Shut it down — by Chad Sherwood
I love college basketball. While I watch all 4 major professional sports leagues, plus follow college football devoutly, college hoops is far and away my number 1 sports interest. It led to me, even as a kid, making my own mock brackets and doing my own Bracketology long before that word even existed. My favorite week of every year has always been conference tournament week, and today — the Thursday of those tournament when virtually every major school is in action with games that could make or break their bids and their seeding, has long been my favorite calendar day of the year.
Although the COVID-19 virus has been around for several months, and gotten more serious here in the last few weeks, even I did not take the issue too seriously until the past week or so, something that I think all of us may be guilty of. With yesterday’s news, not only of the NCAA Tournament and all the conference tournaments restricting fan access, but of the NBA (and now MLS as well) suspending their seasons, has completely changed my mind on the entire subject.
I love March Madness. I love Championship Week. I am a Rutgers grad who has a chance to see his school make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the year before I even enrolled there. Yet, even with all of that passion I have for this game, for these events, and for my school, at the end of the day this is a GAME. It is for ENTERTAINMENT. And when health and lives are at risk, games and entertainment need to step back. The NBA did the right thing. MLS did the right thing. Hopefully, the NHL and MLB will follow suit shortly. It is time for the NCAA to do the right thing. I hate it for the loss of my personal passion. I hate it for the kids who have dreamed of playing in the Big Dance and would have been in this year, but now never will. But this is a lot bigger than that. I hope and pray that a few months from now we all look back and say “wow, that COVID-19 thing ended up being no big deal at all, why did we shut it all down?” But I do not think we need to take the risk that we instead look back and say “Why the heck did we keep PLAYING GAMES when health and lives were at risk?” I am willing to give up this season, this championship, and this sport that I love to protect people.
In sum, I think these games need to be shut down immediately. If it is possible to postpone March Madness and turn it into May Madness, I am ok with that — but we need to be certain that teams are not even gathering to practice until this blows over — and if it is still around in May, cancel it altogether. If postponing is not realistic, then just cancel it. I cannot enjoy watching this game when I know there is a health risk to every player, coach, media member and fan that is present. Please NCAA, do the right thing.