By Michael Allen IV
The night that we got out for spring break, the NBA’s greatest COVID-19 fear came true: a player had caught it. That player, all-star Rudy Gobert, was criticized for his carelessness towards the virus. In an interview a few days before his diagnosis where he was asked about potentially having the virus, he responded by touching all microphones in sight. Rudy’s situation was a turning point for how the virus has been handled in America. All professional sporting events were postponed or cancelled (save eSports, which continues to stand strong!).
The question of how to evaluate the now-cancelled college basketball season is a difficult one. Here’s my take on the issue. Unlike the NBA, the college basketball playoffs have been officially cancelled, raising a tricky question: what should be remembered about this season? I believe that the top college team rankings throughout the season, such as the AP poll, should use their final team rankings for the year and choose the champion based on which team is picked by the majority of the polls. It’s not a perfect solution, but at the same time, I don’t believe that one exists.
All of us who are lucky enough to get another chance to play our sports should take a moment to recognize those seniors who were given an abrupt end to their sports careers.
Beyond just how the champion should be determined, what kind of compensation should be given to seniors that missed their last chances to win a championship, as well as teams with limited windows of contention such as Dayton? Dayton had championship aspirations this year behind surprise star Obi Toppin, but he has already declared for the NBA draft. Lacking the advantages of schools that get star recruits every year, such as Duke, this might have been Dayton’s one chance to compete for a title. In my opinion, I would have loved a situation in which seniors received an optional extra year of eligibility for basketball, as that would mean that I get an extra year to watch members of my LSU Tigers play again, I believe that the NCAA came to the right decision by not granting this extra year of eligibility. These athletes already had a chance to play a full regular season, so it would be a stretch to let them play an extra year due to their missing just a couple games—even if those couple of games were the most important of the year.
How to handle seniors who had their spring sports seasons cancelled is easier to manage for the NCAA than in high school. Although all spring-sport athletes have rightfully been granted an optional extra year of eligibility given that their seasons had just started by the time that coronavirus hit, that issue becomes much more difficult at the high-school level. Seniors across the country without the rare opportunity to play sports in college have had to cope with unknowingly having played their last games. There isn’t a real solution to this issue in sports or in most other activities that seniors participated in.
Since there isn’t really a way to fix this issue, all of us who are lucky enough to get another chance to play our sports should take a moment to recognize those seniors who were given an abrupt end to their sports careers. We should also play extra hard in next year’s games, remembering how special and few our opportunities are to play the sports that we love.
