Lots of Championships, Little Time

When the NCAA announced that it was moving all of its Fall 2020 Division I Championships to the spring, it made complete sense, but I also wondered how they were gonna pull it off.  There's a lot that goes into an NCAA Championship, and the spring is the busiest season already.  Now they were adding fall sports on top of it!  Well, now that they're about halfway through the Fall Championships, they haven't just pulled it off, they've done it spectacularly!

There have definitely been bumps in the road and self-inflicted problems that were not a good look.  The weight room situation at the women's basketball tournament was just the start.  Then word got out about the conditions at the women's volleyball tournament (which I agree looked more like an AAU tournament than an NCAA Championship). 

That somehow wasn't even the worst part.  That was ESPN's tone-deaf and, frankly, stupid decision to not have announcers for the first three rounds.  Which was absurd on so many levels, especially when you consider the fact that all of their announcers have been calling events remotely all year.  Whether it was a response to the (justified) criticism or common sense prevailing, they quickly backtracked and broadcast every match of the tournament with announcers.

I also wasn't sure having the Cross Country Championships literally two days after the Indoor Track & Field Championships would work.  A lot of teams had to choose between one or the other, while some distance runners did both and actually did pretty well in cross country (which was both second and the longer distance).  In fact, I actually think it helped some teams!  The BYU women, for example, won the DMR at the Indoor Championships, then turned around and won their first-ever cross country National title.

However, those hiccups aside, I think the NCAA has, for the most part, done a good job with its supersized Spring full of Championships.  And it's especially impressive when you consider how packed the schedule is trying to cram all of the fall sports in while not disrupting the Spring Championships, which, of course, were all cancelled in 2020.  Then throw in all the COVID testing and all the other logistical changes they've basically had to make on the fly.  Sure, there have been games cancelled because of positive tests.  But there hasn't been the outbreak that would threaten an entire event.

Frankly, I think the smartest thing the NCAA did was the single-site concept.  It started with men's basketball, which they determined pretty early on would be held exclusively in the Indianapolis area.  They quickly followed suit with women's basketball, holding that entire tournament in the San Antonio region.  I'm not sure either of those tournaments would've been as successful without those bubbles.

The bubble concept quickly expanded to most team sports, a move that seemed even more prudent after how well it worked in basketball.  Women's volleyball was held entirely in Omaha, while both men's and women's soccer will be in Cary, North Carolina, a frequent College Cup host with a ton of fields.  Field hockey, meanwhile, will be primarily at North Carolina, with one regional taking place at Penn State.

Of the sports that have already held their tournaments, only men's hockey and football maintained their traditional structures.  While the entire eight-team women's hockey tournament was held in Erie, Pennsylvania, the men's tournament had its standard four regional sites, with the four regional winners advancing to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh.  Likewise, the FCS football tournament will, as usual, have home games through the semifinals.

Other considerations likely factored into the NCAA's decisions regarding men's hockey and football.  The men's hockey Regionals were all held in states where fans were allowed, so there was some opportunity to get ticket revenue.  But, with the amount of time required to surface the ice between games (and how much it would deteriorate with so much use), not to mention the potential of multiple OTs lasting all night (which happened with Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota), having all 16 teams play at one site wouldn't have been practical.  Another thing hockey had going for it was the fact that there's a week in between the Regionals and Frozen Four, so there was plenty of time for the four remaining teams to travel and quarantine.

Meanwhile, in football, there are simply too many players to do a bubble.  I'll use 100 just because it's a round number, even though most of the travel parties would be more than that.  That's 1600 people they'd have to account for.  With games being played on campuses, however, you only have to worry about the team that's traveling.  And, it's a week between games, so that would've been a long time to keep teams in a bubble.

After finishing all of the Fall Championships within the next few weeks, the NCAA then has to turn right around and hold the Spring Championships.  It's especially important that those go well after they were all cancelled last year.  And, from what I can tell, every Spring Championship with the exception of men's volleyball (which is small enough to be held in a bubble), they'll all be held with the standard number of teams in their traditional formats.

It does make some sense to hold the Spring Championships in the way we've all grown accustomed.  The number of teams and the size of those teams, as well as the format, makes a bubble impractical.  The COVID situation is also much different now, with more and more people getting vaccinated and more and more fans being allowed to attend games.  Perhaps most importantly, too, spring sports are played outdoors, where social distancing is much easier and there's less risk of the virus spreading.

They're also taking a big risk with the Spring Championships, though.  Having games on campus is great.  It creates a tremendous atmosphere, and it's a reward for the top teams that earn those home games.  But having games on campuses means you're not having them in the controlled environment of a bubble.  And, despite all the problems within them, there's no denying that the bubbles were a big reason why they were able to successfully complete the Winter and Fall Championships.

Whether they're in a bubble or on campus or a combination of the two, it doesn't even matter.  The most important thing is that there will be NCAA Championships in spring sports this year.  And there's no doubt they'll be a success.  Just like the blitz of Winter/Fall ones over the last two months have been.