Towards the end of the women's and men's basketball season Spalding found themselves in the position of possibly hosting their respective tournaments. Brian was hoping that the teams wouldn't host the tournament because that meant that he would have to be responsible for keeping the statistics for all the games in the tournament, which would be difficult since the baseball team had its home opener during this period.
The men's team was named regular season SLAIC champs out right and was given the responsibility of hosting the Men's Basketball tournament. The lady eagles however, ended the season in the no. 2 spot but because the no. 1 spot Iowa Wesleyan was in its probation period (meaning they just joined the NCAA from the NAIA this season) they were not allowed to host or participate in the basketball tournament so the responsibility fell to Spalding.
Spalding recently joined the NCAA Division III and Brian explained to me the why teams have to have a probational period when joining. NCAA DIII schools don't offer scholarships, so schools that come from the NAIA, which does offer scholarships, are allowed to keep their scholarship players for one year but after that year they can't be any scholarship players. Some teams find that there is a big decline in play once they lose scholarship athletes but because the NCAA is much more national recognized, with over 1200 schools, there are benefits to the choosing the NCAA.
The men's team was named regular season SLAIC champs out right and was given the responsibility of hosting the Men's Basketball tournament. The lady eagles however, ended the season in the no. 2 spot but because the no. 1 spot Iowa Wesleyan was in its probation period (meaning they just joined the NCAA from the NAIA this season) they were not allowed to host or participate in the basketball tournament so the responsibility fell to Spalding.
Spalding recently joined the NCAA Division III and Brian explained to me the why teams have to have a probational period when joining. NCAA DIII schools don't offer scholarships, so schools that come from the NAIA, which does offer scholarships, are allowed to keep their scholarship players for one year but after that year they can't be any scholarship players. Some teams find that there is a big decline in play once they lose scholarship athletes but because the NCAA is much more national recognized, with over 1200 schools, there are benefits to the choosing the NCAA.