Reshaping The NCAA In The Wake Of COVID-19

The Kansas Jayhawk's wrapping up a practice section for the NCAA tournament (Phil Roeder / flickr.com) 

The NCAA made the tough decision to cancel the Men’s Division I basketball tournament on March 12th. This comes as a result of growing concerns about the novel coronavirus. The March Madness cancellation comes as the first since the NCAA started in 1939.


NCAA member schools shut down campuses and sent students home before the cancellation. Schools like Duke University also suspended all athletic events, including their involvement in March Madness amidst growing coronavirus fears. As more major sports leagues suspended their seasons, NCAA President Mark Emmert decided to cancel the Division I basketball tournament, as well as all remaining winter and spring tournaments.


“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,” Emmert said in a statement on the NCAA website.


The league now has to deal with pressing issues. A decision was made on the eligibility of spring sport athletes, with the NCAA approving an extra year of eligibility for all spring sport athletes whose seasons were canceled due to COVID-19. To athletes, this news is bittersweet. Those who agree to return for another year may receive a smaller amount of scholarship money. Coaches from all across the country also begin recruiting in the spring, something now made impossible by the ongoing pandemic.


The NCAA makes about one billion dollars from the tournament annually; however, the decision to cancel March Madness also heavily impacted small businesses, especially sports bars and restaurants. When the event was announced as being closed to the public, there was still hope that people would come in to watch it on TV, but being entirely shut down will cause huge economic damage on these small businesses.


“It’s those local institutions and hourly people, who survive on tips and getting those extra shifts — that’s what will be lost,” sports economic professor Victor Matheson said in an interview with USA Today.


The decision to cancel the March Madness tournaments heavily impacts all aspects of college sports and beyond, even down to local businesses. With the NCAA’s ongoing changes, one can only wonder what will happen for college sports in the coming years.

Thomas O'Shea also contributed to this article.