UPDATE: As of 5:00PM Thursday, March 12th, ALL NCAA games and tournaments have been canceled.
The NCAA has announced that its annual March Madness tournament will be played in empty arenas.
The president of the NCAA said, quote, “On the advice [of public health officials], I’ve made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division 1 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance.” He said that they DID also consider canceling the tournament altogether, but apparently, they decided just to continue on, without fans.
Obviously, with the escalation of COVID-19 prevention tactics, they didn’t have much of a choice . . . a lot of cities are temporarily banning large group events. And of course, the NBA has suspended its season until further notice.
It’s possible that the no-fans thing could eventually extend to Major League Baseball later this month. Obviously, the idea is to protect the players, employees, and fans and to limit large gatherings, where one person could unknowingly pass it on to MANY others.
If March Madness DOESN’T get suspended like the NBA, it WILL be televised and that’s the way most people watch it anyway. The tourney kicks of March 17th. “Selection Sunday” is this weekend so get ready to fill those brackets!
