In a move that was looking inevitable as word of major conference basketball tournament cancellations flowed in throughout the week, the NCAA has canceled all remaining championship events for the school year, it announced Thursday.
‘The 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 decision by other entities.”
NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships: https://t.co/qzKAS4McEI pic.twitter.com/G6XreZx35E
— NCAA (@NCAA) March 12, 2020
The 2020 Division I NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships were scheduled to begin March 18 for women and March 25 for men; Division II was set to start on the 18th as well. Division II’s event began Wednesday, March 11, and ended with the announcement on Thursday.
The scoreboard at DII NCAAs read “The Championships have been canceled. Please visit NCAA.com for more information.” Photo credit: Ryan Kauth
Wednesday, the NCAA announced that it would bar spectators – excluding athletes’ families – from championship events. The progression to canceling the events entirely mirrors the response of the National Basketball Association, which briefly just barred fans from attending games in-person before suspending the season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert test positive for COVID-19 Wednesday night.
After the NBA’s unprecedented announcement, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League followed suit. While conference championship season in swimming concluded last week, major basketball tournaments were ongoing – but the Ivy League pulled the plug on its tournament and all spring athletics Wednesday, with conferences including the Pac-12, Big East and ACC doing the same Thursday.
It was generally the case that it was up to individual schools to decide whether they would allow athletes to travel for winter sports postseason events, but the ACC issued a blanket ban for its athletes earlier on Thursday.
The announcement will surely conjure debate as to how student-athletes’ eligibility will be affected, which remains to be seen.
Update: The CSCAA’s National Invitational Championship (NIC) meet has just confirmed that it will swim tonight’s finals session, then end the meet.
What does this mean for zones spots for diving 2021?
China needs to get their stuff together and join the 21st century. Wet markets and eating bats for food…that is for dark ages peasantry. Close all wet markets forever, and do it now!
Over reaction. Just look at the statistical data.
wut
Swine-flu H1N1 – 2009:
60.8 million cases
12,469 deaths
MSM back in 2009? I don’t recall this level of panic.
That death rate was about .02%, or over 100x lower than we’re looking at here…
Over re action. Look at the statistics –
If you had a 1% chance of dying if you flipped on a light switch, would you do it? Projected 50-60% attack rate, mortality in U.S. at 2.6%, and that’s before we’ve outstripped out hospitals, ICUs, etc. Read about what’s happening in Northern Italy. They’re just letting some people die because they don’t have enough resources.
Here’s a good statistic: https://fox8.com/news/coronavirus/ohio-health-officials-100000-ohians-already-carrying-coronavirus/
Can’t you just have them sign wavers to not sue? I know I’d be okay with a risk of getting sick if it meant my season didn’t end.
Just can’t go to sleep on today’s bad news. Got to thinking about the Postal Meet comment mention…
What about an Alternative Championship Meet – BEST vs BEST – all qualified NCAA swimmers and divers may participate from home pool:
SWIMMING: Virtual 4,800 yard aggregate ‘relay’ (with officials): Comprised of best combined time from separate individual time trial races recorded in – 100BK 100BR, 100FL, 100FR, 1,650FR, 50FR, 500FR, 200FR, 200FR, 200FR, 200FR, 400IM,100FR, 200BK, 100FR, 200BR, 100FR, 200FL and 100FR. The fastest combined time determines a respective team place in swimming. One person could swim multiple times to post scores to the ‘relay’. All races must be recorded in one 5 hr ‘final’. Could be competed as one… Read more »
every team should just run an intrasquad meet. Submit results and run a virtual championship….
It’s time to stop and think, gather facts, and make sound decisions based on actual facts, rather than allowing fear and media driven hysteria to rule our lives. Is COVID-19 a new an aggressive virus? Yes, yes it is. Is it reason to stop EVERYTHING from happening and canceling every sporting event, worship service, theme park, or group gathering? 100% no!! Education is key to our collective success, or failure, in any situation, but most definitely in a crisis. The NCAA has made a bad decision based on fear and an absence good judgement. But then again, that line has grown pretty long.
Educate yourselves with the facts.
From the CDC site itself:
“While information so far… Read more »
It’s a strange situation. I live in a city that has 0 CV cases, and I don’t think people are going to stop gathering in large numbers in certain places. While schools, colleges are closed and athletic contests cancelled, music venues, grocery stores, health clubs and other place that attract crowds are open and I suspect will remain open unless things get bad–and there is no bad at the moment–except that a lot of people are in a self-induced panic and going out and buying huge quantities of food as if they expect to be forced to stay home for 3 months. Don’t see that happening, frankly. Are people supposed to self-isolate for weeks to avoid getting CV–even though the… Read more »
NCAA did not make the decision first. They were forced to because the major schools made the decision to end their season.
Delay…postpone…reschedule…anything but totally canceling. Time is needed to properly assess the risks and find alternatives.
In the end, the athletes could compete without fans. Not ideal, but certainly better than nothing.
I’m just so sad for all the seniors. Not to minimize the disappointment of the lower classes, but at least “they have next year.”