2026 Ivy League Conference Basketball Tournament Odds & Predictions

The Ivy League Conference Tournament moves around the conference and this year it will be held in Ithaca, NY, home of the No. 4 seed Cornell Big Red. That means that the lowest-seeded team in the field has home-court advantage in this four-team tourney. If not for COVID, we’d be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Ivy League Tournament, which began back in 2017, but the pandemic wiped out back to the 2020 and 2021 editions.

Four of the conference’s eight teams will hit the floor and, conveniently, they were all separated by one game in the standings over the 14-game conference play season. Unlike a lot of other conferences, these schools are used to playing back-to-back days, with games on Friday and Saturday due to the extensive academic workload.

How to Watch the Ivy League Conference Tournament

When: March 14-15

Where: Newman Arena in Ithaca, NY (on Cornell campus, has never hosted the tourney)

Format: 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 in Saturday semifinals at 11 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET, respectively, finals on Sunday

Watch: ESPNU, ESPNews; Championship Game on ESPN2 on Mar. 15 at 12 p.m. ET

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Ivy League Conference Tournament Bracket

Coming soon.

Ivy League Conference Tournament Seeds, Teams and Odds

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1. Yale (-110)

2. Harvard (+475)

3. Penn (+650)

4. Cornell (+330)

Current Odds

(odds from DraftKings Sportsbook accurate at time of publish)

Favorite To Win Ivy League Conference Tournament

Yale is a short odds-on price to three-peat and head to the NCAA Tournament yet again. Of the seven iterations of this conference tourney, Yale has won four of them, with two for Princeton and one for Penn. The Bulldogs are easily the highest-rated team in the conference, a top-100 squad for Torvik and KenPom, while the other three teams are grouped together in the 150s and 160s.

Yale was second in adjusted offensive efficiency and third in adjusted defensive efficiency, trailing Cornell on offense and Harvard and Penn on defense. Yale’s 38% 3P% led the conference and they also had the lowest TO% at 14.1% while ranking second in eFG% offense and defense. Shy of shooting short of 73% from the free throw line, there are no statistical flaws for the Bulldogs.

Ivy League Conference Tournament Darkhorse

Tough to have a darkhorse in a four-team tournament, so let’s just talk about the others. Cornell is the second favorite at home, despite drawing Yale right away. The Big Red were far and away the best offensive team in the conference, shooting better than 61% on 2s and over 37% on 3s. But, they were also the conference’s worst defensive team by adjusted defensive efficiency and eFG%.

Harvard was the best by adjusted defensive efficiency, eFG% defense, 2P%, and 3P% defense, while also finishing third in adjusted offensive efficiency and eFG%. Their 55% 2P% was second in the conference, albeit a very distant second. Meanwhile, Penn, under first-year head coach Fran McCaffery, was second in 3P% offense, TO% on offense, and ORB%, while ranking second in adjusted defensive efficiency. Penn led the conference by a good margin in TO% on defense and that helped the cause a lot.

Yale lost to Harvard 67-65 and Cornell 72-69, but also won 102-68 over the Big Red and 76-75 in OT over the Crimson.

Betting Pick to Win The Ivy League Conference Tournament

Theoretically, Harvard has the better draw given the longer odds on Penn, but the Quakers split with the Crimson during the regular season in games that finished 64-63 and 64-61. The games between Harvard and Yale were decided by three combined points. Penn beat Cornell twice, but did get swept by Yale. In other words, even though Yale has such a short price, it feels like anything could happen here.

In the end, I think the +650 on Penn is a gamble worth making. McCaffery’s team got better as the season went along and they’ve won seven of eight heading into the tourney, including both wins over Cornell and the revenge win over Harvard. They only lost by four on the road at Yale.

Pick: Penn (+650)

Makinen Power Ratings for Ivy League

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

Check out the other previews in our 2026 College Basketball Conference Tournament Betting Guide.

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