COVID-19, Game Cancellations, and the NCAA Tournament
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 12:52 pm.
Further to the Seton Hall Covid issues thread, I am starting a new thread with its focus on ‘cancelled’ games and the NCAA Tournament itself.
The following excellent article by Matt Norlander is among the longest I have ever seen on a college basketball website, but it is well worth a read:
How omicron variant of COVID-19 could upend college basketball as leagues flip forfeit rules - Matt Norlander, CBS Sports – December 22, 2021
The article does not specifically address the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but if many of the NET Top 50 teams in mid-March are significantly affected by numerous unplayed games or player/team unavailability for the Tournament, the 2022 NCAA Tournament may turn out to be the most controversial ever.
College basketball hit hard by COVID-19 cancellations - Matt Norlander, CBS Sports – December 21, 2021
United States Coronavirus Cases – Worldometers – updated continuously
COVID-19 Forecasts: Cases - CDC.gov/coronavirus – updated December 22, 2021
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further to the Seton Hall Covid issues thread, I am starting a new thread with its focus on ‘cancelled’ games and the NCAA Tournament itself.
On December 22, 2021, Hall2012 wrote:On December 22, 2021, Omaha1 wrote:
I don’t see Creighton making a huge effort to try and reschedule a road game unless there are future openings created by additional cancellations. I could be completely wrong.
If everyone follows that thinking they won't get any potentially cancelled home games rescheduled either.
The following excellent article by Matt Norlander is among the longest I have ever seen on a college basketball website, but it is well worth a read:
How omicron variant of COVID-19 could upend college basketball as leagues flip forfeit rules - Matt Norlander, CBS Sports – December 22, 2021
Until 2021, there had never been widespread forfeit rules in place in college basketball. In fact, the NCAA hasn't recognized forfeits in its official statistics for more than 40 years. But in October and November, almost every conference voted to implement a policy that was crafted with the best of intentions. If a team could not play on account of COVID-19 issues for intra-league competition, it would forfeit and take a loss. The other team would get the win (only in the league standings). If both teams could not play due to COVID, it would be a no contest.
While this measure was brought with plenty of nodding and acceptance, it was never demonstrably popular, at least in men's basketball. CBS Sports polled more than 100 coaches for our annual summer survey series on this very topic; the findings were close to a 50/50 split. But big and small conferences alike instituted the forfeit rule as a public health service and a way to increase vaccination rates not just in men's basketball but throughout all NCAA sports.
Problem is, nobody saw omicron coming. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the President of the United States, said late last week that omicron would be the dominant variant by January with plenty more breakthrough infections than delta. He's already right about the latter and was wrong about the former -- because omicron is now, by a wide margin, the dominant variant in the U.S.
COVID is messing up college basketball. Again. Teams that have 100% vaccination rates have been sidelined by positive tests. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 55 teams have gone on pause this season, with north of 40 of those pauses active. The Big East has already forfeited three games. Four ACC teams can't play right now. At Yale, fans are no longer allowed at games until at least January.
On Tuesday, the Big 12 and Big West became the first leagues to walk back their forfeit procedures. The ACC followed suit Wednesday morning, followed by the Pac-12 and Mountain West. More leagues -- but not all -- are expected to rescind their policies. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told CBS Sports he expects the league to alter its forfeit rule before his conference begins intra-league games on Dec. 29.
CBS Sports talked with nearly a dozen commissioners this week, and as one told me, omicron has swept through college sports and caused more urgency than at any point since March 2020. Conferences that have changed their forfeit rules will now deem all league games that can't be rescheduled for the 2021-22 season to be no-contests. Fervid attempts will be made to reschedule whenever possible, but those opportunities will be whack-a-mole-like. A twist: the Pac-12 is maintaining an option to still assess a forfeit "in the event the conference standards of sportsmanship are not met in the process of attempting to reschedule a contest."
The Big Ten office said, "The conference is in the process of evaluating its 2021-22 forfeiture policy for conference contests, including whether a contest should automatically be considered a forfeit. The Big Ten doesn't have as much urgency around this as other leagues because the conference doesn't resume league play until Jan. 2.
Jackson and WAC commissioner Brian Thornton pointed out that rescheduling games can put other schools at a disadvantage and has downstream effects. Keeping forfeits means the schedule doesn't ever change, and it prevents teams that might -- might -- otherwise try and back out without real consequence in the balance. "It takes any gamesmanship off the table," Jackson said.
Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade said her league's athletic directors are keeping forfeit policies on the books with "agreement to give league authority to reschedule any game and reverse an earlier declared forfeiture." There will be ongoing reviews about no-contests and postponements.
Every commissioner I spoke with expressed some level of surprise over how quickly omicron has changed the calculus. The forfeit rule was put in place to increase vaccination, curb spread and maintain scheduling integrity. Breakthrough cases -- with mostly fully vaccinated but not yet boosted people -- has sideswiped sports.
"We were not able to establish a vaccine mandate across 11 states, so it communicated the importance of getting healthy, staying healthy and vaccination was central to that effort," Sankey said of the SEC. "Number two in that was games need to be played. You may have members of your team unable to play, but we're going to be sure the healthy members of your team are competing."
The end of December has already rocked college sports scheduling, and January promises to be even worse as health officials project omicron cases to skyrocket before a potential dramatic fall later into the winter.
Expect a lot more change in college sports on this front in the coming two weeks.
The article does not specifically address the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but if many of the NET Top 50 teams in mid-March are significantly affected by numerous unplayed games or player/team unavailability for the Tournament, the 2022 NCAA Tournament may turn out to be the most controversial ever.
College basketball hit hard by COVID-19 cancellations - Matt Norlander, CBS Sports – December 21, 2021
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Teams affected by COVID-19
Here is the list of schools affected by COVID-19 protocols, which will be updated as necessary, should more schools need to be added. Last updated: Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
1. Akron (currently paused)
2. Abilene Christian
3. Binghamton (currently paused)
4. Boston College (currently paused)
5. Bryant (currently paused)
6. Chicago State
7. Cleveland State (currently paused)
8. Colorado (currently paused)
9. Colorado State (currently paused)
10. Coppin State (currently paused)
11. Cornell (currently paused)
12. DePaul (currently paused)
13. Drexel (currently paused)
14. Duquesne (currently paused)
15. Evansville (currently paused)
16. Fairleigh Dickinson (currently paused)
17. FIU (currently paused)
18. Florida State (currently paused)
19. Fordham (currently paused)
20. Hampton (currently paused)
21. Georgetown (currently paused)
22. George Washington (currently paused)
23. Georgia State
24. Georgia Tech (currently paused)
25. Grand Canyon (currently paused)
26. Long Beach State (currently paused)
27. Louisville (currently paused)
28. Loyola Chicago (currently paused)
29. Loyola Maryland (currently paused)
30. Memphis (currently paused)
31. Morgan State (currently paused)
32. Nevada
33. Northeastern (currently paused)
34. Northern Illinois (currently paused)
35. Ohio State (currently paused)
36. Oregon State
37. Penn State (currently paused)
38. Purdue Fort Wayne (currently paused)
39. Rhode Island (currently paused)
40. Rice (currently paused)
41. Rutgers (currently paused)
42. Saint Joseph's (currently paused)
43. Saint Louis
44. Seton Hall
45. St. Francis Brooklyn (currently paused)
46. Syracuse (currently paused)
47. Texas Southern (currently paused)
48. Tulane (currently paused)
49. UCLA (currently paused)
50. UC Irvine (currently paused)
51. UC Riverside (currently paused)
52. USC (currently paused)
53. UTRGV
54. VCU (currently paused)
55. Wagner
56. Washington
United States Coronavirus Cases – Worldometers – updated continuously
COVID-19 Forecasts: Cases - CDC.gov/coronavirus – updated December 22, 2021
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------