NCAA Basketball: Duke Blue Devils and USC Trojans lead Sunday Mailbag

What COVID related challenges will the selection committee face when choosing at-large teams this year? – Sam Riggs

This is a question that does not yet have an answer. Many of us writers have asked around and tried to figure out what the selection committee is going to do or how they are going to deal with teams who get selected and then have to shut down potentially for positive Covid tests.

Will they have a list of alternate teams to fill in in case a team has to shut down?  Will they just forfeit the game and move the healthy team on? There are lots of questions that still need answers and we likely won’t get them until March.

Here are some things to keep in mind, currently about 89% of the 357 division teams are still playing and are not shut down. Power teams are testing every day and through contact tracing have been able to exclude and isolate the infected player. Some teams outside of the power conferences do not have this luxury of testing every day but even still the vast majority of the teams are playing and not shut down.

I know that the new CDC recommendation of the 7-day quarantine for close contacts is going to have a huge impact on how things go moving forward as the NCAA may change their policies given this new information. One other thing that needs to be taken into account is the fact that by March there may be a vaccine that some can take and the hope is that the second wave the United States is currently experiencing is over and we can all get back to our somewhat normal lives.

The NCAA tournament is an event the NCAA can not afford to lose again as it would lead to a ton of money lost for the second year in a row. Bet everything you have on the tournament happening but likely taking place in a bubble in Indianapolis as was mentioned last week.

It is hard to figure out what the committee is going to do if a team does have to shut down for multiple positive tests but either way the season is going to go on and continue.