NCAA Tournament (Men's and Women's) cancelled
- Thread starter SteveNU
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That's the first thing I thought of: I can't imagine if this had occurred in 2017, when Northwestern finally made the Dance. It would've been soul-crushing. The team I feel the sorriest for is Rutgers on the Men's side. They haven't been there since 1991 and they had such a breakthrough year.
The NCAA also cancelled all winter and spring sports championships.
It sucks but it's the right call. What can't be taken: a fabulous and fun season, a certain spot in the tournament under any other conditions, and one of the very best teams in the country.
That would really make the transfer portal come alive. Teams don't have room for their current seniors next year because they've already recruited and been accepted by players to replace them. You can't kick the newcomers out, so where do all the 5th years go?
The NCAA certainly has enough money to make a one-time exception to honor scholarships of seniors coming back for an additional season. And they should not count against the limits in each sport.
Could someone put on paper what this means to men’s baseball, women’s softball, women’s lacrosse, the golf and tennis teams, swimming, fencing, on and on. Do we have other champion squads who won’t reach their rewards? Wrestling NCAAs are gone??? Please sum it up.
Even with one-time scholarship cap exemptions (which most schools can easily afford), player free agency will come alive. Certain schools will opt for incoming talent and tell their seniors that their minutes will be limited, sending them into the grad transfer portal. Conversely, certain freshman may opt to go somewhere else so as to not lose time behind older guys who aren’t quite pro material but are great college players.
The issue truly gets thorny when you start parsing out who gets one more year. Is it just people in the obvious NCAA tournament teams? What about the bubble guys who were still alive in their conference tournaments? Or the teams that technically still had a pathway to the conference tourney title? And then what about the conferences without tournaments? Or guys like Spencer who lost in the first round and technically exhausted their eligibility?
I’ll tell you what, though. I don’t know PS, but my guess is he’d dive headfirst into one more year of college hoops.
Basketball is not a spring sport, it's a winter sport. They're talking about the sports like baseball that are barely into their seasons.
All sports have been canceled for the remainder of the academic year. There will be no further games, no championships, nothing until the fall.
All sports have been canceled for the remainder of the academic year. There will be no further games, no championships, nothing until the fall.
just announced: The NCAA council committee is recommending eligibility relief for athletes in all SPRING sports. Also exploring the possibility of relief for winter athletes who were denied a chance to compete in conference and NCAA championships.
The details are still being determined but it sounds like Spencer might lose out since NU technically played, lost and ended its season in time. That sucks.
The details are still being determined but it sounds like Spencer might lose out since NU technically played, lost and ended its season in time. That sucks.
Good news for Rutgers fans and others wondering if their team would make the tournament: the NCAA may yet finalize and release a 68 team bracket. They should do it for the Women’s bracket as well so we could see where NU would have been seeded:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...of-2020-ncaa-tournament-over-coronavirus/amp/
Not going to happen. The virus will be a problem for at least a few more months and besides most of the schools are closed, including NU.
I think it's a hypothetical bracket. The tournaments won't happen, but they'll still go through with the seeding just so we can see what would have been.
Yup - not so much hypothetical but “based on games through 3/11, these are the 68 teams that would have made the field”.
I hope they do it. Northwestern WBB would then be able to list a NCAA “appearance” in WR, with an asterisk.
They can already hang a banner as Big Ten Champs, which is more important, IMO. Everybody knows the Big Ten Champs would get an NCAA bid.
The only open question, I think, is whether or not the women would have hosted.
Mostly agree. I think they definitely would have hosted and, therefore, been favored to make the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. So they miss out on a 'Sweet 16' banner, assuming they would put that designation on a banner like, for example, DePaul does. By the way, there are going to be banners at WRA, right?
Well, there should definitely be banners somewhere. I remember seeing banners for the WLAX championships pre-renovation; I wasn't looking for banners in the games I attended post-renovation.
Yes, for a few years pre-renovation there were banners for every NU sport with all sorts of achievements. That was taking things a bit far. Now there are no banners anywhere. All I'm asking for are banners recognizing Big Ten titles and post-season achievements (and possibly individual achievements/retired numbers) for the teams that play home games at WRA.