For the next seven weeks, the first, second, third and fourth priority for college sports is making sure the NCAA men’s basketball tournament gets played on time with all 68 teams and as few disruptions as possible.
Given the NCAA’s $600 million revenue decline as a result of canceling the tournament last year, overcoming any and all COVID-19 obstacles to play the tournament is pretty much an existential issue for the association.
Anyone who has looked at a nightly college basketball scoreboard knows it won’t be simple to pull it off. Every day COVID-19 is hitting players and coaches, shutting down teams due to contact tracing and wreaking havoc with the schedule.