No publicity is bad publicity. We'll be the only conference playing and have all the eyes. MAAC will solidify (build) it's reputation as a conference for the tough! Survival of the fittest. If the MAAC is the only conference left playing - our champ is the national champ!
The MAAC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have been cancelled. The MAAC press conference will be held at 2:30 p.m. #maAChoops20
Official Statement from the MAAC March 12, 2020-2:30 pm est:
In response to the immediate and ever-growing concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and its Council of Presidents have unanimously decided to cancel the remainder of its current conference tournament currently being held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In addition, based upon the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference membership’s ongoing commitment to the health and safety of our student athletes and athletic department representatives and as a result of the growing national concern of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Council of Presidents has also unanimously voted to cancel all spring sports competitions, practices (including captain’s practices), effective tomorrow, March 13th and other athletic related activities for the remainder of the 2020 Spring semester.
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Council of Presidents regrettably decided to make these challenging decisions to prioritize the health and safety of our student-athletes and out of concern for the broader health and well-being of our various school communities.
The MAAC cancels all Spring sports and the CAA suspends all Spring sports which includes Stag Men's Lacrosse (5-2)(0-0).
ELON, N.C. (March 12, 2020) – The Colonial Athletic Association has made the decision to cancel the remainder of 2020 CAA Women’s Basketball Championship in response to continued developments regarding the spread of the Coronavirus.
In addition, all CAA spring sports contests have been suspended until further notice.
The decision was made after discussions with the conference’s administrative personnel. Our top priority remains the well-being and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators and fans.
The conference will continue to diligently assess this matter. Additional details regarding the spring sports season and championships will be provided at a later date.
“It’s a tough day in sports as this country faces a major crisis,” MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said, announcing the halt of the first postseason tournaments to be played in Atlantic City, which will host the MAAC again in 2021 and 2022. “The season has been canceled, the tournament has been canceled, effective immediately.”
“We had two conference calls today with the MAAC Council of Presidents and one with our MAAC committee on athletic administration. They were difficult conversations, but we’re all in the business of protecting our student-athletes, but also providing them the opportunity to succeed. It’s really a blow for us all to have to cancel this.”
“It’s a growing crisis, and one that’s impacting college sports at its prime time of the year,” the commissioner admitted. “I think we were waiting for feedback from the NCAA on what they were doing, and taking our cues from their direction. But I think when you add in the cancellation of Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, all that going on, I think there’s a rightful concern. We don’t know the scope of this pandemic that’s underway, but we certainly want to protect our student-athletes, we want to maintain — to the extent we could, as long as we could — the opportunity for them to earn it on the floor, but events just overtook us.”
“It’s a little different in the mid-major world — this is no knock on my friend, Val Ackerman — but the Big East is going to get six or seven teams in the field if we have a tournament. We have one automatic qualifier, so we were trying to resist as long as possible the outcome we came to today, so that we could learn everything on the floor. Coming into the week, I really thought we probably had ten days before this really got to this point, but we didn’t have that luxury in the tournament.”
Ensor later stated there were informal staff discussions about a potential shutdown prior to the first set of games Tuesday, but nothing was finalized and no protocol had been put into place until the commissioner was able to speak to every administration to inform them of the rising confluence of events. As far as the group of graduating seniors who may never suit up again in a collegiate uniform, he was extremely sympathetic.
“Personally, I regret having to do this,” he said. “And I share their pain.”
Should the NCAA Tournament be played, a fluid situation at the moment, the regular season champions — Siena for men’s basketball, Rider for women’s basketball — would represent the MAAC in the fields of 68 and 64, respectively.
Every conference seems to be cancelling their tournaments this morning, but not the MAAC, the lady Stags are playing right now and there is still no sign that the MAAC intends to stop playing today.
I do expect the MAAC to eventually end the tourney (hopefully), but this is yet another sign that Ensor & MAAC officials are not a great decision making bunch.
I would not have cancelled the tournament. We have a serious overreaction to this matter. At this point the risk of getting sick on the busride home is about the same as the risk of playing.
It's not quite fair to criticize Ensor for not making the decision sooner. It's not a race to cancel the tournaments and I'm sure there are a lot of considerations that go into making that decision that has a lot of repercussions.
It's not like he continued for two weeks after everyone else came to their decision. These are unprecedented times and things are happening very quickly. By the way, it wasn't solely his decision, was it? Isn't there a reference to a council of presidents that needs to be consulted?
The NCAA announced on Thursday that it’s canceling the 2020 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Iournaments due to the spread of the coronavirus. A decision that would have been stunning just days ago became obvious by Thursday evening, as an unprecedented week unfolded in the sports world and beyond.
“Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships,” the NCAA said in a statement. “This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.”
The last time the NCAA tournament wasn’t played in the United States was 1938. Since that time, even amid World War II, the NCAA has held a postseason tournament and declared a champion.