University of Connecticut Athletics
St. John's University to Miss 2005
1/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STORRS, CT-- In a brief to member schools Monday, January 3, The BIG EAST Conference reaffirmed its current policy of not allowing teams who are ineligible for NCAA participation to participate in the conference championship.
On November 26, St. John's University announced that it would self-impose an NCAA Tournament ban on its men's basketball program for the 2004-05 season, therefore making the Red Storm ineligible for the 2005 BIG EAST Championship as well.
The exclusion of St. John’s impacts the tournament bracket.
Now, only 11 teams will be participating in the tournament, which takes place from March 9-12 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Five teams, instead of four, will receive first-round byes. The Wednesday afternoon session, March 9, will now include only one game, the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed. The remainder of the tournament sessions remain unchanged.
With the change in tournament format, the BIG EAST has requested that any all-session ticket package holders with a desire to cancel their order send a letter requesting a full refund to: Ticket Manager, University of Connecticut Ticket Office, 2095 Hillside Road, Unit 3078, Storrs, CT 06269 no later than February 1. UConn will be happy to provide patrons with a complete and full refund of $245.00 per package. Patrons with no desire to alter their tournament ticket request need take no action and it will be processed based on our normal practices.
