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NCAA Won’t Allow Fans To Attend Upcoming Championship Events

It’s been a furious few days of event cancellations across the globe as COVID-19 (the coronavirus) continues to spread, and the NCAA is the latest organization to release a statement indicating upcoming changes.

NCAA President Mark Emmert released a statement on Wednesday indicating that upcoming championship events will be conducted with “only essential staff and limited family attendance.”

This will include the women’s and men’s NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships, which are scheduled to take place Mar.18-21 and Mar.25-28, respectively. The Division II Championships, however, are already underway in Geneva, Ohio, and Division III is scheduled for Mar.18-22 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Ivy League announced Wednesday that the conference is cancelling all spring sports, meaning Harvard is out of the NCAA Championships.

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Kalina
4 years ago

Stay strong swimmers, coaches, and all those affected! We’re all in this together.. as I once told by a wise swim parent, no one swims alone. You have the support of swim fans, parents, swammers, fellow swimmers and so many others. We’re rooting for you!💙

Swimmingfan
4 years ago

Two weeks out. Wouldn’t be surprised if they canceled it. Two weeks is a lot of time for things to happen

Ladyvoldisser
Reply to  Swimmingfan
4 years ago

Cancelled the meets will be. Very sad timing for the athletes. However we must pull together on this and focus on keeping our citizens safe! It is only sport.

2 Cents
Reply to  Swimmingfan
4 years ago

Here’s what I think…. travel by bus. Most schools are doing online classes anyways, so take a week to start driving to the meet (CA teams) and others can wait a few more days. Take your time getting to the meet, keep doing classes online with the wifi enabled buses they have now, and make it a fun road trip. Or rent a few RVs to make it a little more comfy, and do that. They wont miss classes, they will not be exposed to large crowds, and find safe pools to stop and train at along the way. How cool would that be for the age groupers somewhere in Wyoming or New Mexico to get to see Stanford or… Read more »

Binky
Reply to  2 Cents
4 years ago

Stanford men don’t need a bus for their team, a VW Beetle will do.

Khachaturian
4 years ago

Wait, does this mean Dean is out?

Sir Swimsalot
Reply to  Khachaturian
4 years ago

No he redshirted this season and is training at Texas I believe

Blackflag82
Reply to  Khachaturian
4 years ago

Dead redshirted this year

DrSwimPhil
4 years ago

We just got notice that starting tomorrow morning (Day 2 of 4 at D2 NCAAs), no spectators (including family members) are allowed. This was different than what was announced at the end of Day 1’s finals session (which included the “limited family” portion).

FlyGuy
4 years ago

NCAAS Division 2, no spectators at all now…not even family. This is crazy

Occasional Swimmer
4 years ago

With the NBA season being suspended, how do you see S&D NCAAs being affected in the coming weeks?

pau88
Reply to  Occasional Swimmer
4 years ago

lock down in a couple of weeks if cases keep rising

swimgeek
Reply to  Occasional Swimmer
4 years ago

It ain’t promising.

Meeeeeee
4 years ago

Dang, worst year to have it at cavernous IUPUI. Would have been a great year for a throwback to a historic pool like Yale.

Backstrokebro
Reply to  Meeeeeee
4 years ago

Fair, but the Nat is still a great pool. Don’t disrespect it

Meeeeeee
Reply to  Backstrokebro
4 years ago

Not the point.

Swimgl
4 years ago

A nightmare deciding who is family, and proving it.
The IUPUI pool is so meant for watching meets, particularly with being able to ventilate it so well.

Admin
Reply to  Swimgl
4 years ago

My guess is that each student-athlete will be given a certain number of tickets.

Swimmom
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Just heard from swimmer, you are allowed 4 tickets, just happy they are still going.

ClubCoach
Reply to  Swimmom
4 years ago

I had asked about tickets a few weeks ago and was told at that time athletes normally get 4 tickets each.

Admin
Reply to  Swimmom
4 years ago

I’ve reached out to several people around NCAA swimming, and none of them have confirmed this 4 tickets per yet. May be a misunderstanding, or may just not have been widely disseminated yet. We’ll keep working until we can find out if this is the case or not.

ClubCoach
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

I wasn’t saying they will be getting four tickets per athlete, just that it is the normal distribution of tickets to the schools and is not based on the current developments. No idea if it will change or not.

Admin
Reply to  ClubCoach
4 years ago

I was responding to the original poster, whose comment seems to indicate that this is the update that has been given since the limited-family rule is in place.

The 4-per-athlete rule is not an NCAA rule, it may just be the policy of your child’s team. Teams can request as many tickets as they want.

Cristina Dawson
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Braden do you have clarification yet of the limited family attendance for the women’s NCAA in Athens next week?

Admin
Reply to  Cristina Dawson
4 years ago

Nothing. Without any inside info, at this point, my *opinion* is that the meet isn’t going to happen at all. Things are progressing way too quickly with cancellations.

ClubCoach
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

As of this morning, word was that the NCAA had clarified ‘limited family’ to be Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Grandparent. It’s too uncertain though in my opinion if they’ll restrict it further or possibly cancel the meet. Also, Florida Swimming just announced no spectators at all at its Senior Championship meet in Orlando which begins tonight.

Barbotus
Reply to  ClubCoach
4 years ago

@Clubcoach Is this documented anywhere, or verbal?

Admin
Reply to  Barbotus
4 years ago

At this point I’d give the meet a less than 1% chance of happening, so I wouldn’t worry too much about tickets.

Barbotus
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

I agree. The likelihood of the meets taking place is shrinking. Frankly I’m more interested in D3 (I have a kid going if it happens). I am somewhat hopeful that DII not being canceled as yet may mean something.

ClubCoach
Reply to  ClubCoach
4 years ago

Update: Florida Swimming just cancelled their Senior Championships:

Due to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ recommendation today to cancel all events drawing in more than 250 people for the next 30 days, Florida Swimming will cancel Senior Champs this weekend.

Jim
Reply to  ClubCoach
4 years ago

Do you remember two years ago when the White House cancelled all funds and position for a pandemic response team. I don’t want to be political here, but all of this could be avoided. Look at what South Korea did with a fully funded public health initiative. Just saying.

Curious
Reply to  Swimmom
4 years ago

So if you purchased tickets but don’t have a swimmer attending, will you be refunded?

S Soedel
Reply to  Swimgl
4 years ago

Everyone loves that pool. A classic.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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