In two years, Bellarmine’s men’s basketball program has gone from Division II status to ASUN champions, culminating with Tuesday’s 77–72 win over Jacksonville in the ASUN tournament final. Thanks to a specific NCAA rule, though, this year’s team won’t get a ticket to the Big Dance.
The NCAA’s rules require Bellarmine to wait four seasons until they’re eligible for postseason play, which means Tuesday’s championship game was merely a fight for conference bragging rights. With the Knights taking the conference tournament title, the league’s automatic bid for the NCAA tournament goes to regular season champion Jacksonville State, which lost to Jacksonville in the tournament semifinals.
The Gamecocks, unsurprisingly, were thrilled with Tuesday’s outcome.
While the four-year rule no doubt is meant to provide a sort of ramp-up period for nascent Division I programs, Bellarmine has not needed any kind of grace period to get its sea legs. The Knights finished 14–8 with a 10–3 conference mark last season, finishing in second place in the conference. This year, Bellarmine won 20 of its last 28 games after stacking its non-conference schedule with road games against the likes of Purdue, Gonzaga, UCLA, West Virginia, Murray State and Saint Mary’s.
While missing out on going dancing certainly must sting, Bellarmine is well on its way to building toward sustained success at the Division I level. If the program’s current trajectory is any indication, fans should already start making plans for March Madness 2025.
