A couple of items of note:

Eastern Michigan is one of the four "lower tier" teams in the tournament, along with NCA&T, UMBC and NIcholls State. Each of the lower tier teams was supposed to play two games on the road against the upper tier teams (USU, LSU, Rhode Island, North Texas), then play in a four team bracket in Jamaica this weekend. NCA&T and Nicholls, played their two road games, but Eastern Michigan only played North Texas, and obviously should have also played at USU. (Also, it looks like UMBC only played one upper tier team losing to LSU, and URI only got one lower tier game, beating Nicholls.) I've heard that's one reason why our OOC schedule took so long -- the organizers of the Jamaica Classic tried but failed to get EMU (or maybe UMBC?) to live up to its obligation to play at USU, and by the time that effort concluded most other teams had already filled their OOC dance cards. Thus St. Katherines. (I don't know anything, so please correct me if you do )

EMU also won at North Texas, the only lower tier team to steal a win at the upper tier opponent.

OKAggie wrote: ↑

November 20th, 2019, 8:32 am

EMU also won at North Texas, the only lower tier team to steal a win at the upper tier opponent.

First time in history North Texas has been referred to as "upper tier."

This is correct, per Coach Smith, the tournament told schools to hold a couple dates for the games and so USU and others did, and then by the time they announced the games wouldn't be scheduled, literally the only thing USU could do was schedule the sisters of the poor.

I'm sure the committee will be sympathetic to our plight.

It was definitely a major failure on the part of the tournament organizers. The contracts that are signed with these lower division teams should have a clause that they are required to play at 2 upper division teams without the option of opting out. If they refuse to do so then it should result in a fine and being removed from the tournament. The fact that they could just say no and still be included in the tournament is crazy.

Agree, Provo. Easy enough to address in a contract -- and completely unacceptable that it wasn't. There have to be contractual ramifications sufficiently punitive to make it impracticable for a lower-tier team to back out of its obligations.

... like, for instance, paying the freight for the screwee upper tier team to fly in an acceptable replacement for the recalcitrant lower tier breacher.

NVAggie wrote:I'm sure the committee will be sympathetic to LSU’s plight while leaving us out of the tournament because we wouldn’t play anyone.

FIFY


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