‘Just in shock’: Big 12 cancels all games through academic year
TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle had braced for the worst.
When on Thursday the NCAA canceled the College World Series, among other championships, amid the coronavirus pandemic, he sensed that this year’s baseball season may not resume.
That didn’t make any easier Friday’s official announcement that the Big 12 had canceled the baseball season, as well as every other spring sport.
“Just in shock,” Schlossnagle said. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years as a coach and before that playing in high school and youth baseball. It’s been my life. The fact that I don’t have very many hobbies is not good right now, but we’ll figure something out.
“But when you look at it and everything involved, this is certainly the cleanest decision to make. I understand it.”
The Big 12, like several other conferences, took the unprecedented measure of shutting down seasons on Friday.
The league announced that all organized team activities whether organized or voluntary, including team and individual practices, meetings, and other organized gatherings, have been suspended until March 29 and will be re-evaluated at that time.
“In addition,” the conference said, “all conference and non-conference competitions are canceled through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year.”
Schlossnagle described the scene of breaking the news to his players via video conference as they couldn’t meet in person.
Asked about the mood, Schlossnagle said: “Just stunned. Huge disappointment. I think after yesterday they probably knew it was coming. But stunned. Just absolutely stunned.”
That feeling could be felt throughout the sports world.
“I’m incredibly disappointed and saddened that we are at this point,” TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said. “I have spent the better part of 72 hours in calls and meetings with my colleagues assessing the evolving circumstances and making decisions that we believe are in the best interests of the health and safety of our student-athletes, our staffs and ultimately our fans and communities.”
The financial implications of these cancellations for schools such as TCU are substantial, but Donati said those monetary consequences “were never a consideration in the first place.”
TCU is expected to announce refund policies for home baseball ticket holders early next week.
Despite the disappointment of lost seasons, the silver lining for coaches and players is the NCAA giving “eligibility relief” for all spring sports student athletes. The exact details of how it will work is unknown, but players will be granted an additional year of eligibility.
The NCAA is considering affording the same benefit to winter sports athletes on the heels of canceling March Madness.
Schlossnagle said nobody is better at roster management or handling these types of situations than college coaches.
“We’ll work our way through it,” he said. “We have an incoming class and guys who may or may not want to come back. We’ll figure out what scholarship limits we have, what roster limits we have, how the draft affects it … we’ll make it work.”
Donati said TCU will be “ready for whatever is coming” as far as possibly paying for additional scholarships and how it’ll handle student athletes who take advantage of competing an additional year.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 8:36 PM.
