NCAA Cancels March Madness Due to COVID-19

Less than 24 hours after announcing that March Madness will go on without fans, the NCAA announced today that the NCAA Tournament will be canceled for the 2020 season.

The news, which is no doubt the biggest disappointment possible for the players, fans, and coaches, is understandable considering what has changed in the past 24 hours.

Since making the announcement, the NBA suspended the season (after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19), MLS postponed the beginning of their season, the NHL suspended the start of their season,MLB postponed for at least two weeks, and all of the Power 5 basketball conferences canceled their conference tournaments (although the Big East gave it a good run).

The ball continued to roll after the Duke Blue Devils and Kansas Jayhawks announced their athletics programs were suspended until further notice. At that point, the writing was already on the wall in a huge, block-lettered, street mural style.

Earlier yesterday, state of Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a ban on public events with 250-plus people in Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties. Later in the evening, the federal government announced a ban on all flight travel from Europe (except from the United Kingdom).

Also, on a personal note, as somehow who resides in Seattle, and whose county has issued a Public Health directive stating that I am essentially not allowed to visit my parents because they are at high-risk, and whose partner currently spends every waking minute worrying about her grandparent and great-aunt in an assisted living home, and who has watched many places close, and who has watched people lose their income sources, not to mention all of the other ways that COVID 19 is affecting the world, please think for one iota of a second before you comment that the whole situation is overblown.