I have been pondering this for a while. This is the only Ivy message board in which you can actually post if you did not join ions ago. Where are all the Ivy fans? Or, are there many Ivy fans. I was so excited all day about Yale-Bama and Cornell-Izzo. There were like 8 posts about both in the aggregate! Seems impossible, but it’s true. My alma mater is awful. 5th place in the Ivy. Last night they played lowly delaware State and about 500-750 posted about the game. These are 8 schools. 2 of them, Penn and Princeton have a greater basketball heritage than the likes of Rutgers, DePaul, Washington, Minnesota, Xavier, USC and many more Power 5’s. Yale has been better than all of those since 2015. Seems so strange to me.
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I’ve wondered the same and also find it surprising. The Penn fans have migrated back to that other board and I read that the Cornell fans use something else. That “Voy” board doesn’t have much on hoops either. This board has decent content for general league topics, Columbia, Princeton and Yale. The Princeton and Yale fans are great, knowledgeable and I enjoy their commentary. But, as you say, the aggregate of all the boards is minuscule
As far as I know, anyone can now post on the basketballu site. But we’ve become too siloed, most of that board is now about Penn and this board here is mostly dominated by Princeton posters.
On the Penn side, we’ve often commented that there are very few Penn basketball fans anymore compared to even several decades ago (let alone earlier when the Quakers regularly made the NCAA tourney). Some of this has to do with the decline of the program and the general disregard that the AD has had for the fans. Some of it also has to do with, at least at Penn, a change in the kinds of students who attend the school.
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Very good points. Interest in Columbia men’s basketball was very high during the Kyle Smith years and fell off after he left. Hovde has brought some of those same fans back and I expect that to continue. Interest in women’s basketball is very strong now that Meg has the program on the right track. Strong attendance and a positive vibe on campus. Prior to her arrival the program was a disaster. Winning gets the average fan interested. Similar to Penn and probably most of the league, the typical student has less interest today than in the past. They’re too busy trying to get all A grades, an internship, job or grad school admission. They also don’t socialize as much.
I also linked this on the Cornell thread but is a good crowd of us Cornell basketball fans, we just talk here: ELynah Forum - Index
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the number of yale fans has grown exponentially since the old msg board days
i think we have gone from 2 to maybe 8😂
this understates reality of course. i cancelled my drive to tuscaloosa last minute but last time we played in atlanta vs ga tech and kennesaw we had at least 500 fans vs the former
the yale clubs incl the one in tuscaloosa who i donated my tix to kick up some dirt wherever the team goes
denver turnout was impressive for the ncaas
but sadly doesnt translate to msg boards
as a sidenote i was at emory last night watching their hoops tournament.
it was high quality interesting competition with some great athletes.
i would estimate 450 ppl in the stands in a major city.
that is less than my high school gets for a scrimmage in atl
it is a shame but returns go to those with scale and pros like most business now
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The Basketball-U board has been renovated and reopened for posts, including from new posters, for several months now. You are welcome to join in there. As others have pointed out, Penn gets most of the activity, but the Columbia. Harvard and Yale posts have been active lately as well. The link is here if you need it.
Until recently, this site had the url link for the basketball-u board on its home page, at the top of the page.
It’s not just activity on the boards that is way down. Attendance at the last three Princeton-Penn games at Jadwin:
2024: 5,500
2025: 3,600
2026: 2,400
And the small crowd at Princeton dwarfed attendance at the other three Ivy games last night.
Hopefully more fans will come out on Saturday for the Yale game now that the Tigers have won a couple of games.
Go Tigers!
Not to interrupt the doom scrolling, but I believe the earlier games you cite were played when the universities were in session. You don’t schedule games on the Monday after New Year’s if you care about attendance
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I had the same thought.
Should have had men-women DH’s on Sat afternoon.
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Playing a round of Saturday 2 pm day games for the 2nd game won’t boost attendance any, either. No one really wants to waste a short winter day inside unless it’s bad weather, and Saturday is supposed to be beautiful and warm for most of us. Play the games at night.
Was referring to last saturday, jan 3.
I know. I am suggesting that the upcoming games during the day on Saturday won’t be any better in terms of attendance.
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Attendance for Yale at Princeton: 4,884.
Harvard at Columbia: 1,634
Brown at Penn: 1,325
Dartmouth at Cornell: not provided
The attendance at the Princeton-Yale game was higher than for four of the five Princeton home football games last fall.
Sad fact for football