In line with this year's Ivy League season-ending basketball tournaments moving from the Palestra to Yale's Lee Amphitheater, the League announced Tuesday that Ivy Madness will move throughout the conference through at least 2025. Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion will host the 2020 edition.
“Each Ivy League campus presents its own aura and distinctive traits,” Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said. “With this rotation, we look forward to sharing the atmosphere and energy of our basketball tournaments with each of our campus communities and giving all of our devoted fanbases an opportunity to experience Ivy Madness in their own venue.”
After Harvard gets its turn in 2020, the Tournaments will be hosted by Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia in the years 2021 through 2025, respectively. If the League office decides to continue that order, Penn's next turn will come in 2026.
The early responses from Penn fans and alumni have been overwhelmingly negative. Star junior forward AJ Brodeur and 2018 captain Darnell Foreman were among those who took to Twitter to protest the decision.
The Ivy League has made a series of controversial decisions regarding the Tournaments in recent years. Many fans outside of Penn circles disagreed with the decision to keep the Tournaments at the Palestra a second year, and Penn fans were upset when it was announced that it would move to Yale this season.
The original move to New Haven, Conn. came after Penn hosted the inaugural two tournaments. The Palestra attracted packed crowds to the event in both years, but critics claimed the Cathedral of College Basketball provided home-court advantage to the Quakers, who won the women's title in 2017 and the men's in 2018.
With the Bulldogs currently sitting atop the men's standings at 8-2 and on the brink of a spot in the women's tournament, we'll see how important playing on their home court is come mid-March.
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