Why is it called an Ivy League school?

No one is exactly sure where the name Ivy League originated. ... Some theorize that Ivy is actually a misnomer and the league was originally called the IV League because it consisted of four schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. read more

The Ivy League is a football league. They are some of the best schools in the country, but they are the schools that had top football teams when the Ivy League was formed. That's why they don't include west coast schools (such as Stanford) or schools without big football teams (such as MIT or CalTech). read more

Some theorize that Ivy is actually a misnomer and the league was originally called the IV League because it consisted of four schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. There is little evidence to ever support this being a term people actually used, Daniell said. read more