[Photo: 2017 Princeton Men's B-Ball Champs / NJ.com]

Welcome to the now all-inclusive NCAA MARCH MADNESS!

It may have taken many years, but the Ivy League Conference finally caught March Madness fever. It held its first-ever conference championship, with the spoils going to pre-tourney favorite Princeton University. Yale proved a worthy opponent, beating Harvard to get into the conference finals. While Yale will not be going to the Big Dance (NCAA’s), perhaps it will be selected for the lower-tiered NIT Tournament.

The 2017 post-season tournament was played at the Palestra, U. of P’s home court in Philadelphia, and, according to Bloomberg, the Ivy League made some money along the way. The conference signed a TV deal with ESPN and it signed up its first league-wide corporate sponsor in recent memory. And (will miracles never cease?), this comes less than a year after the Ivy League agreed to a Friday night football package with NBC Sports – breaking from its traditional Saturday-only schedule.

By the way ....  Yale recently signed a 10-year deal with Under Armour worth about the same per year as some Big Ten schools got from Nike. "Boola Boola."