PRINCETON, N.J. – The Ivy League men's basketball season tips off today, Monday, November 2, with seven teams taking the court.

Coming off its first Ivy League Tournament title since 2018, Penn enters the season as the preseason favorite after receiving 11 first-place votes and 157 points in the league's preseason media poll. Harvard (146 points), Yale (133) and Princeton (97) rounded out the top four, while Cornell (82), Columbia (69), Brown (42) and Dartmouth (30) completed the poll.

The Quakers, led by second-year head coach Fran McCaffery, return unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection TJ Power, who averaged 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season. Penn captured the Ivy League Tournament title with a pair of overtime victories to secure its first NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years.

Harvard enters the season picked second after receiving seven first-place votes. The Crimson return unanimous First Team All-Ivy guard Robert Hinton, who averaged 16.8 points per game last season, alongside Second Team All-Ivy selection Thomas Batties II. After finishing as the regular season runner-up last season, the Crimson hope to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.

Defending Ivy League regular season champion Yale was selected third in the preseason poll, receiving two first-place votes. The Bulldogs return Trevor Mullin and Riley Fox, who each averaged double figures in scoring last season.

Princeton rounds out the preseason top four after returning its entire roster from a season ago. Led by head coach Mitch Henderson, Princeton received one first-place vote in the preseason poll.

Cornell, which has reached each of the last five Ivy League Tournaments, was picked fifth under head coach Jon Jaques. Columbia enters its second season under Kevin Hovde after posting 16 overall victories a season ago, while Brown and Dartmouth begin new eras under first-year head coaches Eric Reveno and Brett MacConnell, respectively.

The league continues to establish itself on the national stage, having earned eight NCAA Tournament victories since 2010, including two Sweet 16 appearances.

The road to Ivy Madness begins Monday with seven games across the league. Princeton opens the season at home against Carnegie Mellon at 4 p.m., followed by Cornell hosting Pepperdine at 6 p.m. Brown welcomes New Hampshire, Yale hosts Howard, Columbia takes on Elon and Harvard faces MIT, with all four contests scheduled for 7 p.m. Dartmouth will also tip off at 7 p.m., traveling to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to face Marist.

The 2026-27 season will culminate at Ivy Madness, March 12-14, at The Palestra in Philadelphia, as the historic venue celebrates its 100^th anniversary. The top four teams in the regular season standings will qualify for the tournament and compete for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.