COLUMN: The Day The Tourneys Died
For starters, this story isn’t meant to be an indictment or endorsement from Thursday when the wave of coronavirus cancellations flooded athletics, entertainment, travel, schools, etc. — all reasonable initiatives designed to prevent cramped gatherings and safeguard against the spread of COVID-19.
Many see these cancellations as an over-reaction.
Some think caution is better than regret.
Others believe these safeguards come too late and fall too short.
Whichever category anyone falls into became trivial Thursday because now we’re all in this together — though advised to stay apart — with fluidity in life and sports the new norm, and all of us knowing this outbreak will get worse before better.
While writing this story:
*All of the conference basketball tournaments were canceled.
*MLB ditched spring training and pushed opening day back at least two weeks.
*The NCAA canceled its men’s and women’s national basketball tournaments.
*Shortly after that, the NCAA wiped out all of its winter and spring championship events.
*And 10 minutes later, my seventh-grade daughter’s school corp closed up and advised her and 9,299 others to stay home until further notice.
Broken Hearts
In an encore, the ACC finally closed Thursday’s cancellation curtain with a written statement.
“The Atlantic Coast Conference has suspended all competition, formal and organized practice, recruiting and participation in the NCAA championships until further notice,” cutting news for a collection of Irish teams enjoying great success this spring.
*The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team was 7-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country, off to one of the best starts in program history.
*After a miserable 24-30 baseball season in 2018-19, Notre Dame under first-year head coach Link Jarrett finished its season on a seven-game winning streak, 11-2 overall, and ranked No. 24.
*And, after a terrific showing last weekend at the Midwest Regional Fencing Championships, the No. 3 Irish were poised to land a third national title in four years with the NCAA Championships set to open next weekend.
Each of those seasons appears to be wiped out.
Irish spring football, including the Blue-Gold Game, was also canceled, and all Notre Dame students and student-athletes were told to not return to campus next week after spring break.
Beyond the competition cancellations, Notre Dame football also loses next weekend as its most-hyped and planned recruiting gathering so far this year when many top commits and targets were to be gathered.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly provided this written statement in support of university action.
“With our student-athlete’s health and well-being at the forefront of our decision making, and given the rapidly changing environment surrounding COVID-19, I feel this is best for all the members of the Notre Dame football family.”
This pandemic is disrupting U.S. athletics more than any other event in American history, though World War II (1939-45) disturbed college and professional sports because many athletes were called into active duty.
The only recent comparison to this coronavirus chaos comes from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 when air travel was grounded for about a week.
MLB play was suspended for five days; The NFL took one week off, but rescheduled those games; NCAA basketball took one weekend off; One NASCAR race was postponed and rescheduled; One PGA event was canceled.
Those few days without sports seemed eternal and intolerable, even with a clear timeline on when competition would resume.
COVID-19 is different. It’s unpredictable, which only adds to the blah of losing the best college sports month of the year … part of what’s hopefully a short-term sacrifice toward a greater good.
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