Trinity & Birmingham-Southern Earn Bids To NCAA Men's Basketball Championship

Trinity & Birmingham-Southern Earn Bids To NCAA Men's Basketball Championship

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) champion Trinity University as well as SCAC semifinalist Birmingham-Southern College, earned bids to the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. Interactive Bracket

Trinity earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs after the Tigers' 61-50 win over Centre College in the SCAC championship game yesterday afternoon. The win earned Trinity its eighth NCAA postseason appearance and its first since 2009.

The SCAC placed two teams in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009. It also marks the fifth time in the last seven years that the league placed two or more teams in the tournament and the eighth time since 1995 (1995-1996, 1998, 2006-2009, 2012).

The Trinity Tigers (20-8) will travel to Belton, Texas to square off against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (25-2). The game date/time will be announced later today.

The No. 5 ranked Cru earned an at-large bid to the field of 62 teams after they lost to eventual American Southwest Conference champion McMurry in the ASC semifinals.

The Trinity vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor winner will meet the Whitworth (24-3) vs. McMurry (20-8) winner in the second round.

Birmingham-Southern, in its first year as a full-time member of Division III, earned an at-large bid to the NCAA championship after the Panthers (25-2) were upset in the SCAC semifinals by Centre.

Ninth-ranked Birmingham-Southern will travel to Lexington, Ky. to play 17th-ranked Wittenberg University (21-6) at Transylvania University. The WU Tigers lost in the North Coast Athletic Conference semifinals to NCAC runner-up Denison University.

The game date/time for the Birmingham-Southern/Wittenberg game will be determined later today. The Birmingham-Southern vs. Wittenberg winner will meet the No. 16 Transylvania (23-4) vs. Carroll University (16-9) winner.

Happy Holidays from the SCAC!
December 25, 2011 Happy Holidays from the SCAC!