March 12, 2020, will go down in sports history as the day the sports world stopped. The cause of this distribution? Potentially increasing the spread of the Coronavirus.
In a matter of 24 hours, collegiate sports went from Final Four tournaments continuing without fans in attendance to all winter and spring sports, including championship tournaments, being cancelled. The main concern is that the airborne COVID-19 would be difficult to contain in such large crowds.
In a statement, the NCAA said, “This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.