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Auburn basketball self-imposing ban for 2020-21 postseason
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The Auburn men’s basketball program will forgo postseason competition for the upcoming 2020-21 season, the program announced Sunday. The NCAA and SEC have been notified, Auburn says.
“The athletics department and university administration, in conjunction with Coach Bruce Pearl, made the decision after careful deliberation and in light of the ongoing matter that surfaced in fall 2017 regarding former assistant coach Chuck Person,” the announcement states. Auburn says it has cooperated with the NCAA and will continue to do so.
Auburn says it regrets the impact this decision has on our student-athletes, “yet it was made in the best long-term interest of the program.” Auburn says it will not comment further but hopes “for swift consideration and resolution of the matter.”
The school also released a statement from Pearl:
“This was a difficult decision but the right decision. I hate it for our current players. They lost the opportunity for the postseason last year because of COVID, and now they will miss the postseason again. It’s a two-year postseason penalty for them. However, we need to take this penalty to put it behind us.”
Pearl’s squad went 25-6 in the 2019-20 campaign. Earlier this month, Auburn was ranked No. 7 in the SEC media preseason poll for the 2020-21 season.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
