Pacific 10 Officials Decide to Drop Postseason Basketball Tournament
Citing primarily academic reasons, Pacific 10 Conference officials voted to drop the annual postseason basketball tournament. The final tournament will be held at Arizona State, March 8-11.
“Playing in the tournament can be a hardship for the players in the form of lost class time,” said Jim Muldoon, assistant Pac-10 commissioner.
“It is particularly difficult on schools that are on the quarter system because the tournament falls going into an exam period. Theoretically, if a school goes on to play in the NCAA postseason tournament, a player could miss three to four weeks of class time.”
Another reason for cancellation was that Pac-10 teams were forced to schedule conference games, rather than nonconference games, in early December.
The cancellation of the tournament will hurt the schools financially. Since 1987, when the tournament began, each Pac-10 school has received about $200,000.
The decision to drop the tournament was initiated by Pac-10 school presidents. Muldoon said that Pac-10 coaches still favor the tournament.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
