CLEVELAND — The Mid-American Conference canceled the remainder of its 2020 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the league announced Thursday.
“We have been meeting all morning with our directors of athletics, with our presidents talking about what is the appropriate path forward,” MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said. “We've also been paying attention to what is going on around us both in the world at large and the sports world. As you started to see this morning, you've seen a number of conferences that made the decision to cancel. We have come to the same conclusion and we are canceling our event.”
With growing fears of the spread of COVID-19, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday asked that no indoor athletic events be held with spectators other than "athletes, parents, and others essential to the game.”
The MAC followed DeWine's recommendation and initially limited spectators at the MAC tournament games to “credentialed institutional personnel, student-athlete family members, credentialed media, television and radio crews, and official team party members”.
But amid growing fears the past day and following the lead of the NBA, which suspended its season indefinitely, Steinbrecher felt canceling the rest of the tournament was the right decision to make.
“We've been in communication for well over a week on different actions people were taking,” Steinbrecher said. “Clearly we stepped out early on some procedures we were implementing for our tournament and then today -- last night and then today unfolded. We're taking temperatures of what was going on around us as well, but at the end of the day it's a decision we have to make.”
The decision was difficult for Steinbrecher, because of the importance of the MAC tournament to teams, coaches, players, and support staff.
“It's incredibly disappointing in terms the kids having a chance to compete further, because I know this is a pinnacle event and something they look forward to,” Steinbrecher said. “Simply from a public health standpoint this seems the appropriate course of action.”
Questions were raised to Steinbrecher and Cleveland Cavaliers CEO Len Komoroksi about the precautions taken prior to the MAC tournament after Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, who both recently tested positive for coronavirus, played a game in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the Cavs on Monday, March 2.
“We go through an extensive sanitation process after every event,” Komoroski said. “There were actually five events that occurred since the Jazz were in town prior to the MAC conference coming here as well, so that process has been repeated continually throughout that, not to mention when the usage is actually taking place by the MAC...Beyond that as well, the timeline obviously with the affected player with the Jazz, from what we're understanding based on incubation period and actually where symptoms appear and given the length of time from when the Jazz were in town, which was March 2nd, until when last night occurred, would suggest that the risk was very low that the affected player actually had contracted it and had that while he was in Cleveland.”
Later on Thurdsay, the MAC announced that all spring sports and spring practices would also be canceled. So there will be no more MAC athletic competition for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic season.
Formal and organized practices were also canceled by the league and there were ordered to be no more off-campus recruiting and official and unofficial visits.
As for recruiting, the MAC said in a release that, “The only permissible recruiting will be written and electronic communication to include letters, emails, text messages and phone calls, in compliance with existing NCAA legislation”.
Official Statement pic.twitter.com/K2MBQ7pf7Y
— #MACtion (@MACSports) March 12, 2020
First Published March 12, 2020, 4:15 p.m.
