"If you are a kid that isn't going to go pro, then how can you pass up the Ivy League education?" says Yale Assistant Coach Garry Mantel. "We lost a kid this year to a full ride at Michigan, but we're also recruiting someone who has turned down a lot of big-time offers to play Ivy League basketball. That doesn't happen every day, but it happens enough to make us feel good about our situation."

Another factor attracting players to the Ivy League is that it is the last conference that truly consists solely of student-athletes.

"When they choose an Ivy league school, it's for the right reason," Cormier says.

And that goes for coaches as well as players. Most coaches feel more comfortable in a situation where they can relate to players on an intellectual level, as well as an athletic level.

"I wouldn't trade my position for a place in one of those other conferences," Halas says. "I prefer a situation where a balance between basketball and academics is achieved."

Those factors may be responsible for why the Ivy League does fairly well against schools near the bottom of Division I basketball despite the disadvantages. Not every team is a Duke or an Arizona. In the 1987-88 season, Ivy teams boasted of victories over scholarship schools like New Hampshire, Vermont, Holy Cross, Texas, San Francisco, Rutgers and Seton Hall.

"We did well outside the league against a number of conferences," Cingiser says. "I don't think we are that far from a number of schools that give scholarships, but I think we're going to pull further and further away from them."

The Ivy League already suffers from a lack of basketball respect. The conference champ is always seeded last in its region in the NCAA tourney, partly because it is assumed that the level of competition in the Ivy League is much lower than in other conferences. The result is that the Ivy League champ has to face the very best teams in the nation--the Syracuses, North Carolinas and Arizonas. As long as the Ivy League continues to adhere strictly to the Academic Index and allow top basketball players to be lured away to other schools by scholarships, the League will continue to decline, coaches say.

The alternative is to compromise the purity of study and competition that the Ivy League is supposed to represent. Many presidents and athletic directors strongly oppose a relaxation of academic standards or the awarding of athletic scholarships. But some coaches argue that the purity of the Ivy League has already been lost.

"We are mired down in hypocrisy," Cingiser said. "The Ivy League is supposed to emphasize the importance of participating, not winning. In my seven years as a coach here, there have been 15 coaching changes in the Ivies. Not all, but most were related to the winning thing."

"For a lot of us," he adds, "the expectation is an eight and the tools we have are a five."