If you ever wanted to see an example of March Madness, look no further than the 2009 SIAC Basketball Tournament. Benedict College and Claflin University, once locks to clash in the SIAC Basketball Tournament championship game, were upset in yesterday’s semi-final rounds by LeMoyne-Owen College and Lane College.
They were the third and fourth-seeds respectively in the tournament, so its not that much of a stunner outside of the dominance Claflin and Benedict showed through the regular season. But there is a stunning catch; the SIAC men’s championship game, scheduled for broadcast on ESPNU this afternoon at 4 p.m., might not happen thanks to Lane’s current NCAA-imposed prohibition from playing in televised games in the 08-09 and 09-10 academic years.
No need to look through the entire document, but suffice it to say that one of the punishments for Lane’s compliance violations definitely includes today’s championship game appearance.
The institution’s athletics teams shall not be eligible to appear on any telecast during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. This ineligibility to appear on television shall include live broadcasts, delayed broadcasts, cable, Web and broadband broadcasts and game footage that exceeds a total of five minutes on coaches shows at the institution.
Does Lane’s appearance in the SIAC Championship violate an agreement with ESPN to broadcast? Will HBCU Highlights’ partnership with the conference create the possibility for suit, as the most important game of the tournament shouldn’t be available for web broadcast to fans who ordered the Pay-Per-View package?
Stay tuned. Or will you be able to?
