The inevitable has happened: the NCAA has cancelled both men and women’s national tournaments.
This comes a day after they announced that games would be play with minimal audience attendance, i.e. team personnel and select family. But after every other major sports league announced the delay or cancellation of their seasons, it only seemed like a matter of time before the NCAA would do the same.
In their statement, the NCAA said that, “This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to the spread of the pandemic and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during the academic year given the ongoing decisions by other entities.”
The NCAA has cancelled all spring sports as well, including baseball and softball.
Just this morning, several college conferences cancelled the remainder of their conference tournaments this weekend, and so it seemed like the NCAA was going to have to make their own cancellation as well.
Some questioning into the decision to cancel spring sports as well has come into play, as many of those championships will be played in June, which is still several months away. Most events that were cancelled were happening in the next couple of weeks.
This is an unprecedented time in sports, with every major league and outlet being shut down over the coronavirus. Professional and college sports have now been shut down, and that includes the March Madness tournament, which is one of the biggest sporting events in the country.
While the virus is something to take seriously, it is important to remember to remain calm, be smart, and wash your hands. The virus recovery rate is very high and most people will only experience mild to moderate symptoms. These decisions are a precautionary measure to help the recent outbreaks.
