We already knew, however, the NCAA announcement Monday that its full men’s basketball tournament will be held in a city in March 2021, probably Indianapolis, tells us something quite a bit about the situation in school athletics.
Come on COVID-19 hell or raw, March Madness will be played in spring.
It doesn’t have to be a general NCAA tournament or a Final Four. It is not necessarily mandatory to have enthusiasts in the stands. Hell, he doesn’t even want to be preceded for much of a normal season, and more in a moment.
The whole point became transparent in the last line of the NCAA press release: “CBS Sports and Turner Sports will continue to distribute all 67 tournament games on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV and their virtual platforms. “
A $850 million fine if ever there has been.
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With a $270 million insurance policy that recovers some of that money, the NCAA can only cancel a year of March Madness, the occasion that accounts for nearly all of its $1. 1 billion in annual revenue. He can’t take a second.
In a global that revolves around COVID-19, nothing is guaranteed. But the NCAA can’t leave much to chance, so this is the only solution that makes sense.
“We’ve noticed that the pandemic has been controlled in the state, county, and city with local fitness authorities,” senior basketball vice president Dan Gavitt said in an interview posted on the NCAA website. “This will be almost the case even in March and April and looking to manage an occasion of 68 teams, 67 matches over 3 weeks safely and guiltyly wants to be controlled in a much more controlled unique environment. “
It might not exactly be a bubble, but at least a plan, and it’s one that eliminates many variables that can derail an NCAA tournament played in an environment where COVID-19 infection rates remain the highest nationally.
Indianapolis, home to the NCAA, has more than 7,700 downtown hotel rooms, lucas Oil Stadium, where the Final Four was originally scheduled for 2021, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse as potentially important venues. University and IUPUI, as well as several gymnasiums of giant high schools in the metropolitan Doleading that would be perfectly acceptable.
The NCAA says it will continue discussions with other cities if things fail with Indianapolis, but the preference is obviously to stay close to home. However, the key to remembering is that a general NCAA tournament would be much to achieve.
Instead of looking to manage the logistics of 8 first weekend sites and 4 regional sites across the country, the NCAA can do everything from food service to transportation and testing from a centralized location. move home.
This does not guarantee a foolproof tournament or that all players have a negative result for 3 weeks, but given the choice of flight groups across the country and potentially in several cities where infection rates and local fitness protocols can be very different, this actually changes as a smart way to put more elements under NCAA law.
“We accumulate around a resolution that we couldn’t host the tournament in thirteen other locations,” said Kentucky sports director and NCAA basketball committee chairman Mitch Barnhart.
The NCAA may not be effective for many things, but it knows how to organize events, which will work because the NCAA has been following COVID-19 trends for months and can’t leave anything to chance.
Which is precisely the opposite of how school basketball as a whole will be reflected in the paintings at the beginning of this tournament.
A few months ago, there was a lot of artistic thinking about how to get games or meetings involved looking to create semi-bubbles in a position where groups would play a lot of games in a short period of time. because parties outside the conference are still underway, many others have collapsed or are moving in real time. Everything is rushed and random.
Meanwhile, meetings set schedules, however, there are many open dates to accommodate postponed games due to positive testing. Several schools across the country have interrupted education and coaches are resigned to the likelihood that at some point they will have to close for a few weeks and lose several games.
If the NCAA doesn’t push back the tournament to catch up on unique games, which is obviously not the NCAA’s preference but was not absolutely ruled through Gavitt, it’s actually imaginable that some groups can reach variety on Sunday. after playing less than 20. Games.
But that’s not the NCAA’s challenge or its responsibility. As long as 68 groups are available, they’re going to live with that.
Ultimately, what focuses on the short and long term of the NCAA is cashing that big cbS and Turner check. By launching its plans for the tournament now, the NCAA is making everyone aware that their survival is at stake.