UConn Men Still Out of 2013 NCAA Tourney

The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team must now bring its hope of playing in the 2012-13 tournament to the next level.

On Friday, the university announced that its request for a waiver to participate in the 2012-13 offseason. In October, the NCAA changed its standards for team academic performance, and as a result the Husky team learned that, as of now, it cannot participate in next spring’s tournament. (For more details on this read this piece by Dom Amore in The Hartford Courant.)

If the team has any hope of participating in next year’s tournament it must appeal the decision to reject the waiver to the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance’s appeals subcommittee.

In two separate statements today UConn President Susan Herbst said she is “deeply disappointed” with the NCAA’s decision to deny the waiver.

“We continue to believe that we have made a very compelling case in our waiver to the NCAA and we are pleased with the recent outstanding academic success of our men's basketball student-athletes. I want to be clear that during my entire career as a scholar and a teacher, I have been in full support of high academic standards in collegiate athletics. However, in this case, there are good students who could be penalized for the problematic behavior of students who have not been enrolled for years,” Herbst said.

For more from the university president read her open letter to Husky fans on UConn Today.