CANCELED: The Best Sports Time of the Year

ncaa.com

It’s official.  Well just about.  It started with the Ivy League canceling their conference basketball tournament a couple of days ago.  Then yesterday hit and we found out that all conference basketball tournaments would be played in front of no fans, which would have been strange enough.  Now, at the time of typing this, every conference (except the Big East) has canceled their postseason tournament altogether.  It started first with the Big Ten, SEC, and AAC canceling, and being followed by other conferences shortly after.

With all of this, along with the NBA and MLS suspending their seasons and cities all across America putting limits on the number of people that can gather together in on area, you know what’s coming next.  You KNOW.  March Madness will be canceled.  The best three week sports period of the year will be canceled.  There’s no way it will still be held with all of the other cancellations.  It just wouldn’t make sense.  And everybody already knows this.  What a shame.

Can you imagine this nightmare scenario for schools like Dayton or San Diego State, just to name a couple?  They are having the season of their lives and would be one and two seeds, respectively, and now they won’t even get a chance at the ultimate prize.  It was a strange, strange season where so many teams could have ended up winning the whole thing.  Now no one will.

And imagine what it must be like for the athletes.  They have worked their whole lives to get to the point they are now, just to be shut down from attaining their goals of making a run in the NCAA Tournament and perhaps winning the championship.  All of their hard work seemingly going down the drain.  Even more, think about what this must be like for the seniors.  This is how their basketball careers will end.  Not because of playing their hearts out with their teams one last time for a chance to survive and advance.  It will come to an abrupt end where them or their teammates can’t do a thing about it.

The last 24 hours, and not just around the sports world, have been crazy.  It definitely makes you wonder if all of this is an overreaction or not.  Nobody knows.  And while this is a time period that me and so many other sports fans around the country look forward to every year, I understand it.  Because nobody knows how serious this virus can or will be, it is better to make an error on a judgment call on the safe side rather than not.  But from the looks of things, we’ll have to wait another year for March Madness and that is such a shame.

Garett