The Ivy League is an athletic conference composed of sports teams from eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The most academically competitive conference in the U.S., all eight of the member schools are ECS representatives.

The Ivies have been competing in sports as long as intercollegiate sports have existed in the United States. Entry into a Ivy League school is highly competitive. Although NCCA Division 1, none of the schools offer athletic scholarships. In spite of the lack of athletic scholarships, because of its prestige, the Ivy attracts some of the top athletic talent in the world.

Athletic prospects for Ivy League schools must meet a certain “Academic Index” for entry, the AI provides prospective high school recruits a number, roughly from 170 to 240, that summarizes their high school grade-point averages and scores on standardized tests like the SAT. In turn, the index of each admitted recruit is shared among the member institutions to ensure that no vastly under qualified recruit has been admitted at a rival institution. The New York Times provided the following chart for determining a prospects AI (click here). The article reports that the AI floor is approximately 176, which roughly translates to a B student (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) with a score of 1140 on the old two-part SAT. However, the AI is just one component used by admissions for athletes. Click here to read an insightful article on Ivy League recruiting. For more information on Ivy League recruiting process, we recommend this book.

The eight Ivy League institutions are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.