#NCAA says March Madness will happen in 2021

The future is uncertain. The state of the pandemic may not be any better come March. Still, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt has declared that COVID-19 will not be responsible for canceling another NCAA Tournament.

“We are going to have a tournament,” Gavitt said in a video posted to the official March Madness Twitter feed. “It’s going to be special. We have our preferences about how we’d like to have it be, but if we have to adjust to the virus, which we don’t control, we will adjust accordingly. The health and safety of the players and the coaches and all the people around the games — the referees and fans — will be primary. But ultimately it will also include determining a national champion in the fairest and most equitable way that we can under these unusual circumstances.

“Our first and primary goal and preference is to have the tournament on the dates that are set at the venues that are predetermined. But if the virus necessitates a different path, we will adjust accordingly.”

Of course, March Madness can only exist within a college basketball season, and no conferences have yet announced their plans for winter sports. The Pac-12 — one of multiple leagues to have postponed its football seasons and all fall sports — sowed further doubt into the viability of a college basketball season upon declaring it wouldn’t have athletic events until 2021, wiping out all non-conference games. The willingness of Power Five programs to postpone football — by far, the most lucrative college athletics endeavor — makes it clear that every sport is capable of having its season canceled.

However, unlike when the first wave of the coronavirus began peaking during conference tournaments — leading to the first-ever cancelation of the NCAA Tournament on March 12 — the NCAA will have had a year to prepare for its showcase event to take place.

NCAA schools lost a combined $375 million due to the cancelation of the 2020 tournament.