Georgia Tech is withdrawing its appeal of a postseason ban levied by the NCAA against its men's basketball program and won't participate in next week's ACC tournament or any national postseason tournaments, the school announced on Monday.
The Yellow Jackets will be eligible for the postseason following the 2020-21 season.
"Since the appeals process will extend beyond this current season, we feel that it is in the best interest of our men's basketball program -- and especially the 14 student-athletes that return to the team -- to drop our appeal of the competition penalty," Georgia Tech athletics director Todd Stansbury said in a statement. "I feel very good about the future of our men's basketball program and, therefore, want to remove the cloud of a potential postseason ban from hanging over our team as we move into next season and beyond."
With a 15-14 overall record, including a 9-9 mark in the ACC, it was unlikely the Yellow Jackets would have received an NCAA at-large bid this season.
Georgia Tech will close the regular season with Wednesday's home game against Pittsburgh and Friday's game at Clemson (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
The university is still appealing two other NCAA penalties: the loss of one scholarship in each of the next four seasons and a ban on official visits during its home basketball games for two seasons.
"I support the decision of our administration to withdraw the appeal of the competition penalty and am happy to know that we'll have this penalty behind us as we go into 2020-21," Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said. "Like our administration, I'm sad for our two seniors [James Banks and Shembari Phillips] who won't have the opportunity to participate in the postseason in their final year. We will do everything in our power over the final two games of the season to send James and Shembari out on a high note."
In September, the NCAA placed Georgia Tech on four years' probation because of violations involving impermissible benefits. Former assistant coach Darryl LaBarrie was given a three-year show-cause order, in which "any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply."
Georgia Tech had self-imposed a three-year dissociation with LaBarrie and permanent disassociation from Ron Bell, a former friend of Pastner, and the NCAA ordered the school to disassociate from former star player Jarrett Jack for three years as well.
ESPN reported in March 2019 that LaBarrie was charged with a Level I violation related to an Atlanta strip club visit in November 2016 that sources said included NBA guard Jack and current Chicago Bulls player Wendell Carter Jr.
Jack, whom the NCAA declared to be a representative of Georgia Tech's athletics interests, is alleged to have provided Carter and an unidentified then-Georgia Tech player with $300 for the strip club visit, the sources told ESPN.