Auburn men’s basketball on Sunday announced a self-imposed postseason ban for 2020-21.

The self-imposed ban stems from issues surrounding former assistant coach Chuck Person, which surfaced in 2017 during the FBI’s college basketball investigation.

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Person was arrested on Sept. 25, 2017 on felony counts of bribery, wire fraud and other charges. He was suspended and later fired from the university that November.

“This was a difficult decision but the right decision,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said in a statement.

“I hate it for our current players. They lost the opportunity for the postseason last year because of COVID, and now they will miss the postseason again. It’s a two-year postseason penalty for them. However, we need to take this penalty now to put it behind us.”

Earlier this month, Auburn was picked to finish seventh in the SEC standings by the conference’s media members. Since being named head coach in 2014, Pearl’s Tigers are 125-78 with a Final Four appearance in 2019.

Auburn is set to tip off its season Thursday against Saint Joseph’s in the Fort Myers Tip-Off.

Eli Boettger is a college basketball writer and founder of HeatCheckCBB.com. He has previously worked for Sporting News, DAZN and USA TODAY SMG.

Boettger’s content has been featured by Bleacher Report, NBC Sports, FiveThirtyEight, Yahoo Sports, Athletic Director University, Washington Post, Illinois Law Review and Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. Boettger is also a current USBWA member and Rockin’ 25 voter.