The Ivy League has made a difficult decision this week to cancel its upcoming conference tournaments for both the men and women’s teams.
The tournaments were scheduled to play Friday through Sunday at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge. Usually, the winner of the tournament was given an automatic bid in next week’s NCAA Division I tournament, but instead, the league will award the men’s bid to Yale and the women’s bid to Princeton.
Several other conferences have already started their tournaments, some as early as last week, with the biggest conferences scheduled to play this week. As of now, Ivy League is the only one to cancel their tournaments and the NCAA recently announced they are still planning to play the national tournament as planned.
The Ivy League also announced today that they will be limiting spectators at all other sporting events for the rest of the spring season. Cornell, specifically, announced that fans will not be allowed to attend the NCAA quarterfinal game for its women’s hockey team or the ECAC quarterfinal game for its men’s hockey team.
Obviously, this news is disappointing for several teams. The conference tournaments stand as many teams’ last chance to get into the big tournament, and not being able to play is a hard pill to swallow. While many people view conference tournaments as excessive and unnecessary, many players depend on them to try and make a statement.
It is important to note that these measures are more precautionary than not. Most people who contract COVID-19 experience mild to moderate symptoms: a cough or fever. For the elderly or those with a pre-existing condition, it can be much more severe and lead to things like pneumonia.
Ivy League has said that all ticket purchases will be refunded.
