{"id":129698,"date":"2020-03-12T17:14:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T00:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=129698"},"modified":"2020-03-12T18:27:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T01:27:45","slug":"muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness Muted: COVID-19 Outbreak Forces NCAA to Cancel College Basketball Tournaments"},"content":{"rendered":"

March Madness became a casualty to the coronavirus pandemic, as the NCAA announced the men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, as well as other winter championships, would be canceled.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The last game of the college basketball season took place Thursday at Madison Square Garden, when Creighton and St. John’s started their Big East Tournament game. League officials canceled the game and the rest of the tournament at halftime. (Image: Noah K. Murray\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news came just a day after NCAA President Mark Emmert initially announced the tournaments would continue<\/a>, but without fans. That triggered a chain reaction by the collegiate conferences holding their tourneys this week across the country.<\/p>\n

But news that Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the virus prompted the NBA to suspend its operations. Then, on Thursday the NHL, MLS, and MLB followed suit. The conference tourneys did as well, especially after some teams indicated a preference not to play.<\/p>\n

By early Thursday afternoon, all the major power conferences had announced their postseason events would not continue. The ACC decided just minutes before Clemson and Florida State were to start. The Big East conference actually let St. John\u2019s and Creighton play the first half of their contest before joining the others in canceling the games.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the conferences\u2019 announcement, Duke released a statement it was suspending all sporting events effective immediately, followed by Kansas, the school sportsbooks listed as their favorite to win. By that time, an NCAA postponement became academic, and the only question would be is if the group would try to play tournament games at a later date.<\/p>\n

The Decision<\/h2>\n

Around 4:15 pm ET, Emmert and the group\u2019s Board of Governors answered that question. Not only would the NCAA college basketball<\/a> tournaments be canceled, but so would other winter events, such as the Frozen Four men’s and women’s hockey tournaments and wrestling and gymnastics championship.<\/p>\n

This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to (the) spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities,\u201d the NCAA said in a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The once incomprehensible decision left many players devastated, as their seasons \u2013 or in some instances, their playing careers \u2013 ended by an announcement instead of a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is tough for real,\u201d Louisville forward Jordan Nwora posted on Twitter with a heartbreak emoji.<\/p>\n

The NCAA also canceled all spring sporting events because of the coronavirus pandemic. That also affects college baseball\u2019s College World Series, scheduled for July.<\/p>\n

Refunds Issued<\/h2>\n

Shortly after the NCAA\u2019s announcement, sportsbooks began releasing statements saying they would refund all futures betting on the tournament. That also included bets on tournament games conferences canceled on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n

What happens next, at least in the United States, where nearly every major professional sports league or organization has announced it\u2019s suspending operations indefinitely, remains to be seen from a sports betting perspective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBeen in the Race & Sports business for 37 years,\u201d tweeted Tony Miller, the sportsbook director at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget. \u201cThis is the most unsure time I\u2019ve ever felt. Questions we can\u2019t answer. Uncertainties. Family and friends health. What\u2019s happening day by day?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March Madness became a casualty to the coronavirus pandemic, as the NCAA announced the men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, as well as other winter championships, would be canceled. The news came just a day after NCAA President Mark Emmert initially announced the tournaments would continue, but without fans. That triggered a chain reaction by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":129699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMuted Madness: COVID-19 Outbreak Forces NCAA to Cancel Tourneys<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March Madness became a casualty to the coronavirus pandemic, as the NCAA announced the men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, as well as other\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muted Madness: COVID-19 Outbreak Forces NCAA to Cancel Tourneys\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"March Madness became a casualty to the coronavirus pandemic, as the NCAA announced the men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, as well as other\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-13T00:14:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-13T01:27:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/big.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/\",\"name\":\"Muted Madness: COVID-19 Outbreak Forces NCAA to Cancel Tourneys\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/big.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-13T00:14:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-13T01:27:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"March Madness became a casualty to the coronavirus pandemic, as the NCAA announced the men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, as well as other\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/muted-madness-covid-19-outbreak-forces-ncaa-to-cancel-tourneys\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/big.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/big.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"(Image: Noah K. 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