NCAA Basketball: Champions Classic, NCAA Tourney bubble lead Sunday Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
1. What are your thoughts on the NCAA having the NCAA Tournament at a single site in a Bubble in Indianapolis? – Michael Collins (@MCFanSided)
The announcement by the NCAA to hold all of the NCAA tournament games at a single site in Indianapolis is something that was a long time coming. Likely the games are going to be played at multiple arenas throughout the Indianapolis area.
The NCAA will likely utilize Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler, Bankers Life Fieldhouse the home of the Pacers, Farmers Coliseum on the campus of IUPUI for the early round games, and then have the Final Four and Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium which is where the Indianapolis Colts play their games.
Having the tournament in a bubble setting is what needs to happen to ensure that every team is following the same testing protocol and using the same methods for contact tracing to ensure every team, coach, and staff is as safe as possible. There are going to be some questions that still need to be ironed out and things that everyone is going to want the answers to.
Those things are what if a player or multiple players test positive before arriving at the bubble? Is that team required to shut down for 14 days? Will there be some alternate teams that are considered in the event of a Covid shutdown? What would happen to that bracketed game? Would it get postponed or would the team who was able to play automatically get the win?
Honestly, it has been shown that with proper testing and contact tracing that teams can avoid a shutdown and can continue to play while isolating those individuals who have tested positive. That seems like the more likely scenario and one that the NCAA is going to learn more about as things get closer and the season gets longer.
Outside of the virus issues the NCAA tournament is going to happen this year in some capacity and will likely take place in a bubble in the Indianapolis area using multiple arenas. As of now, the NCAA has not mentioned any plans to shrink nor expand the number of teams that they select.
The number of games each team plays is going to fluctuate as some teams have decided to play conference only and others are playing a non-conference schedule. If 13 games are played a team is eligible for the tournament. The NCAA got this one right to ensure we all get what we covet with the NCAA tournament.