2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
| 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Season | 2019–20 | ||||
| Finals site | Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta | ||||
| |||||
The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was a planned single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2019–20 season. On March 12, 2020, the tournament was canceled in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was the first time that the tournament had been canceled since its creation in 1939.
On March 11, 2020, the NCAA announced the entire tournament, like the women's, would be conducted with "only essential staff and limited family attendance" due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Some venues (such as those within the states of Ohio and California) enacted further local numerical restrictions on the numbers of those who could attend an event, which the NCAA agreed to respect.[1] It was also reported that for practicality reasons, the NCAA was considering re-locating some of the later rounds (including the regional finals, and the Final Four, originally scheduled to be held at the 71,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium) to smaller venues within the same host cities.[2] On March 12, the NCAA announced the tournament would be cancelled, along with all remaining winter and spring championships.[3]
2020 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues[edit]
The following list contains the sites that were to host each round of the 2020 tournament:[4]
First Four
- March 17 and 18
First and Second Rounds
- March 19 and 21
- March 20 and 22
- Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina (Host: Atlantic Coast Conference)
- CHI Health Center Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska (Host: Creighton University)
- Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California (Host: Sacramento State University)
- Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio (Host: Mid-American Conference/Cleveland State University)
Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
- March 26 and 28
- Midwest Regional, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana (Host: Horizon League/IUPUI)
- West Regional, Staples Center, Los Angeles, California (Host: Pepperdine University)
- March 27 and 29
- South Regional, Toyota Center, Houston, Texas (Host: University of Houston)
- East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: St. John's University/Big East Conference)
National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)
- April 4 and 6
[edit]
On March 10, 2020, the Ivy League announced it had cancelled the conference's 2020 tournament due to the coronavirus outbreak. Harvard University was scheduled to host the event at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston on March 14 and 15, 2020. The conference also announced that the regular season champion, Yale, would receive the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament.[5] The following day, on March 11, 2020, the NCAA announced that both men's and women's NCAA Tournaments would take place without fans due to the pandemic.[6]
On March 12, 2020, every conference which had not concluded tournament play, including the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12, SEC, and A-10, announced they would be cancelling their conference tournaments. With the decision to cancel the 2020 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament, all games that had yet to be played in the basketball season were cancelled leading up to the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Later that day, the Kansas Jayhawks, the likely #1 overall seed of the tournament, and the Duke Blue Devils announced their withdrawals from the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Subsequently, the Tournament itself was cancelled by the NCAA. The final game to be played was the first Big East Quarterfinal matchup between the 9-seed St. John's and the 1-seed Creighton in which St. John's was leading at halftime 38–35. The Big East decided to cancel the tournament at halftime, leaving the game uncompleted. The final game to be completed was the Pac-12 Tournament's first-round game, in which 11-seed Washington State defeated 6-seed Colorado 82–68.
The NCAA has not ruled out publishing what would have been its at-large selections and bracket.[7] Vice president of men's basketball Dan Gavitt told the Associated Press that he had proposed holding a shortened, 16-team tournament in Atlanta (split between State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium) as an alternative — with all participants chosen by the selection committee — before the decision was made to cancel the entire tournament due to Rudy Gobert's diagnosis.[8]
As part of a cycle that began in 2016, TBS was scheduled to televise the 2020 Final Four and national championship game.[9] CBS was scheduled to televise the selection show.[10] CBS Sports and Turner Sports announced on March 16 that all technicians and utility staff who were expected to work the NCAA March Madness coverage would still be paid.[11]
Automatic qualifiers[edit]
The following teams had automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament before the unilateral cancellation of the remainder of conference tourneys on March 12, 2020, or which were automatically qualified after those cancellations.
- ^ Vermont received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the American East Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They were already in the finals.
- ^ Cincinnati received the automatic bid [12] after the AAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Dayton received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the A10 Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Florida State received the automatic bid[13] after the ACC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Creighton received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the Big East Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Eastern Washington received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the Big Sky Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Wisconsin received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the Big Ten Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ UC Irvine received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the Big West Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ North Texas received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the CUSA Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Yale received the automatic bid[14] after the Ivy League Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Siena received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the MAAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They were already in the semifinals.
- ^ Akron received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the MAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ NC Central received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the MEAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They were already in the semifinals.
- ^ Oregon received the automatic bid[15] after the Pac 12 Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Kentucky received the automatic bid[16] after the SEC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- ^ Prairie View A&M received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the SWAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They were already in the semifinals.
- ^ Little Rock received the automatic bid[citation needed] after the Sun Belt Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They were already in the semifinals.
- ^ New Mexico State received the automatic bid[17] after the WAC Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
See also[edit]
- Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on sports
- 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
- 2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
- 2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
- 2020 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
- 2020 National Invitation Tournament
References[edit]
- ^ Tom Schad (2020-03-11). "NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments will not include fans due to coronavirus concerns". USA Today. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
- ^ Terranova, Justin (2020-03-11). "March Madness 2020 could change Final Four venue amid coronavirus crisis". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
- ^ "NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships".
- ^ "Future Division I Men's Basketball Championship sites". NCAA. 21 April 2017.
- ^ "Ivy League cancels conference basketball tournaments because of coronavirus". ESPN.com.
- ^ Schad, Tom (March 11, 2020). "NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments will not include fans due to coronavirus concerns". USA Today. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ "NCAA weighing release of 68-team bracket despite cancellation of 2020 NCAA Tournament over coronavirus". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
- ^ "AP Exclusive: NCAA tried to save March Madness with 16 teams". Associated Press. 2020-03-13. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
- ^ "CBS Sports and Turner Sports announce 2020 March Madness commentators". NCAA. March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Gleeson, Scott. "CBS will stick with popular brackets-first format for NCAA tournament Selection Sunday show". USA Today. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
- ^ Digital, Brandon Costa, Director of. "CBS Sports, Turner Sports Will Pay All March Madness Technicians and Utilities, Including Freelancers". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- ^ Williams, Justin (March 12, 2020). "Bearcats sports either canceled or put on hold over COVID-19 concerns". theathletic.com. The Athletic. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
- ^ Boone, Kyle (March 12, 2020). "2020 ACC Tournament canceled amid coronavirus pandemic concerns". CBSSports.com. CBS Sports. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ Fuller, Jim (March 10, 2020). "Ivy League tournament canceled, Yale men receive automatic NCAA bid". NHRegister.com. New Haven Register. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ Crepea, James (March 12, 2020). "Oregon Ducks men's basketball receives Pac-12's automatic bid to NCAA Tournament, since canceled". OregonLive.com. Oregon Live. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ Bratton, Michael Wayne (March 12, 2020). "SEC announces league champion after canceling 2020 SEC Tournament". SaturdayDownSouth.com. Saturday Down South. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ Gaydos, Ryan (March 12, 2020). "2020 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament canceled over coronavirus". FoxNews.com. Fox News. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
