SWAC finally decides on basketball bracket

MONTGOMERY, Alabama  -- After a week of waiting on a decision from the NCAA, Southwestern Athletic Conference officials announced that all 10 teams would participate in the 2014 conference tournament despite the fact that four teams are barred from NCAA tournament play because of poor Academic Progress Rates.

In the past, the conference barred those teams from participating in the conference tournament, which earns the winner an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Last year, only seven men’s teams competed in the tournament, which was held in Garland, Texas.

This year, at the insistence of SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp, a teleconference that included the presidents of the 10 teams in the conference voted on whether to include the ineligible teams along with the six eligible teams. The presidents voted 8-2 to include the teams, with Alabama State president Gwendolyn Boyd and Jackson State president Carolyn Meyers voting to exclude Southern, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling and Mississippi Valley State from the tournament.

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