Inclusion of a team in a photo is no indication of anything, other than a representative image of a school which could consider playing beyond the end of its conference season. No official invites have been given. Hope athletics photo by Lynne Powe; photo for Illinois Wesleyan athletics by Jimmy Naprstek

By Pat Coleman
D3hoops.com

The loss of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season has been a particular disappointment for Division III basketball fans, everyone playing this season, and for us here at D3sports.com as well.

Knowing that this was a possibility, we began to investigate the possibility of holding our own postseason event, a sort of postseason NIT for Division III men’s and women’s basketball. Creating an event on short notice is never easy, and it’s even less easy during a pandemic.

Ten days ago we sent out a survey to 180 Division III men’s and 180 Division III women’s basketball coaches, asking whether they were interested in a postseason opportunity for their student-athletes, what weekend(s) they would be able to consider it and (perhaps most importantly) whether they were able to host. Nearly one-third of the men’s coaches responded, and one-fifth of the women’s coaches did as well. Of this group, 89% of them were interested in pursuing postseason play.

Our goal since then has been to try to make this happen in whatever way possible, in whatever form. We have spoken with multiple athletic directors and many men’s and women’s coaches across NCAA Division III schools. We know, as well, that conferences have started to move back their conference tournaments, conceding to the havoc that COVID-19 has wreaked on their schedules.

With that in mind, we are working toward creating up to four regional postseason tournaments for men’s basketball and for women’s basketball, to take place the weekend of March 19-20. We have heard from schools, some of them prominent ones, which say their conferences or presidents will not allow them to play after their conference season ends, or they may not be allowed to leave the state, and that is understandable. However, we believe that there are more than a dozen conferences whose representatives would be allowed to participate in a postseason event.

Some of these four regionals events might be four teams. Some might be six. It’s possible some of them might even be eight teams. The opportunity might be there for 20 or more teams to participate. We have interest in hosting from schools in the Central Region, the Great Lakes Region and what I’ll describe as the South Atlantic, as well as Texas. We could use more options, in case issues arise, or teams who have expressed interest in hosting end up not qualifying, and we also need interested schools in the Mid-Atlantic part of the country to contact us. We also need sponsorship help to defray participation costs for schools, because as you may have already read, D3sports.com has been in need of financial support as well.

In addition, we are working with our friends at Sport Tours International to help organize these games as well. They are the ones who we partner with for the D3hoops.com Classic every year in Las Vegas (in reality, they essentially do all the work and we promote it and broadcast it). Where logistical support is needed, they can step in to help this happen.

“We would be excited for a national tournament,” writes one coach, whose team would certainly be invited to participate if one were to take place and the season ended today.

We want to make this happen, or help make this happen.

And if, after four regional tournaments are played, we are left with teams that want to continue playing, have games and playing/practice dates left to use, and can find a location to do so ... all the better.

Please feel free to contact us at info@d3sports.com if you can help.

To answer some questions we anticipate people may have:

• Assuming this can happen, our primary goal is to involve as many conference champions as feasible. If possible, we would include at-large teams, including ones which would traditionally be considered Pool B teams, based on where we have hosts and how many teams are able to participate.
• Yes, there would be costs to participate, because it costs money to staff games, hire officials, etc.
• One does not have to reach nine games in order to be invited to participate, but you have to have played games which count in the standings, and be willing and able to play more of them.