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With one conference tournament after another got canceled on Thursday, including the Big East tournament after Creighton and St. John’s played a half of basketball, the NCAA announced further decisions during the afternoon — there will be no men’s or women’s basketball tournaments and and no championships for the remaining winter and spring sports.
“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,” the NCAA said in a statement.
In addition, the Big 12 Conference suspended all regular competitions, on- and off-campus recruiting, and out-of-season practices, starting on Friday, March 13 and extending to Sunday, March 29. Texas was scheduled to begin spring football practice on March 24.
“With the Big 12’s recent directive suspending athletics activities until Sunday, March 29, all regular-season Longhorn Athletics competitions will be canceled until that date, beginning with our Baseball series on Friday,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said. “In addition to in-season UT sports with current regular-season competition like Baseball, Golf, Rowing, Softball and Tennis, this also will include the Texas Relays and Spring Soccer matches, and postpone a decision on the start of Spring Football Practice until after the March 29 date.
“That was followed by an announcement from the NCAA that all winter and spring sports championships have been cancelled, which includes those upcoming in Track & Field, Basketball and Swimming & Diving. This is a very fluid situation and one that presents great challenges. The health, safety and well-being of everyone involved is the number one priority and we will be having many discussions in the coming hours, days and weeks to determine what the next steps are. We appreciate everyone’s support and patience on this and will continue to provide updates as decisions are made.”