After years as the lone holdout among Division I conferences in not holding a postseason basketball tournament, the Ivy League announced Thursday that starting next season its automatic bids to the men’s and women’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournaments would be decided by a season-ending playoff.
The Ivy League tournaments will feature only the top four teams after the full conference season, the eight-team conference said in a statement, and will take place shortly before the N.C.A.A. tournament bracket is released. Next season’s tournament will be at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Penn’s home court, on consecutive days — a Saturday and a Sunday — in March.