The NCAA announced this afternoon on March 12 that it has cancelled all men’s and women’s basketball tournaments as part of their cancellation of all spring and winter championships for the remainder of the season. 

The cancelled tournaments also include hockey, softball, baseball and lacrosse, along with any remaining games from the conference basketball tournaments. The cancellations were a pivot from previous decisions according to announcements on March 11 which stated that the March Madness games would continue but with limited public access to media, family, and security along with the players and teams. 

All cancellations are in response to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 virus. Oregon State University announced yesterday that they would no longer allow any events that had more than 50 people present if at all possible and that members of the community should practice social distancing. 

Oregon State Athletics will continue to hold practices but they will not be open to any members of the public. Oregon State will also suspend all athletic events and competitions indefinitely under regulations from the PAC-12 conference. 

According to Steve Fenk, the associate athletic director of communications for Oregon State Athletics, regulations also included a suspension of recruiting for sports. 

Steve Clark, OSU vice president for university relations and marketing, said the university supports the PAC-12’s decisions. 

“Oregon State University and OSU Athletics are strongly supportive of the NCAA decision to suspend all winter and spring NCAA championships. At this time, it is essential that the nation’s universities and colleges, intercollegiate sports conferences, the NCAA and college sports fans, remain focused and unified in preventing the spread of COVID-19,” Clark said. “At OSU, all regular season athletic competitions, as well as Pac-12 post-season competition have been suspended indefinitely. We will evaluate this decision periodically.”

The Barometer and Orange Media Network Sports will continue to provide updates as available as this is a breaking story.