Why FDU basketball can make Big Dance without winning NEC tourney

One of the great scenes in college basketball replays over and over again during championship week – a mid- or low-major team cutting down the nets to celebrate punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

In this year’s Northeast Conference Tournament, which tips off Wednesday, it might not happen. Thanks to some quirky rules, it’s possible second-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson could capture the NEC’s automatic bid while sitting in a conference room.

Here’s the deal: Regular-season champion and top seed Merrimack is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament as a transitional Division I program coming up from the D-2 ranks. This is the North Andover, Massachusetts college’s fourth and final season before the transitional tag gets removed. Incredibly, the Warriors won the NEC regular-season in the first year of transition, in 2020, but the Northeast Conference barred them from its own postseason tournament at the time.

That's changed. As with other leagues in similar situations, the NEC adjusted its policy. As senior associate commissioner Ron Ratner puts it: Given “the increased focus on the student-athlete experience, the NEC Council of Presidents voted to allow reclassifying institutions to participate in the NEC postseason championships in years three and four of the four-year reclassification process."

So Merrimack's in the NEC Tourney, and if the Warriors win it, the automatic bid goes to the runner-up.

'Jersey' Joey Gallo suggests change

Merrimack head coach Joey Gallo, who hails from Milltown in Middlesex County and played high school ball at Bishop Ahr (now Thomas Aquinas) and Princeton Day, finally has something of a carrot at the end of the stick.

Gallo has done a remarkable job marshalling the Warriors to success without the Big Dance as a reward (this year’s team opened 0-13 against Division I opponents before finally beating one on New Year’s Eve). Allowing them to taste a little of March Madness in the NEC Tourney – as the top seed, Merrimack will host for as long as it advances – is at least some kind of reward.

“It helps,” he said via phone Thursday, while adding that he’d like to see the NCAA’s transitional process reformed.

“I don’t complain a whole lot about it because you know the rules when you sign up,” Gallo said. “Now that we’ve been through it, hopefully this helps someone moving forward, because four years is just way two long. Maybe two years (is appropriate).”

What it means for FDU

Each conference get to determine how its automatic bid is awarded. Did the NEC consider giving it to the highest-eligible finisher in the regular-season standings? That would be FDU, which finished 10-6 in conference play under first-year head coach Tobin Anderson. Ratner said such a move would create bad optics in the league tournament.

“In the discussion on who to send to the NCAA Tournament should a reclassifying team win, league administrators felt that awarding the AQ (automatic qualifier) to a team that has been eliminated in an earlier round runs counter to how the conference determines its champion,” Ratner said. “Translation: a team must earn its way to the championship game to have a chance to go to NCAAs, just like every tournament the conference has ever hosted. Likewise, if the priority is to send the top regular season team to the NCAA Tournament, then holding tournaments does not serve that purpose.”

So here’s where things could get weird. If the seeds hold in Wednesday’s quarterfinals and Merrimack and FDU both advance to host semifinals March 4, the game times are 6 and 8 p.m., with the top surviving seed typically playing in the later slot. FDU could win its earlier semifinal at the Rothman Center and then hunker down for a watch party to see what happens with Merrimack. If Merrimack wins its late semi, FDU will punch its Big Dance ticket in a conference room, without any fanfare -- no net-cutting or fans celebrating at midcourt. Then the Knights would head to North Andover for the March 7 final and if Merrimack wins, they'll watch the Warriors cut down the nets to celebrate the tourney title.

So yeah, that’s awkward.

Would this bizarre tableau goad the NCAA to revisit its rules for D-1 transition? Who knows.

But it would add a new twist to March Madness, for sure.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Why FDU basketball can make Big Dance without winning NEC tourney