Princeton’s Improbable Ivy Dominance

After seeing PAW’s chart of Princeton’s Ivy League titles since 2015–16, I asked ChatGPT to help put the record in perspective. And, as per the “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info” disclaimer, thankfully PAW managing editor Brett Tomlinson provided a backstop to our first draft.

The chart shows 126 regular-season Ivy titles: 77 in women’s sports and 49 in men’s. Across 16 women’s sports and 17 men’s sports over the 10 seasons shown, that’s 330 sport-season opportunities. If each of the eight Ivy schools had an equal, independent chance to win each title, Princeton would expect about 41.

Instead, Princeton won 126 — more than three times that number. Under this deliberately simple model, the odds of winning at least that many are roughly 1 in 3.58 × 10^31, or “effectively zero.”

Of course, college teams aren’t randomly assigned their strengths — and, of course, Yale sucks. But the comparison captures the breadth and consistency of Princeton’s success.

From a former lightweight crewbie and rugby player: Go Tigers!