NCAA confirms Missouri Tigers baseball and softball are postseason-eligible for 2021
The Missouri Tigers baseball and softball team are postseason eligible for the 2021 season, the NCAA confirmed to the school’s athletic department.
The decision comes months after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports, which ended the 2020 college baseball and softball seasons early. As there was no postseason play this spring, there had been some concern about whether the postseason bans might transfer over to next season.
But that’s no longer the case, so Missouri fans can breathe easy.
“Our program is clearly pleased with today’s news,” MU baseball coach Steve Bieser said in a statement. “Our players and coaching staff have faced great challenges on and off the field. Following the shortened 2020 season and now the renewed ability to compete in postseason play, we are extremely eager to prepare for and contend in the 2021 campaign.”
“After two years of overcoming adversity, I’m excited we’re now able to turn the page and move forward,” Mizzou softball coach Larissa Anderson said in a statement. “When our players chose to come to Mizzou, their dream was to reach the Women’s College World Series. Now we can focus on our goal of bringing postseason softball back to Columbia, and returning to the pinnacle of our sport.”
The postseason bans stemmed from an academic infractions case that lasted between mid-2015 to mid-2016. Former MU academic tutor Yolanda Kumar broke rules regarding ethical conduct, academic misconduct and extra academic benefits when she completed coursework for a dozen Mizzou student-athletes. The NCAA Committee on Infractions announced its final decision — which included postseason bans, scholarship limitations, recruiting restrictions and other penalties — on Jan. 31, 2019.
MU later appealed the committee’s decision, saying the punishments were too harsh for the nature of the infractions. A group of athletic administration leaders made its case in front of the infractions appeal committee in July 2019. After a months-long process — which concluded just days before the 2019 college football season was set to end — the NCAA denied Mizzou’s infractions appeals, upholding all of its initial penalties.
The 2019 Missouri football team, which finished 6-6 and was bowl-eligible, missed the postseason because of the ban. The Tigers, now led by first-year MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz, are still operating under scholarship limitations for the 2020 season, which limit the Tigers to 81 allowed scholarships instead of the normally allotted 85.
Before the 2020 season was shut down, both Missouri baseball and softball jumped out to a hot start to the season. Bieser’s team was 11-5 and riding a seven-game winning streak. The Tigers were scheduled to take on Alabama to begin SEC play.
The softball team was off to a sparkling 9-0 start, finishing 2020 with a 19-7 record. Anderson’s Tigers were also 3-0 in SEC play after sweeping Mississippi in the season-opening series. Mizzou finished No. 25 in the final USA Today and National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll.
The NCAA’s confirmation is similar to how the athletic department felt internally regarding the postseason bans. MU athletics kept the stance that the Tigers were banned for the 2020 postseason, regardless of if it was played or not.
“All of us on campus are very confident that we kind of served our suspension,” Bieser told The Star in early June. “For those same players who had nothing to do with what we got our sanctions for, to have to go through that for a second year, I think that would be really difficult for anyone to handle.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 12:29 PM.