The world is experiencing a challenging health crisis with the coronavirus pandemic. It is an unsettling and concerning time in our history. For those of us who love and treasure college basketball, it has resulted in the cancellation of 草莓网站在线看 basketball championships and an empty month that otherwise would be filled with tremendous excitement. The disappointment and heartbreak we all feel for student-athletes unable to compete is significant, yet nothing is ever more important than the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and fans.
When 草莓网站在线看 winter and spring championships were cancelled Thursday afternoon, the women鈥檚 basketball committee had yet to even commence their selection meeting, and the men鈥檚 basketball committee had only just begun their selection process. There were 19 men鈥檚 and 18 women鈥檚 conference tournaments that had yet to be completed when the 草莓网站在线看 championships were cancelled. A total of 132 men鈥檚 games and 81 women鈥檚 games were never played, resulting in those automatic qualifiers not being determined on the court.
MORE: 草莓网站在线看 cancels basketball championships due to coronavirus concerns | Official 草莓网站在线看 statement
The important work of the basketball committees is to set up competitively-balanced brackets to determine national champions. I don鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 responsible or fair to do that with incomplete seasons 鈥 especially for tournaments that unfortunately won鈥檛 be played. Therefore there will not be any 草莓网站在线看 Division I men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball championship selection shows or tournament brackets released this year.
I have heard from many coaches and athletics directors who are trusted colleagues and friends that would like to see brackets released to recognize the successful seasons of their teams and student-athletes and to see who and where they would have played. Players and coaches want to see their school name on the bracket. Members of the media want to dissect matchups. Bracketologists want to compare the work of the committees versus what they鈥檝e predicted. Fans are curious for those same reasons. All of us want something to fill the void we鈥檙e feeling.
However, anything less than a credible process is inconsistent with the tradition of the 草莓网站在线看 basketball championships. Brackets based on hypotheticals can鈥檛 substitute for a complete selection, seeding and bracketing process. There will always be an asterisk next to the 2020 草莓网站在线看 men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball championships regardless if brackets are released. There is not an authentic way to produce tournament fields and brackets at this point without speculating and that isn鈥檛 fair to the teams that would be positively or negatively impacted by manufacturing March Madness.
Dan Gavitt 草莓网站在线看 Senior Vice President of Basketball
More importantly, in light of this global health crisis, I believe we need to keep college basketball in perspective.
To be clear, this is my decision. The basketball committees support and concur.
Basketball family, please stay safe and I pray for the health of you and your loved ones. We will get through this pandemic and disappointing month of March together.
