Ivy League adding tournaments to determine NCAA bid
College basketball is a strange thing, especially in March. Die hard fans cover themselves in body paint, millions of dollars are put on the line in Vegas betting houses, and the country comes together to watch collegiate athletes, many of whom just a few months removed from their 18th birthdays, compete on the biggest stage. For over half a century, teams from around the country have participated in one of the greatest sporting traditions in the world.The word tradition gets thrown around a lot when talking about sports, especially college basketball. Movies, documentaries, and everything in between have tried to capture what makes the game so special, and most of the time it comes back to the ritualistic nature of the sport. March Madness, a phrase used to describe the NCAA basketball tournament that takes place in March, is one of those traditions. Each year, the top teams in the country compete for their chance to be crowned number one, and each year Cinderella stories are written.Before the madness, though, there is another aspect of college basketball that some argue is even more competitive than the tournament itself: conference championships. In the NCAA, each athletic conference (PAC12, ACC, BIG10, etc.), hosts its own championship tournament. In essence, it is a smaller version of the tournament that will take place in March, but with a different set of implications. Regional rivalries rear their heads and the atmosphere is much more intimate. What makes it even more interesting is the winner of the conference tournaments gets an automatic bid to the national title tournament. This means the Cinderella story can start even earlier: no-name programs from the bottom of the conference can hit a hot streak and punch their ticket straight to the tournament.Each athletic conference in the NCAA follows this model, except for the Ivy League. This will change, though, starting in 2017. According to a recent announcement, the Ivy League will add a men and women’s tournament to determine which team gets an automatic conference bid to the national tournament. The tournament will be comprised of two semifinal games on the first day with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed playing the No. 3 seed, followed by the championship game played the next day.However, the teams that finish with the best records from the 14-game, regular-season conference schedule will continue to be recognized as Ivy League champions. This means that the team who gets sent to the national tournament may not be the Ivy League champion. Though there are many implications to this new structure, it is an exciting step forward for Ivy League athletics. Because we know you all care deeply about Ivy League athletics.Image via.