Cornell - Yale Lax

[Al DeFlorio]

Regardless, when the Ivy is having a good year (ie this year), there is pretty much no downside to playing the 2 extra games.

That's not entirely true, guys could get hurt.

Or, a Cornell team that finishes first in the regular season, but has no wins over top-ranked non-Ivy teams, could lose in the tournament and miss out on the auto-bid.

Also, I'm not so sure I'd say "the Ivy is having a good year" just yet.  Princeton has two good out-of-league wins (Hofstra and Hopkins, although the latter may turn out to be questionable) but the only other ranked team beaten by an Ivy is Harvard--an Ivy--by Brown.

[KeithK]

Regardless, when the Ivy is having a good year (ie this year), there is pretty much no downside to playing the 2 extra games.

That's not entirely true, guys could get hurt.

Or, a Cornell team that finishes first in the regular season, but has no wins over top-ranked non-Ivy teams, could lose in the tournament and miss out on the auto-bid.

Also, I'm not so sure I'd say "the Ivy is having a good year" just yet.  Princeton has two good out-of-league wins (Hofstra and Hopkins, although the latter may turn out to be questionable) but the only other ranked team beaten by an Ivy is Harvard--an Ivy--by Brown.

It seems clear to me that the Ivies got frustrated at the wthe southern teams have been gaming the selection criteria with their insular schedules, decided to give up fighting it and game the system themselves. It might work or it might backfire. We'll have to see  it would be better if it weren't "necessary" to go that route.