NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring sport championships

Published 3:57 pm Thursday, March 12, 2020

By Nathanael Gabler

The NCAA has cancelled all championship events for the winter and spring athletic seasons, including the 2020 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Amid concerns about the outbreak and spread of COVID-19, the organization made the decision on Thursday afternoon in a statement online.

“Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships,” the statement read. “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 decision comes as one in a long list of athletics events that have been cancelled or postponed in the prior 48 hours. With the World Health Organization officially declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic on Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA was among the first to take what, at the time, seemed like drastic measures.

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On Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA made a decision to hold all NCAA Tournament games without spectators present. Now, the tournament will not be held whatsoever. The organization formed a COVID-19 Advisory Panel in late February amid early stages of the outbreak. In less than one week, their message changed drastically.

Thursday’s decision by the NCAA comes on the heels of the SEC and nearly all other major conferences making declarations that play of sporting events will be postponed. For the SEC at least, at time of publication, all events have been delayed until at least March 30. That decision was made around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday afternoon. The NCAA’s decision to cancel all of the championships for the winter and spring seasons came around 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

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