Detroit Mercy ineligible for NCAA tournament

Without even reading the article, it was obvious to me that the reason was the number of transfers that occurred over the past few years. I didn't think there were any academic issues. Not a reflection on the school or the athletic department. NOT THAT YOU ARE ougrizz05, but no need to gloat over this one. You guys are killing them on the court and the fields though.

Transfers per se don't hurt you, if they are in good academic standing when they leave, and they actually transfer, they don't cost you APR points. Here's what happened:

Rosters are small in basketball so 1 or 2 guys make a big difference. Detroit's problem is caused by 2 bad years in 4 (they NCAA uses a 4 year rolling average to determine compliance). In 2016, Jalen Gibson (a red-shirted freshman) and Paris Bass (an All-Conference forward) flunked out, and the Titans only carried 10 scholarship players that year. That gave the Titans a very low 900 score that year. Still, not a huge deal, because the other years were fine.. Detroit then had problems in 2018 with Jaleel Hogan (another all-conference player) and Tariq Jones becoming academically ineligible. But the Titans would have been OK, except that two players in good academic standing--Jermaine Jackson, Jr. and Jack Ballantyne--left school after spring semester and did not enroll elsewhere right away. As such, they were counted the same as if they'd just dropped out for academic reasons. In fact, Jackson was the son of the Titans assistant, Jermaine Jackson, and Ballantyne another player recruited by Jackson. Jackson was let go when Mike Davis was hired Both Ballantyne and the young Jackson then spent last year with the elder Jackson at Spire Academy, a "prep" school in Ohio that hired Jackson. Both have now enrolled at Long Island University and are eligible to play immediately this year. Had the two simply enrolled at LIU last fall and spent the year on the bench as transfers (the more normal practice), Detroit's 4 year average APR would be fine--at least good enough that there'd be no penalties.

So that's what happened, and the basis for the Titans appeal will be that they shouldn't be penalized because the kids essentially decided to take a "gap" year when Jackson senior was let go in July (remember how late in the year Davis was hired) and a great many D1 rosters were already full. They were academically eligible when they left, and are eligible this year at LIU. The APR is supposed to make sure that you don't recruit players who aren't right for college, or don't provide enough academic support for your players. It's not intended to apply to apply to kids who are perfectly capable of doing the work and are enrolled at a D1 school and on pace to finish college within the 5 years allowed to use your eligibility. I would think it's a pretty strong case, but with the NCAA you never know. The Titans' APR last year was fine, but that won't factor in until next season's 4-year average.

If that were the philosophy, wouldn't it make more sense not to count those kids in the first place, rather than build a "margin of error" into the system that could then allow schools to admit a few unqualified students? The "margin of error" is built for the idea that some kids simply won't complete college (especially at schools with higher academic standards. I suspect that there are several Horizon schools that are much harder to flunk out of than UD. Some Horizon schools have much lower admissions criteria and admit 97% or more of applicants). And it does raise the question, if this isn't a situation that might call for alleviating the post-season ban, then what would be? And if you can't name that, then why are appeals allowed?

So we will see. I'm not particularly optimistic, but I think if they're going to grant waivers, this would be a good case. And if they're not going to grant waivers, then it's hard to understand why appeals are allowed.

Detroit won its appeal and the ban was lifted.

Unfortunately, the damage was done—the titans were shorted practice time and it’s believed they lost at least to recruits due to the now-reversed ban.

That's quite weird. Hopefully we will find out more about that.