Yikes! Ivy League cancels hoop tourneys...men and women

[soxfan23]

I'll be VERY surprised if either the men's or women's NCAA Championship Tournament takes place this year.

Given that the virus seems much less virulent in young people than in the enfeebled elderly, I see a possibility of a crowdless "jamboree" type of tournament which would kill in the ratings (ahem, no pun intended), but I do not see the NCAA filling arenas around the country at this point in the pandemic.

Bummer.

Not a chance! The NCAA is far too greedy, and the NCAA tournament generates far too much money!

 

[TheFarmFan]

"Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate." 2007, Secretary Mike Leavitt, US Department of Health and Human Services.

I wish I could like this 100 times.

 

[j66kicker]

ESPN needs to step up. They will be televising every game of the womens tourney and could do it even if the gyms were empty. They could make the whole tourney like the NIT using available sites -- higher seed is the home team. They should be working on this right now. The men's tourney could be handled the same way by the broadcast networks.

Not a chance! The NCAA is far too greedy, and the NCAA tournament generates far too much money!

The "ESPN needs to step up" idea is an interesting one. Agree with soxfan that the NCAA, who has never exercised leadership in anything, would have to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. Being strongarmed into it by their TV $ugerdaddies, who are also greedy and would find a way to hold the tournaments for TV audiences, might be the answer.

BTW up to now Japan, while playing their big league baseball in empty stadiums, has been saying the Olympics will go on as scheduled. Today a member of their 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee Executive Board came out and said the Olympics could be postponed 1-2 years. Japanese organizing official discusses possibility Olympics could be postponed 1-2 years

I think there's a lot of scrambling going on to find alternatives to "cancel" for various events. Maybe the NCAA should be thinking about this too. They have never been proactive, though, and I have no reason to think they would be now. Suspect they'll wait until somebody tells them what to do, and then we'll get a suboptimal solution.

 

[Alydar]

Right now that is the hope, but every virus behaves a little differently.

The Spanish flu did most of it's damage in it's second year. Those who get COVID and recover have shown permanent scarring of the lungs which makes it more difficult to recover a second time.

 

[Bigboote]

I’m seeing a pattern here. Johns Hopkins hosted two rounds of the DIII tournament with no crowd. The Ivies have canceled their tournament. So, what, five or so of the top medical schools in the nation have weighed in and come up with similar solutions. These decisions, of course, are much less swayed by money, so are likely good ones from a public-health perspective.

 

[Biff]

No political slants please. If this topic can't be discussed without slipping in political opinions then we'll shut it down.

 

[southofnorth]

The Spanish flu did most of it's damage in it's second year. Those who get COVID and recover have shown permanent scarring of the lungs which makes it more difficult to recover a second time.

Can you provide a link or something to the evidence of this? I googled it and so far I’ve come up with no articles or websites claiming that it causes permanent lung scarring—only bronchitis in more extreme cases.

 

[DefenseBB]

Umm, maybe I am a bit naive here but the idea that if they allow only the teams to play "in empty" gyms still requires facility personnel, school personnel and get this-travel by the teams, referees and television personnel to use airports, trains stations and hotels, all are hotbeds for potential infection-are they not?

Not sure I understand how flying a team across the nation in a closed plane environment will help...

 

[TheFarmFan]

Umm, maybe I am a bit naive here but the idea that if they allow only the teams to play "in empty" gyms still requires facility personnel, school personnel and get this-travel by the teams, referees and television personnel to use airports, trains stations and hotels, all are hotbeds for potential infection-are they not?

Not sure I understand how flying a team across the nation in a closed plane environment will help...

Every bit of reduction helps. You are right that it will not reduce the risk to 0, but it will probably reduce 98% of possible transmission by axing fans. It's above my pay grade to decide if operating at around 2% of the risk ordinary operations is worth it, but I do think it will help tremendously.

 

[Alydar]

Can you provide a link or something to the evidence of this? I googled it and so far I’ve come up with no articles or websites claiming that it causes permanent lung scarring—only bronchitis in more extreme cases.

I read a lot of reports on the topic and can't specify one source but this site has been spot on in predicting the course of this virus for about a month, and this guy is a pathology expert. He has posted nearly daily updates and in at least one of them the subject of re-infection is discussed. I believe I read about the scarring issue from a report from doctors in China studying recovered patients, some of whom either got reinfected or else never really recovered, but can't recollect the specific source.

Peak Prosperity

Information, commentary, analysis, and an online community for discussing the convergence of global issues facing the economy, environment, and our energy ne...

www.youtube.com

Here's a good source for the history of the Spanish flu.

 

[stamfordhusky]

The Connecticut just canceled the high school state tournament. Sorry but this is ridiculous!

Yes, at this point it is ridiculous. You can always count on the CIAC for poor decisions and overreaction.

 

[Moose]

The deaths for Philadelphia vs. St Louis for the 1918 Flu pandemic is another compelling example for social distancing: Social Distancing During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Lessons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - The Microbial Menagerie

 

[UConner]

The silver lining is that our F4 streak lives on.

What I would do is give each player/manager 4 tickets and make everyone sit apart

 

[Cornell Lt]

What I would do is give each player/manager 4 tickets and make everyone sit apart

This is exactly what Cornell University is doing for this weekends athletics events: Limited attendance with 3 tickets for each athlete which will equal about 150 people for hockey and close to 200 for lacrosse

NCAA 1st round women's hockey game (Cornell vs Merrcyhurst)
ECAC Men's hockey quarterfinal series (best of 3) versus Princeton
IVY League Lacrosse versus Yale in Schoellkopf Field (outside stadium)

 

[UcMiami]

The Spanish flu did most of it's damage in it's second year. Those who get COVID and recover have shown permanent scarring of the lungs which makes it more difficult to recover a second time.

The flu mutates quite rapidly partly because it reproduces/spreads so rapidly - the hypothesis is there was a mutation to more virulent strains between 1917 and 1918/19. The likelihood is that the second wave did not infect the same people as those who survived the first wave probably had greater immunity to the next waves.

Hard to judge the Sars viruses as they have not had the same level of human migration/mutations.

Interesting situation with flu vaccines that many people do not realize - early on each year a group of laboratories determine the most likely strains of virus that will spread during the coming season and create a vaccine aimed at the most likely individual strains and pray they covered the bases for the coming year as the vaccine goes into production and gets released to the public six months later - some years they nail it, some years not so much.

Selecting Viruses for the Seasonal Flu Vaccine

Vaccine composition is reviewed each year and updated as needed based on which influenza viruses are making people sick.

www.cdc.gov

 

[Cornell Lt]

IVY League has cancelled all spring sports, no practice and no games. The IVY League has 3 of the top 5 teams in NCAA D1 lacrosse, including Cornell ranked #2 at 5-0. What a cruel ending to what could have been.

 

[Steelerone]

The Connecticut just canceled the high school state tournament. Sorry but this is ridiculous!

Geew - Try reading wbball's post. Great explanation and it will clear up a lot of questions.

 

[UcMiami]

Well after the NBA stunner, the Ivy league might just have been smarter than the rest of us in getting ahead of this story.

 

[j66kicker]

Well after the NBA stunner, the Ivy league might just have been smarter than the rest of us in getting ahead of this story.

Well duhh - guess that’s what makes them the Ivy League

 

[Plebe]

Well duhh - guess that’s what makes them the Ivy League

I knew I should've taken that full ride to Harvard