University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville Cancels Exhibition Basketball Games;Will Host Inside the Doghouse on Nov. 5
10.29.2007 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Asheville men's and women's basketball teams in conjunction with the Athletics Department has announced the cancellation of its scheduled preseason basketball exhibition games for the 2007-08 season.
The games affected included the men's and women's games vs. Mars Hill on Nov. 1 along with a men's game against Warren Wilson on Nov. 5 and a women's game against Brevard the same day.
The cancellations came about after UNC Asheville received an interpretation from the Big South Conference and the NCAA that their schedules may not have been in compliance with regards to the number of games allowed versus non-Division I opponents.
The situation is centered around a pair of NCAA bylaws. Bylaw 17.5.5.3 allows Division I teams to play non-Division I four-year teams for exhibition games while bylaws 20.9.6.1 and 20.9.6.3 set the number of non-Division I opponents at four per season for both men's and women's basketball. The misinterpretation issue deals with how exhibition games are to count towards the total number of non-Division I opponents for that season. A little-known NCAA rules interpretation written in 1985 concluded that preseason games were to be counted against the number of non-Division I games scheduled in a season.
“Due to a recent interpretation from the NCAA, many schools were under the impression that you could play four non-Division I games, excluding exhibition games,” stated UNC Asheville Athletics Director Janet Cone. “The NCAA recently informed the Big South Conference that the league basketball programs could only play four non-Division I games counting both exhibition and regular-season games. To avoid an NCAA violation, we have chosen to cancel our exhibition games this season but we will honor our financial commitment to these schools.”
The Bulldogs were not the only program affected by this situation as several other Big South Conference men's and women's teams also cancelled exhibition games this year. In addition, multiple other mid-major conferences and teams were also contacted by the NCAA in regards to this same issue.
The men's and women's basketball teams will host an Inside Look at the Doghouse on Monday, Nov. 5 at Justice Center starting at 7 p.m. Bulldog men's head coach Eddie Biedenbach and women's head coach Betsy Blose will each host a “Chalk Talk” and each team will have a brief Blue-White Scrimmage. There will be an opportunity to purchase season tickets and fans can get autographs and photos with the players after the scrimmages.
