NCAA Senior VP/Basketball Dan Gavitt today said the governing body is "definitively planning on running" the NCAA Tournament at "all 14 sites with fans, from the First Four in Dayton through the Final Four in Atlanta." This comes as college sports execs have discussed reducing the number of venues hosting the men's and women's basketball tournaments due to the coronavirus (CBS, 3/8). NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline yesterday said it was "hard to imagine" the tournaments being canceled. The NCAA Tournament is "expected to be played in 14 cities," and the Women's NCAA Tournament is "planned for even more cities" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/8).
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Meanwhile, the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament is "playing two rounds of games" at Johns Hopkins Univ. with "no fans allowed" (N.Y. POST, 3/8). The NCAA "might face the thorniest issues of any major sports organization." Some sites will "present heightened concern," such as Spokane, Wash., which is scheduled to host first- and second-round games of the NCAA Tournament. Spokane is "more than a four-hour drive" from the Seattle Area, where an outbreak that started in a nursing home has "killed 11 people and infected more than 70" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/7).
