A League Of Their Own

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a well-written story headlined, A league of their own that shares some history and thoughts about Ivy League basketball and the NCAA Tourney. It includes the following, spun out of Penn's appearance in the Final Four 30 years ago:

"Maybe 1979 says more about the ending of one era generally than it says something about Ivy basketball," Ivy League Commissioner Jeff Orleans said. "It was a smaller tournament, in a smaller world."

Not that Orleans discounts the possibility the Ivy will add a Final Four to those of Penn, Dartmouth (1942 and 1944) and the 1965 Princeton team.

"I think the meaning of all those (successes) is that our champion is able to play in the big-time in the NCAA, and that's set perhaps a level of aspiration (around the conference) that is … even more of an incentive to dethrone (Penn and Princeton)," he said. "If you can win a first-round game, then you can go as far as they've gone."

Hmm. "... (O)ur champion is able to play in the big-time in the NCAA ..."

But not, sadly, to even participate in the FCS football playoffs.