The Roundtable: What Harvard's NCAA win means for the Ivy League

Update: Coach Jerome Allen declined comment on Harvard's NCAA upset through Athletic Communications Director Mike Mahoney Monday.

In this edition of The Roundtable, six of our editors past and present ask what Harvard's win means for the Ancient Eight heading into the 2013-14 season, plain and simple:

Former Sports Editor Mike Wisniewski: Harvard's win is obviously good for the league. Why wouldn't it be? It's not like they ran away with the title -- the competition across the board was incredible this year, even though it was pretty certain Harvard or Princeton would end up winning it. It's a shame -- for the league, that is -- that the Crimson couldn't put in a more respectable performance against Arizona, but knocking off New Mexico was impressive enough. That would have been the upset of the tournament had Florida Gulf Coast not stolen their thunder.

Associate Sports Editor Steven Tydings: It is beneficial to the Ivy League in the sense of money since the league will get money from the victory. But it also hurts Penn in terms of image. You have a program that just six years ago was the class of the conference and getting the better players like Ibby Jaaber, Mark Zoller, Zack Rosen, etc., but is now 9-22, and hasn't won a title in six years. Now Harvard appears to be light years ahead, as they not only win a tournament game but also have a strong recruiting class and two players (likely cheaters) returning to make next year's team the favorite to run away with the conference, making it likely that Miller's final recruiting class with Cartwright/Dougherty will go without a title and leave coach Allen with little to nothing on his resume and a team full of just his players in 2014-15, for better or worse.

Associate Sports Editor Riley Steele: I wrote the other day that it was in Penn's best interest to compare itself to the other teams in the Big 5. I truly felt like we as a program limited our goals/sights to what the Ivy schools around us were doing, we would never be able to improve to a point where we could truly succeed, both in conference or on the national stage. It appears, however, that I was wrong. What Harvard did the other night was incredibly impressive, something that we as a conference should actually take pride in. Still, even though Penn beat Harvard just over three weeks ago, the gap is widening between them and us, as Steven pointed out. Who knows how improved the squad will be next season, but it's clear that Harvard is helping the league's image, as well as establishing itself as the class of the Ivies and putting itself on a national stage.

Associate Sports Editor Mars Jacobson: I don't think Harvard's win really matters to the Ivy League. Everybody already knew that Harvard were going to be the heavy favorites for next year, and one win in the NCAA Tournament doesn't make them all that much better. One win also doesn't boost the prestige of the league or its image in the eyes of recruits, especially since Harvard didn't put up much of a fight in their second game. At best, it is marginally beneficial to the league with the money the league gets from the victory and hopefully an even better Harvard squad can make a run in next year's tourney.

Obviously, it doesn't bode well for Penn next year but like I said, we already knew that it's going to be almost impossible for Penn to compete with Harvard. Second or third should be the expectation next year for the Quakers, but who knows? Maybe they can steal a game or two and get themselves in the title chase.

Former Associate Sports Editor Kenny Kasper: Harvard's win over New Mexico signifies the widening gap between the Crimson and the rest of the Ivy League. Though the Crimson's relatively young squad lacked the consistency to emerge from conference play unscathed, Harvard is the only Ancient Eight team that could have pulled off an upset against New Mexico at the big dance. Clearly, the leadership at Harvard decided it was time for its basketball program to be a competitor only in the Ivy League, but also on the national stage. Harvard hired a big-time coach in Amaker, and Amaker has reeled in big-time recruits and propelled the program to a top 25 ranking at some points.

Unless other programs in the Ivy League react quickly, the Crimson's momentum will snowball until it has a complete monopoly on talent with the smarts to attend the Ivy League. And while that talent pool is somewhat limited, Harvard is showing it has far more potential than anyone supposed before.

Associate Sports Editor John Phillips: I think we all need to keep in mind that over the course of an Ivy season, the best team may not always win. Last year, Penn took down a ranked Harvard squad, and were it not for a Penn loss to Princeton in the last game of the season, then the Red and Blue would have had a shot to steal a bid from a stronger Harvard team. If that scenario can play out, then who's to say that Harvard will be far and away better than the rest of the Ivy next season. Words like impossible and monopoly shouldn't be thrown around when talking about the Ivy. This year, it was a two horse race, but Penn, Brown and Yale are on the up-and-up, and upsets happen.

It was good for the Ivy when Cornell went on a run in the NCAAs, and it is good that Harvard did the same this past weekend. Wins like that put pressure on the Ivy administrators (Bilsky included) to raise the league's visibility, and that's always good.