Bellarmine has paused basketball activity for inconclusive COVID results, thus cancelling the Feb 19-20 series with UNF. The next games on the schedule for league leading Bellarmine 10-2 and second place Liberty 8-2 will be next weekend Feb 26-27.
Let's assume this schedule holds, remember seeding will be done with winning %, so Bellarmine will be regular season champ if they win 1 or both games, Liberty will be champ only if they win both.
Now suppose that the COVID results go south or for whatever other reason the final series is cancelled and Liberty can't fill the empty ASUN schedule slot. Bellarmine wins the ASUN regular season on their first attempt. Why is this important? Recall in past years, if the regular season ASUN champ does not get a bid to the NCAA Tourney (Bellarmine is illegible), they the get an auto bid to the NIT.
So Bellarmine can guarantee the NIT bid by not playing.... hmmm. Has anyone known a college student who cheated on a test?
By the way, as far as I can tell, the NIT is scheduled this year but anything can change.