Horizon League bars Illinois-Chicago from basketball tournaments weeks before postseason begins
Men's and women's basketball players at the University of Illinois-Chicago found out Wednesday they're barred from postseason play with less than a month to go in their regular seasons.
The Horizon League announced Wednesday that UIC's athletic teams had been barred from postseason tournaments because the school is moving to the Missouri Valley Conference at the end of the school year. The ban means that UIC's basketball teams are ineligible for the automatic NCAA tournament berth that goes to the winner of the Horizon League tournament.
When UIC announced its intent to leave the Horizon League at the end of the 2021-22 season, UIC chose not to comply with the League’s Bylaw requiring that written notice of such intention must be received on or before July 1 one year before the withdrawal date. In this instance, UIC needed to provide notice before July 1, 2022 and remain a member until July 1, 2023 to be in compliance with League Bylaws and preserve 2022 championship opportunities for UIC teams.
The Board is comprised of presidents and chancellors from institutions that have committed to uphold League Bylaws. Those Bylaws provide the same choice to any member institution that wishes to terminate its membership. It is unfortunate for UIC’s teams that UIC elected a path that precludes their participation in championship play and the opportunity to represent the Horizon League in NCAA competition. But this was an informed choice under a longstanding rule.
The Horizon League's decision comes after the America East Conference announced last week that Stony Brook's teams would be barred from its postseason tournaments. Stony Brook is leaving for the Colonial Athletic Association at the end of the season.
New Sun Belt member James Madison saw its sports barred from postseason play by the CAA in November after it announced it was leaving the conference to make the jump to the Sun Belt and the top level of college football.
UIC said in a statement that it was "outraged" at the Horizon League's decision and it "now intends to aggressively pursue all avenues to enable its student-athletes to fully participate in their 2022 winter and spring seasons."
#UIC Athletics Statement on @HorizonLeague Decision
to Expel Flames Student-Athletes from Conference Championships.
➡️ https://t.co/NVjSSzFNVP#DontBlameTheFlame | #FireUpFlames pic.twitter.com/Y2Rhfl2Oaa— UIC FL🔥MES ATHLETICS (@uicflames) February 9, 2022
Barring teams from tournaments punishes players
The Horizon League and others who have made similar decisions have tried to hide behind the facade of collaborative conference bylaws in their decisions to ban teams from playing in postseason tournaments. It's a weak excuse, especially when the NCAA and its member schools claim to be first and foremost about the welfare of their athletes.
Both UIC teams are below .500 in conference play, so it's unlikely that either would make the NCAA tournament through the conference tournament. And neither team is making the tournament as an at-large. But conference tournaments are intriguing because of the possibility of a Cinderella run to the NCAA tournament for a lower-seeded team. They're a fresh slate for every team across college basketball to get hot for a few days and make an improbable postseason appearance.
And telling the men's and women's teams at UIC that postseason play is off the table with seven games to go is needlessly cruel. The players have nothing to do with their school's decision to move conferences. If administrators across the Horizon League and other conferences want to enact some sort of sanctions on the administrators at schools that choose to depart, they should figure out a way to do so. But sanctioning the departing schools by penalizing the athletes is another sign of how selfish those running college athletics can be.
