{"id":151081,"date":"2026-09-16T17:51:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151081"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:51:56","slug":"ivy-madness-heads-to-ppl-center-beginning-in-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151081","title":{"rendered":"IVY MADNESS HEADS TO PPL CENTER BEGINNING IN 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRINCETON, N.J.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The Ivy League will bring the excitement of Ivy Madness to the Lehigh Valley beginning in 2028, as the league announced today a three-year agreement for its annual men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball tournaments to be held at\u00a0PPL Center in Allentown, Pa.<\/p>\n

The agreement will make PPL Center the home of Ivy Madness in\u00a02028, 2029 and 2030 \u2014 bringing an event that showcases the top four men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams in the league together to compete for the league\u2019s automatic berths into the NCAA Division I Basketball Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly excited to bring Ivy Madness to PPL Center and the surrounding communities beginning in 2028,\u201d Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIvy Madness has grown into an incredible celebration of our student-athletes, institutions and the competitive excellence of Ivy League basketball. PPL Center provides a first-class venue, a vibrant downtown setting and a location that is accessible to so many of our alumni and fans. We believe this partnership creates an exciting opportunity to continue elevating the championship experience for our student-athletes and Ivy League basketball overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPPL Center is thrilled to welcome Ivy Madness to the Lehigh Valley. As a hub for our community, we take pride in hosting a diverse range of events that bring people together. Ivy Madness is an exciting new addition to our calendar, offering a great experience for local fans while also welcoming visitors from across the region,\u201d said Rob and Jim Brooks, co-owners of PPL Center.<\/p>\n

Located in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, PPL Center provides Ivy Madness with a premier arena setting and a centralized location within the league\u2019s geographic footprint. The state-of-the-art venue is home to the American Hockey League\u2019s Lehigh Valley Phantoms and has hosted a wide range of major sporting and entertainment events, including NCAA championship competition.<\/p>\n

The move comes during a period of significant national success and momentum for Ivy League basketball. On the women\u2019s side, the league has established itself as one of the strongest conferences in the country, consistently producing nationally ranked teams, several years with multiple bids into the NCAA Tournaments and multiple WNBA draft selections. Ivy League men\u2019s basketball has similarly maintained a strong national profile, winning eight games in the NCAA Tournament since 2010 while producing a variety of NBA talent in the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

Together, that competitive success has helped Ivy Madness continue to grow as a signature championship event on the league\u2019s annual calendar.<\/p>\n

The 2027 version of Ivy Madness will be held at the historic Palestra as part of the venue\u2019s 100th anniversary celebration before the event begins its run at PPL Center in 2028.<\/p>\n

Additional information regarding the 2028 Ivy Madness schedule, tickets, fan events, hotel accommodations and other championship-weekend activities will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE IVY LEAGUE
\n<\/strong>The Ivy League stands at the pinnacle of higher education and Division I athletics, rooted in the longstanding, defining principle that intercollegiate athletics competition should be \u201ckept in harmony with the essential educational purposes of the institution.\u201d Unrivaled in its legacy, the Ivy League provides the true test of academic and co-curricular rigor \u2013 fostering an enduring culture that celebrates a storied-tradition, thrives on shared values and holds paramount the academic and personal growth of students.<\/p>\n

Consistently ranked as the top academic conference and with more national championships than any other collegiate athletic conference, The Ivy League showcased over 240 nationally ranked programs over the past three years and prides itself on sponsoring 34 sports, the highest number of any NCAA conference, with more than 8,000 student-athletes competing annually. The League\u2019s world-renowned schools \u2013 Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale \u2013 serve as the standard bearers for inspiring and transforming student- athletes to boldly take on the world\u2019s challenges and lead lives of great impact.<\/p>\n

ABOUT PPL CENTER
\n<\/strong>The state-of-the-art PPL Center opened in September of 2014 bringing hockey, entertainment, and community events to the heart of the Lehigh Valley region and serving as the anchor and main catalyst to the revitalization and growth of downtown Allentown, the third largest City in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The arena seats more than 10,000 for concerts and more than 8,500 for Lehigh Valley Phantoms professional hockey games and Lehigh Valley Spirits professional indoor soccer games, making it the region\u2019s largest events venue. The PPL Center has been nominated Internationally by Pollstar Magazine as best new major concert venue and has locally won best concert venue and best live music venue by Lehigh Valley Style and The Morning Call Reader\u2019s Choice Awards.<\/p>\n

The amenities-packed PPL Center offers something for everyone, including Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the NHL Philadelphia Flyers, Lehigh Valley Spirits, a new MASL team, live concerts, family shows, trade shows, youth sports, high school and collegiate events, conferences, graduations and many more.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Phantoms and Spirits, the PPL Center has hosted many high-profile sports and entertainment events. Please visit phantomshockey.com<\/a>, lvspirits.com<\/a>, and pplcenter.com<\/a> for more information and upcoming events.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPPL Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRINCETON, N.J.\u00a0\u2014 The Ivy League will bring the excitement of Ivy Madness to the Lehigh Valley beginning in 2028, as the league announced today a three-year agreement for its annual men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball tournaments to be held at\u00a0PPL Center in Allentown, Pa. The agreement will make PPL Center the home of Ivy Madness in\u00a02028, … Continue reading IVY MADNESS HEADS TO PPL CENTER BEGINNING IN 2028<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ppl-center.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151082,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151081\/revisions\/151082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/100311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}