By: Sarah DeWolfe | Co-Editor
It has been 24 hours since leagues across the country began suspending their seasons due to the threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and I, like fellow sports fans across the globe, already have no idea what to do with myself.
I keep refreshing Twitter as if Woj is going to report that the NBA season is back on and fans can file into stadiums to watch their favorite teams fight to clinch playoff spots. I sadly scrapped my March Madness bracket hopes even though my odds at winning probably remain the same even without a tournament. Maybe most of all, I’ve been thinking about the injustice of nobody chirping the Houston Astros during Spring Training.
How am I supposed to sleep at night knowing that the Bruins were the first team to reach 100 points with three weeks left in the regular season and won’t get the chance to bring home the Stanley Cup for months? Jayson Tatum just averaged 30 points per game through the Celtics’ last 10 games and I’m supposed to BE CALM?? The widespread shut down of every professional sport imaginable is rare to say the absolute least, only happening when we were in times of actual warfare. So the question I have is what do we do now?
First, here are all of the suspensions and cancelations we know of so far, a list that unfortunately keeps growing:
- U.S. Soccer cancels USWNT and USMNT games in March and April. An Olympic Qualifying Tournament set for the end of March/beginning of April in Mexico has not been canceled. (The news of this has almost overshadowed the resignation of U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro on Thursday night following the controversy of a court filing in the USWNT’s equal pay lawsuit.)
- MLS suspends 2020 season for 30 days, will re-evaluate continuation of season following suspension
- NBA suspends season following Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 just before tip-off on Wednesday. Commissioner Adam Silver announces that they will take a 30 day hiatus before looking to resume the season
- NHL suspends season following NBA decision, will look to continue season into postseason in the future
- MLB cancels all Spring Training games, start of the season delayed at least two weeks
- NFL cancels owners meeting on March 29th, the 2020 NFL Draft set for the end of April is unchanged
- NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments canceled following conference tournament cancelations including Big Ten, SEC, Ivy League, and Big East. NCAA also cancels remaining winter and spring championships. Recruiting is suspended as well
- Augusta National postpones Masters Tournament, will look to reschedule at a later date
- Boston Athletic Association postpones 124th Boston Marathon to September 14th, 2020
- Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics remain unchanged despite the cancelation of the Olympic torch relay on Thursday
- Little League Baseball and Softball seasons suspended, will continue “no earlier than April 6”. The Little League World Series date remains unchanged
- NASCAR postpones races in Atlanta this weekend and Miami next weekend
- XFL cancels first regular season
Although athletes and fans alike are disappointed, it is understood that these precautions are the most responsible decisions each league could make in helping to contain the virus and keep people safe.
All bets are off, literally and figuratively, as sports betting goes quiet around the country. The multi-million dollar industry has just started to find its footing in the world of professional sports with leagues embracing the extra revenue with open arms. With the absence of regular seasons and playoffs farther away than ever, sportsbooks everywhere are in for a rough spring.
Esports, this is your time to shine. Though live gaming events involving leagues such as League of Legends, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty have been postponed or held without audiences, the online broadcasting of gameplay is the safest one can be while watching sports in this COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch esports from your self-quarantine or from your $37 flight to Europe on streaming services like Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, and even ESPN.
One day in and I already miss following competitions and being a fan, so I actually started watching professional darts just to pass the time. (You read that right.) If I’m being honest, I don’t know why I didn’t start sooner.
Do I have any idea what’s going on? Nope. But did you see the guy with the red mohawk and snake tattoo on his skull come in clutch with that red 18 FOR THE WIN? Where do I buy his jersey?? Maybe now is the time that we give these sports a chance to have our full and undivided attention.
Our major league sports will be there when we’re ready to continue (with the potential exception of one Vince Carter?) but the question on the minds of young people across social media has nothing to do with the pros.
What happens to college athletes from the Ivy Leagues to our own Commonwealth Coast Conference who have missed out on a year of athletics due to the coronavirus? Seniors everywhere played in their final games without even knowing it as universities have started closing campuses and transitioning to remote learning.
Top Division I schools like Providence College and the University of Rhode Island were well on their way into their basketball postseason runs, while March Madness staples like Duke and Kansas pulled out of the tournament before it was even canceled.
Should athletes be granted a redshirt for the 2020 season? Of course money is always at the root of issues like this, so this solution raises the question of scholarship statuses for these returning athletes. Surely not being able to compete due to extenuating circumstances-like a national pandemic-would call for an extra year of NCAA eligibility. In fact, a petition on change.org is calling on the NCAA to do just that.
University of Iowa senior and track and field athlete Allison Wahrman created this petition 22 hours ago and it has already gathered over 158,000 signatures towards its goal of 200,000. It pleads, “If you are an NCAA student-athlete, or support NCAA athletics, we urge you to sign this petition in order to allow the NCAA to give back this year of eligibility to student-athletes.”
Nothing about this situation has been ideal. Student athletes and sports junkies are trying to figure out how to deal with these drastic changes to our norms in the best way possible. As for me, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to write about with the sports world on pause. Maybe I’ll just go buy a dart board and pretend I’m not counting down the days on my calendar.
