The Ivy League's distinction of being the only conference in the country without a postseason basketball tournament may be coming to an end.
According to the Norwich Bulletin, the Ivy League athletic directors are scheduled to meet in New York on Thursday. They will discuss the possibility of using a hardwood playoff to determine the league champion, who will then receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Though Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky will be in attendance, the rest of the Penn basketball community seems detached from the situation.
"To be honest with you, I wasn't even aware of the conference," Penn coach Glen Miller said.
Even so, the buzz for an Ancient Eight postseason has received a mixed reaction from players and coaches alike.
While Miller mentioned that a tournament might not be the most fair way to determine a champion in a one-bid league, he offered a few solutions to the problem - for instance, byes for the teams with the best regular-season records.
In the past, Miller has used this lack of fairness as support for an anti-tournament argument. And since his move from Brown - a perennial Ivy bottom-feeder -- to a Penn team favored to win the title, Miller would seem to be a likely candidate to oppose the movement.
But recently, the coach has expressed support.
"Any type of tournament you play in is exciting," Miller said. "So a conference tournament would really add to the season."
But before getting its hopes up, the Ancient Eight faithful should realize that even with a productive meeting, the tournament idea still has plenty of hoops to jump through.
The change would have to be approved by the Ivy presidents and would probably take two or three years to implement because schedules are made several years in advance.
