,722

The Class of 1923 Arena

2,900

Rhodes Field

~700

Princeton

Princeton Stadium

27,800

Jadwin Gymnasium

6,854

Hobey Baker Memorial Rink

2,094

Lourie-Love Field

2,000

Yale

Yale Bowl

64,269

Payne Whitney Gym

3,100

Ingalls Rink

3,486

Reese Stadium

3,000

 

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