Liberty will face North Alabama in Sunday’s Atlantic Sun tournament championship game, but it has already secured a spot in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament before even hitting the field.
The Flames defeated Stetson 77-64 in Friday’s semifinals in Jacksonville, Florida, and as North Alabama – a school transitioning to Division I track and field – is ineligible for the NCAA tournament, Liberty got the league’s automatic berth .
Can we hit our ticket earlier?
Now that UNA beats FGCU, we’ve hit the ASUN Auto Bid for the NCAA Tournament! pic.twitter.com/KoKRtUKnmv
– Liberty Men’s Basketball (@LibertyMBB_) March 6, 2021
North Alabama joined the Atlantic Sun and began moving from Division II to Division I in the 2018/19 season. Under NCAA rules, a Division II program making the jump to Division I cannot participate in the NCAA tournament when the four-year transition requirement is completed.
The potential scenario that unfolded for Liberty was expected upon entering the tournament, but most assumed that the conference’s regular season champion would eventually have to go through another unsuitable team – Bellarmine, not North Alabama, which went 1-7 in the last eight games. of the regular season before leading up to the conference tournament title game, including a win against Florida Gulf Coast in the semifinals.
Bellarmine, who started the transition from Division II to Division I this season, finished second to Liberty in the conference’s regular title race before losing to Stetson in the first round.
In back-to-back games against North Alabama last month, Liberty won 74-54 in both matchups.