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Oregon Ducks

NCAA Tournament announces a game declared a no-contest, explains next steps

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

A game will not be played in the NCAA Tournament because of COVID-19 protocols, and the NCAA Tournament committee has announced the next steps for the teams involved.

The news was sent to media covering the tournament, including Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. The VCU-Oregon game will not be played, and the No. 7-seeded Ducks will move on, while the No. 10-seeded Rams will return home.

The announcement came about 3 hours before the teams were set to play in the West Region. The NCAA didn’t offer specific details, and cited privacy concerns, and said that the decision came after consultation with the Marion County Public Health Department.

“The NCAA and the committee regret that VCU’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to play in a tournament in which they earned the right to participate,” the statement read.

This is the first NCAA tournament game canceled or declared a no-contest because of COVID-19 issues. The NCAA originally told teams to report by 11 p.m. on Saturday before Selection Sunday if they couldn’t play in the tournament. Then the organization set Tuesday night as its deadline for replacement teams to enter the field, but no teams had issues at that time.

In order to get into the NCAA tournament’s controlled environment in Indianapolis, teams had to show 7 consecutive days of negative COVID-19 tests. Once in Indianapolis, teams had daily testing.

Oregon will play the winner of No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 15 Grand Canyon.

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.

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