Three years ago, Bellarmine won the Atlantic Sun conference tournament and cut down the nets in just their second season as a member of Division-I. The Knights’ victory resulted in Jacksonville State — a team which was defeated in the tournament semifinals — advancing to the NCAA tournament.
Two years ago, Merrimack won both the Northeast Conference’s regular season and tournament titles. A team that finished two games below them in the final league standings and which lost to them in the tournament title game was able to go on and achieve March Madness immortality by stunning top-seeded Purdue in the first round of the NCAA tournament a few weeks later.
Why did both of these things happen? Because sometimes the NCAA decides to stand by the dumbest rules imaginable and there’s simply nothing anybody can do about it.
So dumb. So, so sooooo dumb.
Here’s the full list of teams that were excluded from the madness before it even got started:
West Georgia, Atlantic Sun (transitioning to D-I)
Queens, Atlantic Sun (transitioning to D-I)
Mercyhurst, Northeast (transitioning to D-I)
Le Moyne, Northeast (transitioning to D-I)
Stonehill, Northeast (transitioning to D-I)
Lindenwood, Ohio Valley (transitioning to D-I)
Southern Indiana, Ohio Valley (transitioning to D-I)
East Texas A&M, Southland (transitioning to D-I)
St. Thomas, Summit League (transitioning to D-I)
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