It’s been a really good summer for Georgia State athletics. Not only did the spring sports end their seasons on high notes, but with the recent announcement that the Panthers will be part of the Sun Belt Conference, the program is headed in the right direction.
That said, there has to be some bad news with the good.
Last week, the Colonial Athletic Association announced the Panthers will not be allowed to participate in any postseason tournaments next year. The vote was taken by the conference’s presidents during a meeting two weeks ago. This is not a surprise to anyone because this reinforces a CAA bylaw. The sports that will be affected by this are basketball, baseball, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, softball, tennis, soccer and volleyball.
Because the Panthers are banned from conference tournaments, they can’t get automatic bids to NCAA tournaments. However, they can reach as an at-large bid which has happened before to five CAA teams in basketball. The other option, and probably the easiest, is the Panthers join the Sun Belt conference for this season for every sport except football, which will automatically put them in postseason play.
“When I meet with the players tonight I have to explain this to them,” men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter told the AJC shortly after the ruling came down. “The older guys will understand. The younger guys, they are going to ask ‘What did we do wrong?’ They didn’t do anything wrong.”
MAKING THE GRADE …
The CAA will not only miss a great athletic program in Georgia State, they will also miss a great academic program as well. The men’s basketball team got an APR score of 971 which is 25 points higher than last year. Georgia State did not get a score for football because it did not field a team in all four seasons covered by the report that was released last week.
The APR, which stands for Academic Progress Rate, is released every year and if a team scores 925 or lower, scholarships can be taken away.
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