| By Marc Lawrence — The Associated Press reports that as it became apparent the NCAA basketball tournaments could not be held over three weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers scrambled to devise a plan for a 16-team event to salvage the postseason in one long weekend. The idea was to have the selection committee choose the top 16 teams in the country, regardless of conference, to participate. The first three rounds would have been played from Thursday to Saturday, with a championship game Monday night. NCAA vice president Dan Gavitt said he believes eight or nine of the 32 Division I conferences could have been represented. “There was a real concern about not being inclusive enough, with only 16 teams,” Gavitt said. “But the other thing that was in play at that point in committee members’ minds, and we saw this play out at conference tournaments, was once an NBA player was infected, I think it started to really hit home for the players.” Click here to read more. |
| Quote Of the Day |
| “You can’t have these players — even if there’s no fans in the stadium — you can’t have these players breathing on each other for two weeks. Even if they’re at a hotel, they’re going to be at different cities around the country. I hate to say it — I probably shouldn’t say it because I work for CBS — I think we’re going to shut down March Madness until we know more.” … Charles Barkley, College Basketball analyst and NBA Hall of Famer. |
| $1.25 Billion Dollars |
| The amount of money NBC Universal sold in advertising of the 2020 Olympics in Japan, which is now in jeopardy of cancelling. The Games are highly anticipated in Japan, pushing domestic sponsorship revenue to a record $3 billion. |
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