*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional*
Harvard became one of the first Universities in the US to announce this week that they will be cancelling the remainder of the school year and that students will be forced to be off campus by Sunday, March 15th with all classes transitioning to online.
Since then, there have been many other Universities that have cancelled classes and events on campus until further notice. Including:
- Harvard University – campus closed for remainder of semester & all classes moved to online
- Ohio State University – campus closed & classes moved to online through March 30
- University of Michigan – campus closed for remainder of semester & all classes moved to online. All events that gather 100+ people or more cancelled for remainder of semester (April 21)
- UCLA – classes moved to online & cancelling gatherings of 100+ people for remainder of quarter through April 10
- Temple University – classes end in-person on March 13 and transition to online through end of semester, students that live on-campus urged to move-out before March 21 and off-campus students encouraged to move home immediately
There are many more Universities making arrangements an announcements as you read this. I imagine essentially every University will end the semester online and campuses will be closed for the remainder of the semester as this is where we are trending. Now, what does that mean for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, NCAA Frozen Four, NCAA Women’s Gymnastics, and all other postseason tournaments? Currently we just saw the NCAA President, Mark Emmert announce there will be no fans at the NCAA Tournament this year.
UCLA is hosting the NCAA West Regional for Women’s Gymnastics and announced yesterday that there will be no fans in attendance. According to the current state of NCAA.com to purchase tickets for the Women’s Gymnastics NCAA National Championships in Fort Worth, TX, there will be NO FANS in attendance
Cornell Gymnastics will not host the 2020 USAG Collegiate National Championships on the women’s side. With Cornell not hosting and I do not imagine a different institution being able to host in the current state of the country’s health and inability to travel certain places. If this meet still happens, it would have be at a neutral site in my opinion.
I do not see many NCAA postseason sporting events being hosted with fans in attendance in Basketball, Hockey, or Gymnastics. This is a developing story with news breaking by the minute, so stay tuned for more to come.
Chris Licameli 