Big South delays basketball tournament move to Charlotte as part of changes for 2021

The Big South Conference announced Monday a one-year delay in moving its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to Charlotte.

The delay is among a number of changes announced by the conference for the 2021 season in a bid to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic by streamlining tournament operations.

The basketball tournaments were to have been played next March at Bojangles’ Coliseum. Pat Kelsey — the head men’s basketball coach of the Winthrop Eagles, who won the Big South Conference tournament last season — said the development was an exciting one.

“There are selfish reasons why it’s good,” Kelsey said in an interview in November 2019, when the decision was initially announced. “But I just think that it’s really good for our league.”

Big South Commissioner Kyle Kallander says the events will take place at on-campus sites for one more season.

“We were very excited about coming to Charlotte,” Kallander says. “And we still plan to do that.”

However, he added, “It’s a time when we have to think a little differently.”

So, he says, the conference will determine its basketball champions in Charlotte in 2022.

Conference officials say keeping the tournaments at on-campus sites, along with other changes announced Monday, will allow the Big South to better protect student-athletes, staff members and fans.

In several cases, Big South postseason tournaments will go to four-team formats, rather than allowing larger fields. That will be the case for men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, baseball and softball.

Among other changes announced Monday:

▪ Soccer, volleyball, lacrosse and softball championships will take place at on-campus sites. The baseball tournament will remain at SEGRA Stadium in Fayetteville, and the tennis championships also will be at a central site.

▪ Men’s and women’s golf tournaments will be shortened by a day. The 2019 events covered four days.

▪ Outdoor track and field will remain a three-day event but will be moved from May to April, when school is still in session.

▪ Cross-country championships will be moved to a central location on a Friday afternoon. In recent years, the men’s and women’s finals were at separate sites, a week apart on Saturdays.

▪ Football and basketball media day events, which have taken place at a Charlotte hotel in recent years, will be held virtually.

▪ Eliminated conference limitations, for one year, on the number of games member schools can play against non-Division 1 opponents in basketball.

The Big South’s members are Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Hampton, High Point, Longwood, Presbyterian, Radford, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate and Winthrop. Kennesaw State, Monmouth and North Alabama compete in football only.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

Alex Zietlow contributed reporting.

This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 3:22 PM.