Fearing coronavirus, organization advises NCAA to hold tournament games without crowds
In just over two weeks, the 2020 NCAA Tournament will begin and 68 teams will start their journey to be crowned national champions.
Now imagine a first- or second-round game involving Kansas, Gonzaga or Kentucky that’s played in front of absolutely nobody. Due to the ongoing coronavirus that is spreading throughout the country and cases popping up in Washington state, that is exactly what the National College Players Association is suggesting.
“In the wake of the emerging coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA and its colleges should take precautions to protect college athletes., the group said. “They should also make public which actions will be taken and when. Precautions should include canceling all auxiliary events that put players in contact with crowds such as meet and greets and press events. Athletic programs should also take every possible measure to sanitize buses and airplanes used to transport players.
“In regard to the NCAA’s March Madness Tournament and other athletic events, there should be a serious discussion about holding competitions without an audience present.”
This would obviously be a major change to the NCAA Tournament schedule. There hasn’t been a true “altering of plans” in years. The last time the NCAA Tournament had a serious discussion of a schedule alteration was in 1981 when there was talk of the title game being postponed in the wake of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
If the NCAA did decide to follow the advice of the NCPA and have games played in places where crowds could not be in attendance, the NCAA would surely fall short of surpassing the $933 million that was made during last year’s men’s tournament according to investopedia.com.We are inside two weeks from Selection Sunday and Monday, so decision time is coming near.
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
