Connecticut to Miss Basketball Postseason After Appeal Fails

The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team will miss next year’s postseason after an appeal against a ban for failing to meet minimum academic standards was rejected by the college sports governing body.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the sanction last year after the Huskies defeated Butler 53-41 to win their third national basketball championship.

The decision was based on the team’s Academic Performance Rate -- a measurement of how well sports teams move their athletes toward graduation -- from 2007-08 through 2010-11. Teams that fail to stay on course to graduate about 50 percent of their athletes are subject to penalties ranging from less practice time to a loss of scholarships and a postseason ban.

“While we as a university and coaching staff clearly should have done a better job academically with our men’s basketball student-athletes in the past, the changes we have implemented have already had a significant impact and have helped us achieve the success we expect in the classroom,” men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun said in a statement. “We will continue to strive to maintain that success.”

The Big East Conference recently voted to ban any school that is ineligible for the NCAA postseason from its own league championship at Madison Square Garden in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at ceichelberge@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net