NCAA Tournament No Fans

by **musiccitybulldog** » March 11th, 2020, 3:32 pm

No fans this year.

Per Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/college/2020/03/11/n ... ch-madness

**Sponsor**

by **Salukimadness86** » March 11th, 2020, 5:46 pm

musiccitybulldog wrote:No fans this year.

Per Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/college/2020/03/11/n ... ch-madness

Going to be strange for sure, like watching glorified scrimmages.

by **bleach** » March 11th, 2020, 5:59 pm

Insane! This is so overblown! People aren't dropping like flies and it is hardly a factor in anyone under 50.

by **glm38** » March 11th, 2020, 6:53 pm

bleach wrote:Insane! This is so overblown! People aren't dropping like flies and it is hardly a factor in anyone under 50.

The goal is to head this off to contain the spread of the virus so it doesn't get to the point that people are "dropping like flies".

by **NuncEstBibendum** » March 11th, 2020, 7:20 pm

bleach wrote:Insane! This is so overblown! People aren't dropping like flies and it is hardly a factor in anyone under 50.

So whoever is 50+ should just bugger off? Lets leave the decisions to professionals and not post about things of which you know nothing.

by **pafan** » March 11th, 2020, 7:54 pm

bleach wrote:People aren't dropping like flies and it is hardly a factor in anyone under 50.

That's not really the case. Let's start with the "not dropping like flies": Estimate are that, in China, over 25% of those infected by COVID-19 age 70 and up were fatalities.

For those age 20-60 who contracted COVID-19, 0.2% and 1% of those were fatalities. Yes, that's far better than the 10% and up fatality rate for those over age 60, but it's also far higher than the seasonal flu: seasonal flu in the US was fatal to about 0.014% of those 18-49 who contracted it during the 2016-17 flu season. That makes COVID-19 more than 10x as lethal as the flu for the age group for whom you described as "hardly a factor".

IMO the biggest reason we're probably seeing a broader response in the last few days is the example of Italy, generally regarded as a modern nation with a similar standard of living as the USA.
Italy had about 1000 cases of COVID-19 on February 29th, the same number the US had as of this morning. Italy now have 12,469 cases as of March 11, and the case load continues to grow rapidly.

The Italian medical system is now under serious strain, with about 1000 patients under intensive care conditions, nearly all in the north of Italy. Right now Italy has a 6% overall fatality rate, but that will likely change rapidly as the outbreak continues.

The goal of closing down events like March Madness, slowing and ceasing travel, along with suspending many schools/universities/companies is to keep the health system operating well, and prevent future rationing of care.

Citations: A Swiss study of WHO COVID-19 data from China: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 20031104v1
And for 2016-17 flu: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2016-2017.html

by **stable genius** » March 11th, 2020, 8:02 pm

Looks like all that time I spent worrying about b the NET rankings was the largest waste of time. This tournament is not happening.

by **pafan** » March 11th, 2020, 8:06 pm

Given that the NBA just cancelled itself until further notice, I think you're right.

by **VUGrad1314** » March 11th, 2020, 8:18 pm

Some thoughts: Man do I regret my post in response to Chicago State cancelling games. It was shameful and I'm very sorry. They did the right thing and were way ahead of all of us on it.

For anyone who is still skeptical (and I was a few days ago when Chicago State kicked everything off by cancelling their trip to Seattle and Utah Valley and I made fun of them for ducking their opponents to save money because they knew they were going to lose anyway and suggested they should drop out of D1) The CIT needs to stop being stubborn and putting money over peoples' lives and cancel for this year. It's in everyone's best interest (and this is coming from a fan who wanted to see their team play in that tournament to build momentum for next year). This is no ordinary year. It's no ordinary flu and these are no ordinary circumstances. Saner heads must prevail.

I'm preparing for the announcement that the NCAA Tournament as a whole is cancelled for this year. It's probably the right call just to halt play and put an end to the season entirely. Even if we want them to play (and I would certainly prefer that the games be played if given a real choice and not one where peoples' very lives are at stake) consider the following: How are they going to make the money for the payouts without ticket and concession sales anyway? It can't all come from the TV contract. Are commentators considered "essential personnel?" And if not are you really going to watch a basketball game with no fans AND no commentary?

Maybe it's time to put people over profit and mankind of money and just come together and ride this out without demanding our bread and circuses all the time. As much as I love college basketball and I love seeing the mids take the fight to the big boys there are more important things to life than sports. And life itself is far more valuable than any basketball game.

by **BCPanther** » March 11th, 2020, 8:34 pm

The tournament isn't happening. This blows.

I will, however, stand by the fact that Chicago State was a total budget call that ended up looking better for them than it should have