NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As the college basketball world adjusts its postseason schedule to the coronavirus, games scheduled for the Southeastern Conference men’s tournament will go on as planned at Bridgestone Arena. With one major change: No fans.
On the heels of the NCAA's decision to prohibit fans from attending upcoming championship events, including the mens' and women's national basketball tournaments, the SEC decided to limit attendance to essential staff, limited family members and credentialed media starting with Thursday's second-round games, including Missouri's 6 p.m. tip-off against Texas A&M.
“After conferring with local and national health authorities, we remain confident in our ability to safeguard the health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and other staff who will be participating as well as the limited number of family members and media who will be in attendance at the tournament," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said.Â
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“We regret the inconvenience and disappointment this decision has caused our fans, especially those who have already travelled to Nashville for the tournament.â€
Not long after the SEC finalized its plans for the rest of the tournament, the NBA decided to suspend the rest of its season. Asked about the NBA's decision, Sankey sounded confident the SEC tourney will resume Thursday.Â
"I learned of the NBA's decision 15 minutes ago, probably right before it broke publicly," he said. "We have not discussed with intent not holding the event. As you can imagine, when you go through contingency planning at the conference office, we have considered that, but we don't believe we're there.
"The public health officials in Nashville have been our source of information. That's why we've continued as we did tonight. The change at the national level has altered our approach but hasn't put us at this point into cancellation.
"I was at dinner saying I'm excited to have fans and play last night, so this is a fluid situation and we're mindful of the fluidity."
Sankey described his reaction to the NCAA's decision to keep fans from attending the NCAA Tournament as "surprise, shock ... and disappointment."
"I understand the disappointment for everybody," he said. "Perhaps I don't understand it in the same way, but I have my own disappointment because I've come to love this event, love having it in this city. 'Disappointing' is a good word, but we also have a reality around public health which we're managing."
Back in Columbia, Mo., Missouri's teams have not canceled any games or upcoming road trips, while MU classes have been suspended through the week and will be online only through next week.
"We are dealing with a rapidly changing and very fluid situation and the safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff is paramount," Missouri athletics director Jim Sterk said. "At this time, Mizzou’s athletic teams are continuing to prepare for postseason and regular season completion as scheduled. Daily team activities and practices will continue until further notice and we continue to monitor developments.
"Decisions for team travel will be made on a case by case basis, but there are no changes to announce at this time. The athletics department takes direction from the University which is in constant communication with the Boone County Health Department, state and national officials.
"Mizzou supports the SEC and NCAA decision to limit spectators at events through the end of the month and will have additional information about this policy in advance of our next home games.â€
For the men's SEC tournament, automatic refunds of ticket purchases will be made to fans who are the original purchaser of the tickets from the SEC or an SEC school or a verified purchaser on the SEC Ticket Exchange.
From Thursday's second-round games to Sunday's championship game, all games will be televised on SEC Network or ESPN.
The SEC also announced that all regular-season contests in all sports on SEC campuses and SEC championship events will be conducted with similar attendance restrictions effective Thursday through March 30. At that time the conference and its member schools will re-evaluate conditions.
That means fans won't be able to attend four Mizzou baseball home games against Iowa (March 18) and a three-game series against Auburn (March 20-22). The same goes for home softball games against Arkansas (March 20-22) and Missouri State (March 24).