St. Lawrence Withdraws from NCAA Tournament

Hours before the NCAA Tournament was set to be revealed, ECAC conference champion St. Lawrence announced that they will have to withdraw from the tournament due to a positive Covid test within their program.

In the release, head coach Brent Brekke said that it was his own Covid test which came back positive.

The Saints went just 4-8-3 during the regular season in a season that saw multiple cancellations and postponements due to the ongoing pandemic. But with just three teams remaining in the ECAC for their conference tournament, due to eight teams cancelling their season due to the virus, and Clarkson withdrawing due to contact tracing issues prior to the league tournament, they upset both Colgate and Quinnipiac in overtime to secure the bid.

Instead, Quinnipiac will take the ECAC’s automatic bid to the tournament as league champion.

The upshot for the projected tournament field is that St. Lawrence’s withdrawal extends the season for somebody. We had Quinnipiac as ‘not a guarantee, but extremely likely’ to make the field. The Bobcats are now officially in, and there are now three at-large spots to fill behind the Bobcats. We had Omaha and Providence claiming two spots in our rundown last night. One of Bemidji State and Notre Dame would be our next pick to get in, but there is an argument to be made for Denver, UMass Lowell, Bowling Green, or UConn as well for the final spot.