NCAA cancels March Madness on day when conferences such as Big 12 took similar action
With concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA has canceled March Madness and its spring championships including the College World Series and the gymnastics championships scheduled for Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena April 17-18.
The basketball tournament has been played every year since 1939.
“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,” the NCAA said in a statement.
March Madness had been expected to be held without fans and limited access at sites across the country. But, much like the conference tournaments canceling play earlier Thursday, that position evolved over the last 24 hours.
The Big 12 canceled the remainder of its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on Thursday morning, commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced.
It’s the first time the tournament has been canceled in the conference’s 44-year history.
By mid-day, 15 men’s basketball conference tournaments, including all five power conferences, had canceled play. The NCAA then canceled March Madness shortly after 3 p.m.
“We believe this is the right thing,” Bowlsby said of the Big 12’s decision. “I feel terrible for the seniors that are involved in this tournament. It unfortunately could be the last basketball that they’re going to have a chance to play as college kids.
“We didn’t hear from anybody that they didn’t want to play or that the coaches didn’t want to coach. We just felt that, in the interest of heeding the advice we were hearing and and being conservative with everybody’s best health, that cancellation was the right outcome for both our men’s and women’s tournaments.
“It’s just disappointing in so many ways, but I think it’s emblematic of how our country will be responding to what is a very unusual set of circumstances.”
Bowlsby said there was a collective feeling of sadness when he discussed the decision with the league’s athletic directors.
“Everybody gets jazzed up for this tournament,” he said.
The Big 12 came to the decision once Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a state of emergency, forcing all events with more than 1,000 people to be canceled.
The cancellation will be felt financially by the Big 12. The league gains $6 million to $7 million annually on basketball tournament ticket revenue and there will be negotiations with TV partners ESPN and FOX on how to compensate for the missed programming.
With so many conferences canceling its tournaments, the NCAA followed suit by shutting down it’s men’s and women’s tournaments, as well as the remaining winter and spring NCAA championships.
Bowlsby had not been privy to the NCAA’s discussions regarding March Madness, but acknowledged the conferences canceling tournaments sets a precedent for the NCAA to do the same.
“It’s coast to coast, it’s border to border,” Bowlsby said. “It’s hotter in some areas than it is in others but in many ways our decision was much easier than that of the NCAA because of the multitude of sites and the number of weekends that they have involved. I suppose [the conferences decisions] will have an effect. We collaborated as well as we could.”
In the Big 12, Texas and Texas Tech had been scheduled to play at 11:30 a.m. at the Sprint Center, but both teams were pulled off the court about 45 minutes before tipoff.
TCU women’s coach Raegan Pebley broke the news to her team during a practice session at Municipal Auditorium.
“We were in the middle of practice when I got the call and stopped a drill,” Pebley said. “I had to tell a group of women something I was praying I wouldn’t have to.”
By late morning, the American Athletic Conference tournament that was scheduled to be played at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth and the Conference USA tournament at The Star in Frisco were also canceled. The other conference tournaments canceling play were the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten, MAC, Pac-12, SEC and WAC.
The Big East started its games on Thursday before canceling the rest of the tournament.
Bowlsby reiterated that no player or coach expressed concerns of contracting the virus by playing the games. He also said no one affiliated with the tournament had tested positive for coronavirus.
But the college conferences followed suit of the NBA, which suspended play in its league on Wednesday.
“The NBA is concerned about the safety of their players and we’re concerned about the safety of our players,” Bowlsby said. “I just think that it was the right outcome.”
The Big 12 also announced that its gymnastics and equestrian championships have been canceled. The gymnastics championship was scheduled for March 21 in West Virginia, and the equestrian was scheduled for March 27-28 in Waco.
The conference is not conducting any championship events until at least April 15, when it will re-assess the situation.
The conference later added that all sports have been suspended until at least March 29, including regular-season competitions, on- and off-campus recruiting and out-of-season practices.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 11:17 AM.
