In an official statement on Thursday, the NCAA has decided to cancel all remaining winter and spring championships in response to the public health threat of COVID-19 (coronavirus). This comes after the Pac-12 cancelled the remaining games in the men’s basketball tournament and schools across the country were shutting down their own events.
Yes, that means no March Madness and no College World Series. At least for the foreseeable future.
“This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.”
It’s certainly a rough way for some student-athletes to end their careers like this but when we’re talking about the health of yourself, your family, friends, teammates, staff, coaches and fans alike, it’s hard to argue with the decision at all. When the Ivy League canceled all spring sports, they made a statement regarding an attempt to get their players another year of eligibility due to the circumstances.
We can only hope the NCAA will offer up some similar statement of intent as well.
Comments
An evolving "Wow!"
Implications of this expanding perplexity are mindblowing, and growing. By next year, retrospect may show how sports are only one aspect of multifaceted lives. Meanwhile, what do sportswriters do?
By Candid One on 03.12.20 7:13pm
A great question on what we do now...
As sports journalists — I think we’ll all have to get creative. I, for one, have some ideas that may pull on the heartstrings a bit, perhaps some fond memories of days of old while we wait for our sports to return. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor and watch it all unfold while we hope for the best and send good vibes to those directly affected.
By Cam Mellor on 03.13.20 7:24am
Huge overreaction, IMO
I think the NCAA is going to look back at this and realize it was a huge mistake. I think the COVID-19 scare is way out of proportion to that actual deaths or number of people infected. CDC estimates that influenza kills 36,000 a year in the US. Even if those numbers are exaggerated, it will most likely exceed the numbers of C-19. In the meantime, thousands if not tens of thousands of people are out of work.
By Blackjoy on 03.12.20 9:03pm
It is a bit crazy -- but hard to fault
Hard to fault them for being cautious. Had the NBA not suspended their season, we probably wouldn’t have seen the rush to suspend or cancel everything else, I think.
That being said — it is tough to think about all of those out of work for now and even harder to think of all of those kids who depended on their school meals as their one constant meal of their days. My wife, family and I are planning to do whatever we can to help those kiddos out who need meals at a time like this and give them that constant back in their lives the best we can.
By Cam Mellor on 03.13.20 7:26am