The NCAA determined it will not release a March Madness bracket for the 2020 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments that were canceled because of the coronavirus.
“The important work of the basketball committees is to set up competitively-balanced brackets to determine national champions,” NCAA vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement Sunday. “I don’t believe it’s responsible or fair to do that with incomplete seasons — especially for tournaments that unfortunately won’t be played. Therefore there will not be any NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball championship selection shows or tournament brackets released this year.”
[Click here for complete coronavirus coverage]
Of the 32 conferences, only 13 were able to finish their conference tournament and gain an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. This would have created a difficult task for the committee to create a bracket without all the automatic bids being handed out.
Athletic directors and coaches lobbied Gavitt to release a bracket to end the incomplete season with some recognition for the teams and their accomplishments, but the NCAA declined to do so in the end.
“Players and coaches want to see their school name on the bracket,” Gavitt said. “Members of the media want to dissect match-ups. Bracketologists want to compare the work of the committees versus what they’ve predicted. Fans are curious for those same reasons. All of us want something to fill the void we’re feeling. However, anything less than a credible process is inconsistent with the tradition of the NCAA basketball championships.”
