Fairleigh Dickinson received an NCAA bid due to the DI transfer rule

Fairleigh Dickinson became the first team to press their ticket to the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Saturday — and the Knights did it without winning their conference tournament.

Merrimack, the top seed in the Northeast Conference tournament, is still in the midst of a four-year reclassification process from Division II to Division I, and is therefore ineligible for the NCAA tournament. However, last summer the NEC announced that it would allow Merrimack to participate in the conference tournament this season. Merrimack winning the regular season title means the championship game runner-up will advance to the NCAA Tournament if the Warriors reach the title game.

This situation started on Saturday. With Merrimack defeating Sacred Heart in the first semifinal on Saturday, that meant the winner of the second semifinal between Fairleigh Dickinson and St. Francis (Penn) would earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The tournament’s second seed, Fairleigh Dickinson, knocked out third seed St. Francis 70–50. Demeter Roberts He led the way with 18 points and five assists, and Ansley Almonor (15 points) f Grant Singleton (12 points) also scored in double digits.

Merrimack and Fairleigh Dickinson will still face each other in the NEC Championship title game on Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN2).

It’s quite an achievement for first-year head coach Tobin Anderson, who managed a Fairleigh Dickinson team that finished 4-22 last season. Anderson, who has been the Division II head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas since 2013 before taking over at FDU, has led the Knights to 15 wins.

The NEC situation is similar to what happened in the ASUN tournament last season, with Bellarmine winning the conference tournament despite being ineligible for the NCAA tournament due to reclassification status. Jacksonville State was the regular season champion so the Gamecocks won the automatic bid even though they lost to Jacksonville in the conference tournament semifinals.