Stony Brook University's college basketball team won't be eligible for the America East Conference tournament after the league's ruling on Wednesday.
The ruling came a week after Stony Brook announced it would move to the Colonial Athletic Association starting next season.
That means Stony Brook will need an unlikely at-large bid in order to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in March.
The only time Stony Brook has qualified for March Madness was in 2016, when they won the conference tournament.
In three other years, they won the regular season trophy but failed to qualify after losing in the America East tourney.
Stony Brook currently sits in second in the conference behind Vermont.
At BetMGM, any conference tournament bets on Stony Brook will be voided and refunded. However, regular season bets will stand. Stony Brook was the preseason favorite to win the conference.
Bets at PointsBet are also void. Meanwhile, DraftKings said it didn't host any futures on the America East Conference.
America East's bylaws indicate if a member intends to withdraw from the conference, that makes the school's teams ineligible for postseason play, the conference said on Wednesday.
“This decision does nothing to advance the interests of the conference but instead punishes Stony Brook University’s talented student-athletes and runs contrary to the decision that the Board of Presidents made last spring when the University of Hartford announced they were leaving the conference," Stony Brook athletics director Shawn Heilbron said. "As a result, Stony Brook plans to review all options, legal and otherwise, to address this decision.”
The University of Hartford announced last year that it would drop from Division I to Division III in order to save roughly $9 million a year. The decision did not involve a move to a competing conference, and thus the school's teams were not punished.
The Colonial Athletic Association banned James Madison from postseason play last year after the school announced it would move to the Sun Belt Conference.
The America East Conference banned Boston University from conference tournaments during the 2012-13 season after the school announced a move to the Patriot League. This was the only other time the conference was forced to employ the punitive measure.
