After several appeals, the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance has declared Connecticut banned from 2013 post-season play for poor academic progress from its players.

The Big East has also announced that any team banned from the NCAA Tournament will also be eliminated from the Big East Post Season Tournament.

The NCAA's relatively new Academic Progress Rate (APR) rule has been used on some minor universities, but never on an elite program. Some are arguing that the NCAA is using the "Al Capone" rule to get Jim Calhoun and UConn.

Last October, the NCAA approved new academic standards that required teams to have a 930 Academic Progress Rate over a four-year rolling average, up from the previous rate of 900, or face a postseason ban. UConn's four-year average was 893.

If the the Committee on Academic Performance decides to use APR data from 2011-12, UConn could have its aggregate APR score lifted above the floor requirement of 925. But don't hold your breath on that happening.

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy blasted the NCAA over the ban. Malloy told the Associated Press that he had stayed out of the fight until now, but finds this week's NCAA's decision to reject the waiver request "absolutely outrageous."

"It's as if they've decided to get UConn, one way or the other," he said.

Connecticut was put on probation and Coach Jim Calhoun served a 3-game suspension over violations involving the recruitment of guard Nate Miles back in 2007-08.

Miles, a 6-foot-7 guard from Toledo, Ohio, was provided with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation between 2006 and 2008 by Josh Nochimson, a former UConn student manager who had become a professional sports agent.

After violating a restraining order put on him by a UConn sophomore coed, Miles was expelled in fall 2008 and never played for the Huskies.

Connecticut has already been docked two scholarships for past academic failures, and the post-season ban would allow any players currently on the roster the ability to transfer and be immediately eligible elsewhere. Senior forward Alex Oriakhi is already transferring, and its likely that Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb will put their names into the 2012 NBA draft.

Calhoun, 70, has two more years left on his contract, but he has been battling health issues for several years, and there is speculation that he might decided to retire. Given his combative nature, it is unlikely that he wants to go out this way.