As the coronavirus continues spreading, the NCAA cancels March Madness
March Madness is over for the 2019-2020 season.
The NCAA announced its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments that crown a Division I national champion were canceled following concerns regarding the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 and has spread throughout the world.
This follows 19 different conferences choosing to cancel their respective tournaments, including several that nixed their conference tournaments on Thursday. Those conferences were the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, American Athletic Conference and Big East.
Florida State was awarded the ACC’s regular-season championship trophy following the conference’s decision to cancel the men’s tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Earlier this week, the NCAA announced their tournaments to crown a national champion would go on as scheduled, but with only essential staff and limited family in attendance.
Duke University president Vincent Price suspended all athletic competition involving the Blue Devils effective Thursday, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. Kansas University announced via social media a decision to suspend all athletic travel, as well as home and away athletic events, indefinitely.
Following those announcements, #NoMarchMadness began to trend on Twitter.
The NCAA canceled all spring sports earlier, too, with the College World Series being the top spring national championship event no longer happening for the 2020 season.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 4:27 PM with the headline "As the coronavirus continues spreading, the NCAA cancels March Madness."
