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NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

ncaa.org

11–20 of 118 posts

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#12
post #7

So soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5 game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

The concern is not exclusively about the players' own health. Most of these players interact with other human beings.

The real risk isn't with the players -- the real risk is that if you have someone (spectator, foodservice worker, officail, etc.) who's been infected, but hasn't yet shown any symptoms, they're interacting with a ton of other people in a short span in an uncontrolled way. It's a huge potential driver for community spread.

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#14

So soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5 game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

So socially responsible.

This hurts a lot for some of us. I am a Creighton fan and this was our first big year in a long time, maybe our best of all time.

Sports fans get accused of forgetting "it is all a game" sometimes. It is certainly more than a game when you think of how much some people's lives depend on the money from these events, but limiting the impact of this virus is certainly not "soft".

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concern is not exclusively about the players' own health. Most of these players interact with other human beings.

The real risk isn't with the players -- the real risk is that if you have someone (spectator, foodservice worker, officail, etc.) who's been infected, but hasn't yet shown any symptoms, they're interacting with a ton of other people in a short span in an uncontrolled way. It's a huge potential driver for community spread.

They had already announced that the tournament would be held without audiences (and presumably food service workers and so on) yesterday.

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#16
hate it for the folks and families directly impacted but it is the safe decision. it does make you think about how much of this is temporary and how much results in sustained, macro level changes.

let's say many countries, companies and individuals "get used" to how we will need to live over the next weeks/months. what things that we used to take as "norms" may change, permanently, and what would the second and third order effects be?

for example, let's say travel-centric entertainment (sports, concerts etc) became more of an online experience than it already is, and WFH becomes more prevalent. now many folks with "discretionary income and time" theoretically have "extra" time and/or money. where would it go?

would we invest some of it into people and companies that are seeking to improve things for the people that don't have discretionary income/time? would we invest some of it in healthcare, biotech, etc. designed to try to prevent future similar events? or would a variant of parkinson's law just swallow it?

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#19

So soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5 game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

Great majority of cases are asymptomatic, great majority of symptomatic cases are very mild possibly indistinguishable from common cold so people may be inclined to ignore it. So, it's not safe to have any gatherings of this scale since inevitably many people will be infected.

Re: NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

#20
post #16

hate it for the folks and families directly impacted but it is the safe decision. it does make you think about how much of this is temporary and how much results in sustained, macro level changes. let's say many countries, companies and individuals "get used" to how we will need to live over the next weeks/months. what things that we used to take as "norms" may change, permanently, and what would the second and third…

Also.. what freedoms are now at risk in an attempt to prevent the next pandemic?
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