NCAA announces 2020 tournament has been canceled
The news college sports fans have been dreading is here — the 2020 NCAA Tournament has been canceled.
In addition to that news, all spring and winter competitions have been canceled, the NCAA announced on Thursday.
Here is the official release from the NCAA:
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. 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.
This news comes just hours after the SEC canceled the 2020 SEC Tournament, as well as all sports activities until April.
Here is the statement issued by the league announcing the cancelation of the 2020 SEC Tournament:
Based on the latest developments and the continued spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Southeastern Conference today announced the cancellation of the remainder of the 2020 Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville.
“We understand that this decision will be disappointing to our student-athletes and coaches who have been preparing all season to compete in this event as well as viewers at home,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “While this was not an easy decision, the health and well-being of our entire SEC community is of paramount importance.”
The SEC’s regular season champion, the University of Kentucky, will be awarded the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The SEC will provide additional updates on other scheduled SEC championship events as they become available. The SEC reminds everyone to be attentive to everyday preventive actions identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov).
Lots of players are done with their college careers because of a silly overreaction. It’s not right. 2020 will go down as the year without basketball. Talk about people getting too scared. This isn’t fair for players, coaches or fans.
The NCAA should have used an alternate plan.
If this saves even 1 life it was worth it.
100%
This is such a stupid statement. By the same token, how do you count the lives it saves? Do you offset that with the lives that will be lost because they are somewhere else and doing something else.
Right?? So stupid. Who wants to prevent people from getting sick?? It’s only going to kill old people. Why should we care?
Changing the speed limit to 25 mph could save over a million lives a year, but I don’t hear anyone suggesting that.
That and athletes can die on their respective field at any given time.
There have been at least 30 reported deaths in the US in the past few days. I can’t remember one player that died playing basketball. It’s a ridiculous comparison.
Yes, other aspects in life are dangerous but failing to maximize safety in all other circumstances isn’t a sufficient reason to not take precautions to stem the spread of the corona virus.
This isn’t a silly over-reaction.
According to infectious disease epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch at Harvard, it’s “plausible” that up to 60 percent of adults will be infected with Covid-19 disease.
It is the SPEED at which the outbreak plays out matters hugely for its consequences. What epidemiologists fear most is the health care system becoming overwhelmed by a sudden explosion of illness that requires more people to be hospitalized than it can handle. In that scenario, more people will die because there won’t be enough hospital beds or ventilators to keep them alive.
That is what the NCAA is trying to help by cancelling the 2020 Tournament. (same with all the other leagues and conferences with their cancellations)
Over 80% of cases are mild and don’t require any treatment other than over the counter flu meds. If people would just stay away from the doctor unless they are having symptoms that include a high fever that won’t go away, then the medical facilities wouldn’t get over crowded. The problem is people that go to the doctor every time they get a runny nose or a headache.
or it could go down as the year the ncaa finally did something right and helped to save some lives by not putting a game over the risk of spreading this virus. It is a bummer and maybe a temporary suspension could have been done but I expect the logistics would be pretty darn difficult.
I’d much rather look back on this and think we overreacted than look back ad think we didn’t do enough.
Spot on – couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Exactly, I could not agree anymore. Those who have a callous attitude because their preferred method of entertainment was cancelled on account of a concerted effort to stem the rate at which a pandemic is spreading need to re-evaluate their priorities.
Total hoax and overreaction. Everyone should be put at risk for my entertainment.
Most of us aren’t at any serious risk with this. It’s the elderly and the ill that are at risk.
And to be fair, most probably elderly won’t be going to these events.
Absolutely right. This is nothing more than a new strand of the flu. And like the flu, the vast majority of deaths are in either people over 80 or people with pre-existing medical conditions.
And elderly people never talk to or come into contact with non-elderly folks.
I’m not saying we can’t get it from elderly people. I’m just saying that if a healthy, non-elderly person gets it, there’s a 99.8% chance they won’t die from it. That’s roughly the same percentage as the regular flu.
I’m saying you can give it to an elderly person next time you’re shopping wal-mart. And there’s not a 99.8% chance that elderly person won’t die from it.
it’s pretty clear this guy only cares about himself
Here’s what the CDC says. If they are 80 or older, and get the coronavirus, they have a roughly 15% chance of dying (conservative estimate).
60 or older drops down to about 8% (again, a conservative estimate).
The death rate of this disease is much higher than the flu
The concern is that people are contagious before they show symptoms. Added to the fact that the virus can live on surfaces for hours or days (under the right circumstances) and that it has a much high mortality rate than a “regular” flu, an abundance of caution is prudent. There’s absolutely no need to risk spreading this virus any further on account of collegiate sports.
I understand it saves lots of lives. I do indeed think it’s worth it to save even 1 life. People safety is more important than anything. It’s just the fact that the tournament could probably still go on and no one get the virus. But I didn’t meant to stir anything up and I realize I didn’t emphasize the impact it makes on human health. I apologize.
Taking precautions is not a silly over reaction, it’s smart. And I’ll remember 2020 as the season Mizzou finally ended it with a win!
Fans really? Please hold your fake concern for these athletes.. you just as trash as your school
bummer
Yes it is :'(
UGA and GT are suspending classes for two weeks and will probably switch to online. Augusta University will probably do the same shortly.
As long as they have this all figured out by football season, all is fine. Outside of a few areas, basketball is just something to fill in the winter. No one really cares.
Really football is more important than lives?? I can’t
Grow up! Moron!
This is an awful situation. I suppose they are doing what they feel is necessary. Cancelled the CWS as well? Of course when my Gators are off to their hottest start.
Months, even years of hard work and preparation, with nothing for any of these kids to show for it. If this is how we are going to act over a simple disease, then we might as well never play sports during the winter months since that’s flu season. The coronavirus is nothing more than a new strand of flu created in a lab in China to disrupt our economy as a response to Trump’s tariffs. It’ll be pretty widespread this year, but after we’ve been exposed to it, it won’t be a big deal. The liberal media saw a chance to use this to tank the economy and make Trump look bad in an election year, and they jumped at that chance.
lol, interesting disinformation, but we’ll stick to facts, thanks
Not disinformation. China admitted back in January to creating the disease in a lab and “accidentally” releasing it.
“virologists who’ve parsed the genome and infectious disease experts who study coronaviruses say they have enough evidence the virus is brand new and came from nature. A large group of them, citing genome analyses from multiple countries, recently affirmed in The Lancet that the virus originated in wildlife.”
Source: Vox, referencing a paper uploaded to Virological . Org ; The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2
Stop listening to Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
we’ll stick to the science. you keep your disinformation
I don’t see any good evidence for thinking this is all some Chinese bio-war conspiracy, but can’t you find something better than Vox to counteract an argument?
The source was a scientific paper, which was quoted in the Vox article. I specifically referenced the paper. Vox was where I read about it, but was not the source of the science. C’mon, man…
Ah, thank you.
LOL, Kirby trashing Vox.
After doing some more digging, you are right, China did not admit to creating the disease. These, however are some facts that have emerged about the location of the virus’s origin.
-The disease originated in bats.
-The city of Wuhan, where there outbreak first occurred, is home to a market, which regularly sells bats, which are eaten in many parts of China. Wuhan is also home to a biological research lab, which… a) is known to have been conducting experiments on bats late last year, and b) has been known to sell animals to the market that have been used in experiments, and the market then sells meat from those animals.
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect those dots, especially given that the Communist Chinese government is known to release diseases on its people for experimental and population control purposes. Now, obviously that doesn’t prove that China deliberately created and released the coronavirus, but China also hasn’t exactly been helpful, or truthful, in helping the rest of the world deal with this outbreak. It seems very convenient that just as our tariffs were really starting to hurt their economy, an outbreak starts in their country that decimates the rest of the world’s economies as well.
oooh some information mixed in with the disinformation. why do you accept the science that says it comes from bats but not the same science that says the origins are natural? potus hasn’t exactly been the model of honesty or helpful either, so why not say he planted the virus over there to hurt them? just as substantiated by the facts as your conspiracy
Y’know, drinking that much kool-aid can lead to poisoning.
Lol
People are dying. Stop it.
I don’t understand why we couldn’t just move forward to have the tournament without any spectators. Perhaps that along with a plan to play in smaller venues and reducing the number of tournament sites and travel would have been a viable alternative.
The NCAA is just trying to save itself from further media criticism. All I heard on ESPN this morning was them bashing the NCAA and MLB for not having cancelled upcoming events yet.
Several schools had withdrawn prior to the announcement including blue bloods Kansas and Duke. Several of the venues are in cities with bans on gatherings of over 200 people. Even without the fans a tournament will involve that many people.
That’s fair, though I thought if the tournament was to go on, it made no sense to play at the scheduled venues. For one thing, increased travel is an increased risk for infection. Play in gyms, heck HS gyms, whatever. What difference would it make without fans anyway?
The stupidity of some is astounding. Do some freakin research.
Exactly. I crunched some numbers last night using official statistics on the disease and came to the conclusion that, at worst, the Coronavirus is no more than twice as deadly as the flu. The mortality rate from flu in healthy, non-elderly people is .1%. In those same people, the mortality rate from this virus has been .2%. That’s just one more person out of every 1,000. If I had planned on going to the NCAA Tournament, I would have gladly taken that risk if it meant getting to watch March Madness, and likewise if I was a player or coach participating in it.
So ignore the experts.
Actually, right the opposite. The statistics I used were averages from multiple official health resources, including the CDC. There were very clear tables showing the mortality rate of every age demographic and those with different respiratory illnesses. Then I found the total deaths/case for those two groups, subtracted it from the deaths/case of everyone else, and was then able to come up with the mortality rate of the 150,000 or so people who have tested positive worldwide. Pretty simple and basic math really. It doesn’t take an “expert” to use data to solve basic equations for determining mortality rates.
This guy crunched the numbers everyone so we must believe him. He literally crunched the numbers himself.
From the WHO
AGE
DEATH RATE
all cases
80+ years old
14.8%
70-79 years old
8.0%
60-69 years old
3.6%
50-59 years old
1.3%
40-49 years old
0.4%
30-39 years old
0.2%
20-29 years old
0.2%
10-19 years old
0.2%
I guess if you’re under 50 then who really cares, right? Who cares about all the other people that may be a little older or have pre-existing conditions. Who cares about them, right? Just because you’re not worried about little ole you, doesn’t mean you should put millions of other people in danger too.
My point isn’t that those people don’t matter. My point is that this virus is no more deadly than the regular flu is to those demographics. We don’t shut down the country for the flu every year do we? Why are we shutting down over this, then?
Again, where are you getting these numbers? You’re completely wrong.
From the CDC for the 2018-2019 flu season:
50-64 yrs – estimated illnesses = 9,238,038, estimated deaths = 5,676. thats 0.061%
65+ yrs – estimated illnesses = 3,073,227, estimated deaths = 25,555. thats 0.83%
All ages – estimated illnesses 35,520,883, estimated deaths = 34,157. thats 0.096%
“My point isn’t that those people don’t matter. My point is that this virus is no more deadly than the regular flu is to those demographics.”
@kaudyaufan2:
Your point is forking wrong. Do research before you say stuff that is incorrect by orders of magnitude, please.
This is 100% the right decision. Not to mention cancelling all Spring sports is a bit of karma back at the NCAA for unjustly sanctioning Mizzou’s Baseball and Softball teams for 2020 post-season. Sounds like everybody is sanctioned now.
Lol… i love the energy
I wonder if they will push those sanctions to 2021. Don’t give them any ideas.
Hush…
Lol, yeah that’s not gonna happen. If anything they’ll just find another egregious example of poor institutional control and add an additional year to the ban, like the pail of bubblegum in the dugout was too big.
I’m not sure canceling the CWS is warttanted, but I think that it’s probably a good idea to postpone competition for a couple of weeks.
I hope the NCAA does the right thing, and grants any senior (in any sport) who lost part of their season to this an extra year of eligibility, and a waiver to scholarship limits for those student-athletes.
You mean have the NCAA actually care about the athletes???
LMAO
The media is succeeding in their quest to make everyone panic…at the same time I’m all for saving lives and if this does it…then it’s worth it…but does anyone remember this kind of panic over the swine flu? I sure don’t…
most people aren’t panicking and don’t need to. but that doesn’t mean that some simple precautions can’t prevent suffering and save lives. does it make sense to treat every disease the same? no. these are 2 different diseases, so the same response isn’t necessarily right
But this disease is no more deadly than the flu for 95% of the population. The other 5% are people over 80 or with pre-existing medical conditions, and the mortality rate for every disease is higher for those people. We could get through this just fine by restricting nursing home visitation, banning international travel, and limiting ER visits to only extreme cases for a couple of weeks. I’m with the comment above. If this disease had an extremely high mortality rate, then I’d be all for doing whatever is necessary. But the only demographics at an abnormally high risk are those who already have much weaker immune systems, and those same people are just as likely to die from the flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc.
cool more disinformation. so far data and estimates show it as more deadly than the flu across age demographics. even if it was only more deadly for one group (it isn’t) we’d still have the issue of that group being severely affected. should we be okay with anyone over 65 getting a disease that is about 10 times as deadly for them as the already dangerous flu? we could get through this best by listening to professionals who know something about what they’re saying. and shouldn’t we care about more than just death? what about suffering? what about people whose infection with this virus leads to complications that allow something else to harm or kill them? what about the drain on resources that the outbreak can have that exacerbate inefficiencies in the system and increase cases of rationing that can cause care for everyone to suffer?
2020 Women’s Basketball National Champions South Carolina Gamecocks. Raise a banner
They should grant an extra year of eligibility to all of the seniors if they would choose to take it.
And a waiver to scholarship limits for those seniors, so as not to screw over underclassmen.
I agree
But that effects recruiting too
But aren’t most basketball players already signed by now?
And pretty much every other sport that I can think of.
Jalen Green is Auburn’s top target. But if Auburn returns depth that might alter his decision.
With the tournament right around the corner I had forgotten about him, but you’re right. Last I’d heard he was gonna make a decision the second week in April. Not sure where all this leaves him in his decision-making process now.
It’s ok to err on the side of caution but this is over the top. If you’re old or have compromised health then yes stay at home. Are we going to do this every winter now moving forward?
That’s exactly what I have been saying. A little common sense is all that is needed to get past this. The elderly and others with weakened immune systems have a higher mortality rate from any disease than the rest of us. So obviously those people need to take more extreme precautions than the rest of us. But it’s not like those same people aren’t just as likely to die from the flu, pneumonia, or another disease.
more disinformation!
“we all gonna die anyways so who cares about anything” /s
As a guy that works in the this field and has access to the numbers. This comes down to the US health care system ability to treat a possible outbreak, if this would become even 10% more then the annual flu in acuity, then hospitals would have to start choosing who would have to die. If most of you even understood how crapy some aspects of our healthcare system truly were. AMA if you have any specific Q’s.
good luck when the local “geniuses” show up with their imaginary “facts” and “true” opinions
It’s the fact that taking these risks might be worthless. What if they didn’t cancel the tournament and no one gets sick. Even if they did, people under 50 can lose it about a few weeks if they do what they’re supposed to. And these college basketball players are very healthy people. So if they got it, they wouldn’t be able to play but they would be in no danger. By overreaction I mean no one gets scared of the flu. But yet the flu kills lots of people every year and no one seems to care. But when someone gets the coronavirus everyone’s super cautious and everything. So if we’re gonna be that way about the virus, the flu is literally the same thing. It’s deadly. But it can be lost in about a week or two.
You go to the Auburn game with 50K other fine feeling folks. You sit next to a guy who has the virus but doesn’t know it because he feels great. Auburn wins so you give the guy a big high five and maybe a hug. A week later grandma ask you over for dinner. Two weeks later she’s dead.
Your point?
I’m not trying to be mean. And I’m not calling out anyone for their comments. We’re all supposed to have our opinions. That’s how we were made.
My point is the above is why events involving large crowds are being cancelled. You seem to think it no more than the flu. But that is not true. People who have the flu know they have the flu.
If I am misrepresenting your view, I apologize.
It’s all good. And btw my first reaction to this at the top of the page was one i regret and i should’ve put it differently. But after reading the article i just have to feel terrible for the players. The worked so hard for nothing.
I think it’s clear that Auburn wins the most self-centered fan base award. Quite impressive on these boards.
I literally apologize and then you react like that? Maybe Florida fans should be up there as well
And maybe stop talking trash to someone who’s not even in high school yet gator out west
No, frankly, we’re NOT ‘all supposed to have our opinions’. What your opinion might be, based on the categorically false assumption that this is no worse than the flu, might cause you to take actions thaty transmit this disease to a vulnerable family member of someones’ (or your own), who could die from it. This is not a discussion about funding for a new highway or a library. For old and sick people, this is life and death. Frankly this isn’t a ‘choose your own reality, my own opinion is what matters’ situation. This is a situation where the actual hard medical facts matter and could be the difference between you spreading a deadly disease to a vulnerable member of society or not. I suggest you do some research.
Again please stop trash talking a kid
And last thing, Alabama doesn’t have the coronavirus yet and we’re doing the best we can to keep it out. Also it’s not football season. The virus will clear up long before football season
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but all indications are it will return next fall with the cooler weather ):
I hope not. And as an athlete my self who is playing in a state tournament tonight hoping to help my team advance, it’s strange because all of my favorite players and ones i look up to, are not competing anymore. In NBA and NCAA. I feel strange about it and to not see my heros playing sickens me and I can’t get it off my mind
Good luck tonight. Kick butt.
I appreciate it. Thanks
From what I’ve gathered, it’s gonna be around every year kind of like the flu. But after this first spell, scientists will have to guess at what strand of coronavirus we will have next year in order to create a shot for it, just like they do for the flu shot. The years we have flu epidemics are because the scientists just guessed wrong on what strands of flu we would have that year.
Dang
Why am I not surprised that a bunch of SEC fans can’t think more than one step ahead of the present? Good grief, society is so stupid.
There’s simply no reason to risk the health of collegiate athletes and the tens to hundreds of thousands of people (and the millions more those people will subsequently come in contact with in the following days) on account of sports-based entertainment. There are far more important things in life.
That’s true
“bUt MuH fEeLiNgS?!”
Some people feel they have hunches more accurate than science and opinions more important than facts. The rest of us are apparently supposed to just blindly follow their gut…which coincidently produces poo and leads to the toilet. But oh, what a ride!
None of these overreaction comments are aging well. And lol kody, China regularly releases viruses for population control. Can’t help stupid, I guess.