College basketball is the best, but it can also be the worst.
It’s one of few sports in which almost any team could find a way at the end of the season to walk away champions. Every NCAA Division I conference champion punches their ticket to the NCAA tournament, or more commonly known as the Big Dance. It’s that level of fairness and inclusiveness that makes the sport so much fun. Those qualities also make it a sport that is universally loved, you know as well as I do we’ll all be filling out brackets very soon.
Kentucky is my home state, so I was very bewildered when I heard about what is happening to Bellarmine University. Bellarmine beat Jacksonville 77-72 in the Atlantic Sun Championship game, but Jacksonville State (who lost to Jacksonville University in the semi-finals) will be going to the NCAA Tournament, not Bellarmine.
This is because Bellarmine transitioned from a D-II school to a D-I school in 2020 when they joined the A-Sun Conderence. For some reason, the NCAA dictates that teams aren’t allowed to participate in the tournament until their fifth year playing D-I basketball. For this reason Bellarmine doesn’t get to go dancing.
“What happened to Bellarmine was a miscarriage of justice at an extremely high level,” said CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein. “The worst idea I’ve seen since WrestleMania 10.”
This whole situation is crazy and to be honest, I just don’t understand why Bellarmine isn’t heading to the NCAA Tournament in their second year of D-I basketball.
Why Aren’t the Knights Dancing?
The NCAA released a statement in 2011, talking about why teams that transition from D-I to D-II schools have to wait before being eligible to play in the NCAA tournament.
“The resulting structure will ensure that reclassifying members are committed to the D-I philosophy and operating principles,” the NCAA statement reads. “In addition, this legislation will increase the likelihood that such institutions will operate successful, competitive programs at the D-I level.”
That is insanity.
I fully understand that most teams that transition from D-II to D-I would struggle to keep up with the competition and would need time to upgrade their rosters. That clearly is not the case for Bellarmine.
It wasn’t a fluke that they won the A-Sun tournament, they earned the No. 2 seed in their conference tournament after amassing an 11-5 record in conference play. They also won 20 games this season, having a 20-13 overall record.
None of that matters though because they haven’t been D-I long enough. Instead, Jacksonville State will head to the Big Dance because they won the regular-season championship. JSU lost to JU in the semifinals.
My Thoughts
Bellarmine should be playing in their first NCAA Tournament next week. They are clearly ready and not being allowed to participate goes against what college basketball is.
It is truly just very disappointing. Bellarmine is a team that plays very solid basketball and played an insane out-of-conference schedule. That schedule featured Purdue, Murray State, St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, and UCLA; teams that are all ranked in the top-25 during conference championship week.
I’m disappointed that another university from the great state of Kentucky won’t get to partake in the NCAA tournament. Kentucky is a state that is rich with college basketball history and tradition and it seems Bellarmine is adding to that.
They won their tournament in their second year in the A-Sun, their second year in D-I, and on their home court. That is awesome.
After that great moment, they should have been headed to the NCAA Tournament, but the NCAA rules deny that. What about the National Invitation Tournament? Nope.
I think the team summed the whole situation up perfectly with the statement they made on Twitter.
The internet of course found out about the situation and social media sites like Twitter were on fire. Users from all over were calling for the NCAA to allow Bellarmine to play in the tournament. As many of us know, peer pressure will not sway the NCAA.
Bellarmine could have had a Cinderella story this March, but we will unfortunately never know and that honestly makes me really sad.
This whole situation is madness, March Madness.
