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Southern working to avoid NCAA postseason ban over academic progress data

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With just a couple weeks remaining in the regular season, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is in danger of having its regular season champion ineligible for postseason play for the second consecutive season.

Last week it was revealed that Southern, which currently leads the conference and reached the NCAA tournament a season ago, has been declared ineligible for postseason play after the Data Collection and Reporting Subcommittee of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Performance found that unusable data was submitted by the school.

Southern was given a deadline to resubmit the proper data, and on Thursday it was reported that the school still has a “significant amount of work to do” in its quest to get the men’s and women’s basketball teams ruled eligible to compete in postseason play.

“The data were incomplete, inaccurate and the school could not produce documentation to verify the information it submitted,” continued Michelle Brutlag Hosick, the NCAA’s associate director of public and media relations. “A significant amount of work must be completed before NCAA postseason eligibility can be restored.

“The data review process is a collaborative one that requires a school to supply quality, accurate documentation that follows the school’s internal policies and procedures. Often, these requirements are not met initially, and deadlines and requests must be revised to allow the school additional time to fulfill the requests fully and accurately.”


The men’s team is 11-2 in conference play and currently leads the SWAC by two games in the loss column with five games remaining. As for the women’s team they’re tied with Texas Southern in the loss column, although the Lady Jaguars are 12-1 in SWAC play with the Lady Tigers having 11 SWAC wins.

In the men’s tournament last season Texas Southern was declared ineligible due to an unsatisfactory Academic Progress Rate, and Southern went on to earn the SWAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

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