Penn

Ivy League Cancels Conference Tournaments, Sends Regular Season Winners to Big Dance

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 10th, 2020 · 11:38 AM EDT

---

This is something else:

The Ivy League has decided to cancel the League's upcoming Basketball Tournaments and implement highly-restrictive, in-venue spectator limitations for all other upcoming campus athletics events.

📰 » https://t.co/Y4nEjbsh0N pic.twitter.com/8zsrweXVXo

— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) March 10, 2020

From the league statement:

With the health of students as well as the campus and the general community in mind, the Ivy League Presidents have decided to cancel the upcoming Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. The League’s regular-season champions, Princeton women and Yale men, are the automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Tournaments.

…

All tickets for the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments will be refunded in full. Ticket holders with any questions should contact the Harvard ticket office.

Listen, I get it. We’re taking the threat seriously, we’re trying to protect ourselves, and we’re doing whatever necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.

But you’d have to feel pretty shitty if you’re Harvard, who finished second place in the conference but beat Yale twice and had a real shot at winning the tournament and earning a March Madness berth. It was supposed to be played at Lavietes Pavilion, which is their home turf.

And on the women’s side, Penn was the #2 seed going into the conference tournament with a chance to punch their own ticket to the big dance. They had a shot at taking on Princeton in the final.

Bummer for everybody involved, but it is what it is.