The following is a statement from CBS, announcing the sporting events cancelled due to coronavirus:
Thursday, Mar 12, 2020
Well, it brings me no pleasure to be back in your inbox so soon, but I’ve got some unfortunate (albeit pretty expected) news to pass along. The coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc on the landscape of sports and beyond. The latest casualty is the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
Any hope of finding a way to continue March Madness this year was officially squashed on Thursday afternoon when it was announced that the NCAA would be canceling all of its remaining winter and spring athletic championships, including our beloved men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
Over the past 48 hours, nearly all major sports leagues and organizations have suspended or canceled major events. Below is the latest on how the sports world has been affected by coronavirus.
📰 What you need to know
NCAA cancels March Madness 🏀
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at this point, but the NCAA has decided to cancel March Madness entirely . The decision comes a day after the association announced they would play the tournament without any fans in arenas as a measure to curb the outbreak of coronavirus, but ultimately it was decided that the best and safest course of action would be to cancel the event altogether.
• It is the first time the NCAA Tournament will not be held since it was established in 1939
• NCAA statement: “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 the spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decision by other entities.”
• The cancellation also applies to the men’s and women’s College World Series, the Frozen Four, the NCAA wrestling championships and more
Again, it’s an unprecedented decision but, as stunning as it may seem on the surface, it really isn’t all that surprising given the way things have been trending over the past few days. The NBA suspending its season on Wednesday night set a seismic shift in motion, and individual conference tournaments began being canceled early Thursday morning. After that, it almost seemed inevitable that the Tournament was going to be scrapped.
It’s heartbreaking and devastating news for not only all of us fans who love and look forward to the tournament each year, but also for the players and coaches who worked hard all year to get to this point only to have it taken away. There are seniors on these teams that are forced to surrender their final shot at glory, as well as others who were hoping to use the platform to raise their draft stock.
With that being said, the right decision isn’t always easy and it seems like this was the appropriate route given the circumstances and the risks at stake.
🚨 Other coronavirus updates
The NCAA cancellation is the biggest news of the day but there are a number of other major developments regarding the coronavirus infiltrating the sports world.
• The NHL has officially suspended their 2019-2020 season
• MLB has suspended Spring Training and will delay Opening Day by at least two weeks
• MLS suspended its season for 30 days and U.S. Soccer canceled its scheduled USMNT & USWNT friendlies in March and April
• The NFL has outright canceled its annual league meeting as the league office continues to discuss how to approach April’s draft
• Donovan Mitchell became the second Utah Jazz player to test positive for coronavirus. Mitchell’s test came back positive on Thursday. Rudy Gobert was the first to test positive on Wednesday and, according to reports, Gobert Gobert had been careless in the locker room in terms of touching other players and their belongings despite warnings about the severity of the bug
• NASCAR plans to run its upcoming races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway but without fans in attendance
• WWE is preparing contingency plans for WrestleMania 36 (scheduled for April 5) but remains committed to hosting the event at Raymond James Stadium
