The Ivy League enters 2026-27 with its usual continuity, and another year that will bring fireworks at the top with a few of the country’s top mid-major programs. Princeton won the Ivy League tournament last year under a head coach who has since left, and one of her assistants now leads the program. Columbia has the league’s best player back, Harvard has the Rookie of the Year, and Brown has to replace almost its entire rotation. Could the Ivy League end up looking like it did last year?
The Big Picture
The top of the league is crowded once again, and the bottom has real questions. Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and Penn each return their best two or three scorers, and the order among them will likely come down to who replaces the one or two starters each lost. Princeton lost the most individual production, but it kept four of its five starters. Columbia lost its Defensive Player of the Year and its second and third-leading scorers but kept Riley Weiss, who averaged 20.1 points. Harvard lost three seniors from its rotation but has its Rookie of the Year returning, and Penn lost two starters but kept its two best scorers.
Further down the standings, Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth were all young last year and all return most of what they had. Brown, however, is the opposite case. The Bears finished fourth and played in the Ivy Tournament semifinals, then lost both All-Ivy players and two other starters. Where the middle teams finish will depend on how much the sophomores and juniors from last year’s bottom three improve, and I think that group is a bigger storyline this year than the top four. Three of the league’s eight teams won a combined eight Ivy games last year, and all three have most of their rosters back.
Skim Milkey’s Predicted 2026-27 Order of Finish
1 - Princeton
2 - Columbia
3 - Harvard
4 - Penn
5 - Yale
6 - Cornell
7 - Brown
8 - Dartmouth
Skim Milkey’s Preseason All-Ivy Team
Fliss Henderson, G, Columbia
Riley Weiss, G, Columbia
Rachel Kaus, G, Cornell
Abigail Wright, F, Harvard
Karlee White, G, Harvard
Olivia Jones, G, Harvard
Katie Collins, F, Penn
Mataya Gayle, G, Penn
Tina Njike, C, Penn
Ashley Chea, G, Princeton
Fadima Tall, F, Princeton
Olivia Hutcherson, G, Princeton
Skye Belker, G, Princeton
Ciniya Moore, G, Yale
Luisa Vydrova, F, Yale
Princeton
Record: 26-4, 12-2 Ivy (1st, NCAA Tournament appearance)
Coach: Lauren Gosselin, 1st season, 0-0
Princeton beat Brown 65-51 in the semifinals and Harvard 63-53 in the final to win the Ivy Tournament, then lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Carla Berube left after seven seasons, and Gosselin, an associate coach on that staff, was promoted to replace her. The one major loss on the floor is Madison St. Rose, a first-team All-Ivy guard who averaged 15.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists. Taylor Charles, a senior who averaged 2.3 points and 3.4 rebounds off the bench, is also gone. Charles was a role player, but St. Rose’s 15.8 points a game is the biggest hole on the roster, and no one on it obviously fills that on her own.
Four of the five starters are back. Fadima Tall made the All-Ivy second team after averaging 13.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.5 steals, and Skye Belker joined her there at 12.9 points and 2.7 assists while shooting 43 percent from three. Olivia Hutcherson started all 30 games and averaged 11.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.6 steals. Ashley Chea started 29 and averaged 10.1 points and a team-high 3.8 assists. Toby Nweke gave the team 5.8 points in 21.8 minutes off the bench and returns as the first reserve. Emily Eadie, Sarah Lessig, and Grace O’Sullivan each played a reserve role, and Cristina Parrella is back. That’s a lot of continuity for a team changing head coaches.
Gosselin adds four freshmen, Ava Yoon, Sarah Aldeguer, Mei-Ling Perry, and Eva Smith, and senior guard Mari Bickley returns after leaving the team during the 2024-25 season. None of the freshmen have played minutes at the college level, so the question is whether any can fill the minutes St. Rose left at guard. Bickley’s return will be a big boost to the team and a welcome sight. Gosselin spent six seasons on this staff, so the returners already know her, which matters more than usual for a first-year head coach.
I have Princeton first because four players who combined for about 47 points a game are back, and all four earned All-Ivy recognition. No other team returns that much. The hole to fill is the one left by St. Rose, and no one on the roster has played a role like that before. Tall’s 2.5 steals and 7.4 rebounds give Princeton a defender who can help offset mistakes, and Belker shot 43 percent from three, so the floor will continue to stay spaced. The coaching change worries me less than the scoring one, since it’s a familiar coach at the helm. If Chea or Nweke take a big step forward, or Bickley returns and plays well, I think the Tigers win the league again.
Players to watch: Fadima Tall, Skye Belker, Olivia Hutcherson, Toby Nweke
Columbia
Record: 25-8, 11-3 Ivy (2nd, WBIT champion)
Coach: Megan Griffith, 11th season, 171-99
Columbia earned the #2 seed but lost its Ivy Tournament semifinal to Harvard, 67-65 in overtime, then won the WBIT, beating BYU 81-64 in the championship game. The Lions lost two starters from that team, both seniors. Perri Page was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team selection after averaging 14.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.5 steals. Susie Rafiu started 31 games and averaged 9.1 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Riley Weiss is the reason Columbia is second in this preview. She was the Ivy League Player of the Year, averaged 20.1 points, and shot 38 percent from three in her 33 starts. Fliss Henderson earned an All-Ivy honorable mention, averaging 6.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 29 minutes a game. Mia Broom averaged 8.2 points and 2.8 assists and shot 36 percent from three, and Marija Avlijas added 6.1 points and 2.7 assists as a starter in 26 games. Nasi Simmons, who averaged 3.8 points and 1.5 steals, along with Hilke Feldrappe, Marta Jaama, Blau Tor, Eirny Erinugha, and Alicia Mitchell, return as depth. I keep coming back to Henderson’s line because her overall stat line in 29 minutes is the kind of glue every contender needs.
The newcomers include Mary Ashley Stevenson, who played 35 games at Stanford and averaged 2.0 points and 2.9 rebounds in 12.1 minutes, and freshmen Mathis Dritz, Chloe Vella, and Chloe Dix. Stevenson is most likely to help right away on the interior, where Page and Rafiu leave a rebounding hole. Her numbers at Stanford were modest last year, but she has more experience at Purdue from the season prior, and that experience counts for something here.
Weiss averaged 20.1 points a game, and the next returning scorer is Broom at 8.2, so Columbia’s offense is Weiss, then everyone else. Princeton has four returners who scored 10 points a game or more, and that gap is why the Lions are second. Page and Rafiu combined for 23.7 points and 12.2 rebounds, and that is a large gap to fill, at least early on. Henderson can handle a lot of positions, but she can’t cover for both of them. The WBIT run is what keeps me from dropping them. Columbia won five straight, including 86-57 at top-seeded North Dakota State and 74-68 at Cal. If Weiss is as good again and Broom or Avlijas takes a step, Columbia can contend for the title. If opponents can limit her, there isn’t as much scoring behind her as there is at Princeton.
Players to watch: Riley Weiss, Fliss Henderson, Mia Broom, Mary Ashley Stevenson
Harvard
Record: 20-12, 10-4 Ivy (3rd, WBIT appearance)
Coach: Carrie Moore, 5th season, 80-41
Harvard entered as the #3 seed, beat second-seeded Columbia 67-65 in overtime in the semifinals, then lost 63-53 to Princeton in the championship game. Harvard won two WBIT games and lost 64-61 at Wisconsin in the quarterfinals. The Crimson lost three seniors from the rotation. Saniyah Glenn averaged 11.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.3 blocks; Katie Krupa started 32 games and averaged 7.7 points and 2.9 assists; and Gabby Anderson averaged 4.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in nine starts. Glenn and Krupa gave the Crimson plenty of ball-handling and a reliable second and third option behind White and Wright, and that’s what Harvard has to rebuild.
The two best players are back. Karlee White made the All-Ivy first team, averaging 15.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals while shooting 46 percent from three. Abigail Wright made the second team, averaging 13.3 points and 6.3 rebounds, and started all 32 games. Olivia Jones was the league’s Rookie of the Year, averaging 6.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.6 steals, and she started 17 games. Nina Emnace averaged 3.6 points with seven starts; Alayna Rocco and Mary Hollensteiner each averaged 3.8 points; Aubrey Shaw averaged 2.1 points; and Lydia Chatira, Asani Ceaser, Hana Belibi, Maya Nahar, Ava Krumwiede, and Sam Wills are all back. Most of that second group played small roles last year, so roster depth doesn’t necessarily mean rotation depth.
Harvard has three freshmen in Sierra Woolhouse, Adyra Rajan, and Sophie Smith. With Glenn and Krupa gone, one or two of them will probably have to earn rotation minutes at guard. None of them has played a college game, and the Ivy isn’t an easy place to learn on the fly in January and February.
White, Wright, and Jones combined for 34.4 points a game, and Jones is only a sophomore, so I like Harvard’s top end as much as anyone else’s, except Princeton. I put them behind Columbia because of everything else. Glenn, Krupa, and Anderson accounted for about 23 points, and no returner outside the top three averaged more than 3.8 points per game. Krupa also played 30 minutes a game at forward, and someone has to fill those minutes. If Jones jumps from 6.1 points a game, or one of the freshmen steps in at guard and plays great minutes, Harvard can finish higher than third.
Players to watch: Karlee White, Abigail Wright, Olivia Jones, Nina Emnace
Penn
Record: 17-10, 7-7 Ivy (5th)
Coach: Mike McLaughlin, 18th season, 275-185 (32nd overall, 682-246)
Penn finished at .500 in league play and missed the four-team tournament. The Quakers lost two seniors who started most of the year. Simone Sawyer averaged 12.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.6 steals, and Saniah Caldwell started 22 games and averaged 5.9 points and 3.2 assists. Penn needs a third scorer alongside Collins and Gayle, and it needs someone to replace Caldwell’s assists.
The core that remains is good. Katie Collins made the All-Ivy second team as a sophomore, averaging 12.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks in 35.8 minutes a game. Mataya Gayle earned honorable mention with 12.5 points, 4.5 assists, and 1.9 steals. Tina Njike started all 25 games, playing just 23.3 minutes, and averaged 8.9 points and 6.3 rebounds. Brooke Sutle scored 5.2 points and grabbed 3.7 rebounds as a sixth player, and Gabriella Kelley, Ashna Tambe, Abby Sharpe, and Ese Ogbevire returned as reserves. Njike scored almost nine points in 23 minutes, one of the better efficiency numbers on the roster, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her minutes rise.
Penn added two transfers, Candice Lienafa, who averaged 4.8 points and 2.9 rebounds in 33 games at Davidson, and Christina Pham, who averaged 5.1 points in 28 games at Fairfield. The freshman class has Madison Kocis, Jayah Curtis, Ava Jones, and Rachel Thatcher. Sophomores Ari Paraskevopoulou and Kate Lipatova are also on the roster after playing sparingly last year. Lienafa and Pham both played regular minutes at their old schools, which is what a team that lost two starters needs.
Collins, Gayle, and Njike combined for 34 points a game, a strong core. The problem is behind them. Collins already played 35.8 minutes a game last year, so there’s little room to ask for more. Lienafa and Pham have experience, but they have to show they can handle bigger roles. I have Penn fourth because the top three are better, not because I think the Quakers fall off. McLaughlin has been at Penn since 2009, so I don’t expect a collapse. I want to see the bench produce before I move them up.
Players to watch: Katie Collins, Mataya Gayle, Tina Njike, Christina Pham
Yale
Record: 7-20, 3-11 Ivy (7th)
Coach: Dalila Eshe, 5th season, 32-76
Yale won three Ivy games last season, but most of the roster was young, and almost all of it is back. The lone loss from the rotation is Kiley Capstraw, a senior forward who started 25 games and averaged 8.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. A forward who gave you nearly four assists a game isn’t an easy piece to replace.
Ciniya Moore is the best returner, with 17.4 points per game as a sophomore and an All-Ivy honorable mention. Luisa Vydrova averaged 10.6 points and shot 49 percent from three. Marisa Chapman averaged 8.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in 23 starts. Mary Meng played 16 of the 27 games and averaged 6.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks. Ke’iara Odume averaged 5.2 points, Dora Kastl averaged 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 16 games, and Ana Guillen, Olivia Kim, Magdalena Schmidt, Sophia Gibson, and Hannah Wasserman also return. That’s a long list, and it shows how many minutes Yale has already invested in these players.
Yale added Cloe Vecina, who played 27 games for Oregon State and scored 1.4 points per contest, and freshmen Lea Vukic, Kasey Davey, Helena Keane, Maddie Smith, and Katie Diao. Vecina is the lone transfer and had a small role at Oregon State so I wouldn’t expect much impact from her early on. Lucy Lynn, a senior guard, and Radhika Garapaty, a sophomore guard, also return after not playing last season.
Moore scored 17.4 a game, and Vydrova shot 49 percent from three, so Yale has the scoring to hang with anyone for a bit. The record doesn’t show how thin their interior was last year. Meng and Kastl blocked 4.7 shots a game, combined, but each played only 16 games, and Yale won three league games. If both stay on the floor, I think Yale has real rim protection. Capstraw’s 3.9 assists have to come from somewhere, and Vydrova and Chapman, who each averaged about two, are the next best returning passers. Yale isn’t a top-four team yet; a 3-11 team needs more than one year of growth, but I have them fifth because they should be able to score, and almost everyone is back.
Players to watch: Ciniya Moore, Luisa Vydrova, Mary Meng, Marisa Chapman
Cornell
Record: 9-18, 4-10 Ivy (6th)
Coach: Emily Garner, 3rd season, 16-38 (11th overall, 140-93)
Cornell lost forward Emily Pape, who started 26 games and averaged 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.3 steals. No one else who played significant minutes is gone aside from Vivienne Knee, a reserve who averaged 0.5 points. Losing one starter and no one else who played much is a good situation for a team that finished sixth.
Rachel Kaus led the team with 11.5 points, added 4.9 rebounds, and shot 36 percent from three. Clarke Jackson averaged 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds in 25 starts. Paige Engels averaged 5.9 points and 2.8 assists in 20 starts, and Kelsey Langston played 34.3 minutes a game as the starting point guard, averaging 3.1 points and 3.4 assists. Audrey Chen averaged 4.4 points off the bench.
Trinity Jones, Ally Pape, Grace Renners, Willa Chinn, Ashley Childers, and Alana Andrews are all back, and many were freshmen. The freshman class has Rhylin Fehrenbach, Emma O’Brien, Katie Leonard, Simone Richmond, and Brooke Nunnally-Gardner.
Cornell has a deep guard group and no post. Pape scored 10.5 points and grabbed 5.1 rebounds in 26 starts, and the only returning forwards, Renners and Childers, averaged 2.5 and 0.9 points. Kaus, Jackson, and Engels are good players, but they’re all guards, and that makes Cornell small. Ally Pape and Renners both played 25 or more games as freshmen, giving the Big Red more continuity than most teams around them. I have Cornell sixth because of the hole inside. If one of the freshman forwards, O’Brien or Nunnally-Gardner, can play right away, they could move up.
Players to watch: Rachel Kaus, Clarke Jackson, Paige Engels, Ally Pape
Brown
Record: 16-11, 8-6 Ivy (4th)
Coach: Monique LeBlanc, 7th season, 61-72 (16th overall, 190-193)
Brown lost to Princeton 65-51 in the Ivy Tournament semifinals and now has to rebuild around almost nothing. Grace Arnolie was a first-team All-Ivy guard who averaged 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.4 assists. Alyssa Moreland earned second-team honors with 11.5 points and 10.0 rebounds. Ada Anamekwe, who averaged 6.0 points and 4.8 rebounds, Beth Nelson, who started 26 games and averaged 5.8 points, and Mackenzie Leahy are also gone, which is four of the top six scorers. Arnolie and Moreland were the two best players on a team that won eight Ivy games, so this is the top of the roster, not just depth.
Olivia Young is the leading returner at 7.5 points and 4.6 rebounds. Charlotte Adams-Lopez averaged 5.3 points and 2.5 assists as a freshman and started 11 games. Aima Ofunrein had 3.9 points and 3.2 rebounds, and Isabella Wesley averaged 3.4 points in 16.9 minutes off the bench. Monét Witherspoon, Charlotte Climenhage, Lindsay Harzich, Sela Klein, and Morgan Ross also return. Young is a solid player, but she was a role player last year, and none of the other returners listed averaged more than 5.3 points.
Brown has six freshmen: Caitlyn Kramer, Sophia Eastman, Sravya Janapati, Erin Reid, Summer Lee, and Nalah Smith. Gia Powell, a junior guard, didn’t play last season, but she averaged 8.7 points in 21 games with 11 starts in 2024-25 and shot 27.6 percent from three. With that many new players, some will have to play.
I have Brown seventh because the drop-off is the steepest in the league. Arnolie and Moreland combined for 29.5 points and 14.0 rebounds, and the leading returner, Young, scored 7.5. Powell’s 8.7 points in 2024-25 are the best scoring season anyone on the roster has had recently, but she shot 27.6 percent from three and hasn’t played in a year. Adams-Lopez started 11 games as a freshman and averaged 2.5 assists, so Brown at least has a young ball handler. LeBlanc has won 16 games in two of the last three seasons, so I wouldn’t write the Bears off, but I don’t see how they’ll replace 30 points without some freshmen stepping up right away.
Players to watch: Olivia Young, Charlotte Adams-Lopez, Gia Powell, Isabella Wesley
Dartmouth
Record: 10-17, 1-13 Ivy (8th)
Coach: Linda Cimino, 4th season, 25-55 (21st overall, 262-300)
Dartmouth won one Ivy game, and the Big Green lost Nina Minicozzi, who averaged 6.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 22.3 minutes off the bench, along with Clare Meyer, who started 22 games and averaged 4.2 points and 3.6 rebounds. Two other seniors, Brooke Hollawell and Olivia Lawlor, are also off the roster. The Big Green didn’t lose much of their scoring.
Most of the rotation is back. Zeynep Ozel averaged 10.4 points and 3.3 assists as a sophomore point guard. Catherine MacDonald had 8.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 21 starts. Alexandra Eldredge added 7.2 points, and Olivia Austin averaged 6.7 points and 5.4 rebounds, shooting 40 percent from three. Sierra Carson averaged 3.3 points, Debra Hill averaged 3.1 as a freshman, and Tahira Muhammad, Jacalyn Myrthil, and Emma Olausson return too. I would build around Ozel and MacDonald, but Austin shooting 40 percent from three while pulling down 5.4 rebounds is the kind of efficient role the Big Green need more of.
Magda Freire arrives from Queens (NC), where she averaged 7.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 24 games with 12 starts. Maya Shifrin, Anna Beischer, Izzy Cruz, Eve Jungman, and Peyton Hoblock are the freshmen, and Yufei Zou is a sophomore forward. Freire is the one newcomer with college production, and she should play right away.
I still have Dartmouth last because the league record worsened from 2-12 to 1-13, even though I expected improvement last year. Four returners scored between 6.7 and 10.4 points, and none has shown she can be the go-to player against Ivy defenses. Freire’s 7.1 points per game at Queens might change that. Ozel and Austin are juniors now and may take a step, and the Big Green didn’t lose much scoring, so I expect more than one Ivy win. The gap to seventh place is still a big jump, and a 1-13 team has to show it can win in the league before I move it.
Players to watch: Zeynep Ozel, Catherine MacDonald, Olivia Austin, Magda Freire
Ivy League Round-Up
I expect the top four to look much like they did in 2025-26, with Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard separated by very little and Penn close behind. The most interesting questions are in the second half of the standings. Yale and Dartmouth bring back nearly everyone, Cornell loses one starter, and Brown has to start over, so I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the bottom four teams finishes ahead of Penn. Yale is the one I’d watch.
The other thing I would watch is the gap between the top three and everyone else. Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard were the only teams with more than eight league wins last year, and none of them lost their best player. Unless one of them gets injured, I would take the same four teams in the tournament again.
Editor’s Note: Records and conference standings reflect the final 2025-26 Ivy League regular season and postseason. Player stats reflect 2025-26 production, unless noted. All eight rosters have been confirmed against official, live 2026-27 team pages as of October 13th. Coaching and roster notes reflect known offseason moves as of October 13th. Roster additions may shift rosters before the season opens in November and may affect the order as of this writing.
