In college basketball’s mid-major leagues, winning the conference tournament is often the only dependable way for a team to secure an N.C.A.A. tournament bid.
But even before the Bellarmine men’s team beat Jacksonville, 77-72, in the ASUN Conference championship game on Tuesday, it had no shot at participating in the national tournament.
Bellarmine, a private, Catholic university in Louisville, Ky., with about 2,400 undergraduate students, reclassified to Division I from Division II last season. Under N.C.A.A. rules, it must complete a four-year transition period to ensure it can handle rule changes and subsist at the higher level, during which time it is ineligible for the national tournament.