The NCAA denied Connecticut's final appeal to be allowed to participate in next season's NCAA Tournament because its Academic Progress Rate (APR) falls below the NCAA minimum standard. UConn sports information director Paul Chardis tweeted this earlier today:

#UConn: UConn's final appeal to the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance is denied.

— Phil Chardis (@uconnmbbsid) April 5, 2012

#UConn: As of now, Huskies are ineligible to play in 2013 NCAA Tournament, but that could change if the criteria to measure APR is changed

— Phil Chardis (@uconnmbbsid) April 5, 2012

Now a flurry of questions will be asked of UConn basketball. Facing a season with no chance of participating in either the Big East Tournament or the NCAA Tournament, will Jim Calhoun retire? Will Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb go ahead and declare for the NBA Draft (both are expected to anyway, this ruling by the NCAA will likely just seal that decision)? The NCAA's decision has already lead to the departure of Alex Oriakhi, who is now allowed to transfer elsewhere without having to sit out a year. It also leaves the Big East Tournament with 14 teams instead of the usual 16 since West Virginia is gone to the Big 12 Conference.

As was noted in the tweet above, the only hope for being allowed into the postseason now is if the NCAA makes changes to the APR calculation process that results in UConn's average being high enough to qualify.