March Madness canceled: Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournaments canceled due to coronavirus

Amid growing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA has canceled the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournaments.

After initially deciding the NCAA Tournaments would continue without fans in attendance and only essential personnel allowed access, the NCAA has changed course. The Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournament has been canceled in the wake of concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus. Further, all winter and spring championship events have been canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision is the latest unprecedented move and represents the first time since 1939 that March Madness did not go on uninterrupted. While unprecedented, it’s less shocking considering the cancelation of 14 conference tournaments on Thursday.

It was a wave of cancelations from the Big Ten, then the SEC and the AAC followed. After a few moments, the rest of the conferences followed suit with the A-10, ACC, CAA, Sun Belt and more followed with their decision to cancel the tournaments.

While the cancelations were sweeping the nation, the Big East proceeded with their tournament as Creighton and St. John’s began play. Eventually, the Big East decided to cancel the tournament while the two teams were at halftime.

After the NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, UEFA suspending their season, it seemed like an inevitability that the NCAA Tournament would be canceled or postponed. Plus there were several colleges moving to online-only classes and spring football practices and other spring athletic events were postponed or canceled, the NCAA Tournament waiting so long to make a decision was a bit surprising.

It was the only decision to make.

But it was pretty much made for them after schools like Kansas and Duke, among others, suspended athletic activities and travel. The NCAA Tournament was not going to take place without it’s No. 1 seed Kansas and without the Blue Devils.

Selection Sunday for the Men’s Tournament was set for March 15 with the First Four beginning on Tuesday and the first “full” day of March Madness on that Thursday. The Women’s Tournament was scheduled to begin on March 20.

The novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The virus spreads similarly to influenza, with sneezing and coughing as the primary vectors of infection. The World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11 and countries have implemented curfews, travel bans and mandatory quarantines to help prevent its spread.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.

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