Over the past several years, the Ivy League hosted separate media days for the women and men’s basketball programs. This year, however, the Ancient Eight is trying something new by partnering with The Field of 68 for a single day event on Oct. 28.
The virtual broadcast will feature the head coach and one student-athlete from each team, as well as an interview with Ivy League executive director Robin Harris. At the time of the conference announcement, the specific hours were not finalized.
Asked why the conference went away from its typical approach, Assistant Director of Communications and Championships Zach Sterrett told Ivy Hoops Online, “The new Media Day format is primarily a collaborative and creative idea to increase the visibility and exposure of Ivy League basketball headed into the season. Our office and our coaches have seen this be a successful partnership in other leagues and are eager to try to increase the discussion around Ivy League basketball with this event.”
According to the Ivy League’s press release, The Field of 68 provides comprehensive coverage of college basketball to an audience of 200,000 across X, YouTube and Instagram.
The men’s division will be hosted by The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster, while On3 Sports’ Talia Goodman and Maren Walseth of the Ivy League on ESPN will lead the discussion for the eight women’s teams. The Goodmans and Dauster haven’t frequently covered the conference in the past, but Walseth is well-versed on the Ancient Eight women, broadcasting many Columbia games and Live from Ivy Madness over the years.
Unfortunately for Ivy fans, the Ivy League on ESPN’s Lance Medow and his in-depth familiarity with all 16 teams will not be a part of the conversations.
The new format leaves questions to the four hosts, removing inquiries from university, local and national reporters who cover the conference extensively throughout each season and are independent of the partnering entities.
While the CAA, one of The Field of 68’s other mid-major partners, organized a separate league-wide teleconference for media to question coaches and players, the Ivy League did not.
When questioned about the lack of a reporters-only event, Sterrett said in an email: “A separate league-wide teleconference for media to talk to coaches and student-athletes was considered and discussed in detail. However, we couldn’t ask coaches and student-athletes to make two commitments at the league level while also hosting other media availability at the campus level. This is handled differently at each conference. While we strongly believe in the potential and creativity of this partnership, we certainly intend to evaluate and evolve this initiative with the feedback from many groups at the end of the basketball seasons.”