We’ll never know how far Ohio State’s basketball teams could have gone in this year’s NCAA Tournaments. We’ll never know whether Ohio State’s superstar wrestlers would have won NCAA titles this year. Many other Ohio State sports teams won’t even have the opportunity to complete their regular seasons.
All of that became a harsh reality on Thursday, when the NCAA announced the cancellation of its championship events and the Big Ten announced the cancellation of all athletic competition through the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Under normal circumstances, Ohio State’s winter sports teams would be gearing up for their biggest competitions of the year while spring sports teams would still have multiple months of competition remaining.
Instead, their seasons all simultaneously came to an end, just like that.
That’s a pill that will undoubtedly be tough to swallow for many Ohio State athletes – and student-athletes all across the country, for that matter – who will now be left to wonder what could have been.
Ohio State’s men’s basketball team didn’t even get to play a single game in the Big Ten Tournament, nor will it have the opportunity to participate in the NCAA Tournament, where it was projected to be a No. 5 seed according to BracketMatrix.com. The Buckeyes weren’t a frontrunner to win the national championship, but after winning nine of their final 12 regular-season games, they had the potential to at least make a run to the second weekend – now, we can only speculate on how far they might have gotten, without seeing them play a single postseason game.
The women’s basketball team did get to play in the Big Ten Tournament – and did quite well, making a run all the way to the final of that tournament – but now those Buckeyes, too, face the reality of not getting to participate in March Madness despite earning their place in the Big Dance with a 21-win season. Those Buckeyes were projected to be a No. 6 seed by ESPN’s Charlie Creme.
Most of those Buckeyes will have the opportunity to make another tournament run next year, as the women’s basketball team has only one senior while the men have only two. Some Buckeyes, though, are losing an opportunity they might never have again.
Two Buckeyes at the top of that list are Luke Pletcher and Kollin Moore, who were both the No. 1 seeds in their weight classes for the NCAA wrestling tournament. Both seniors were frontrunners to take gold this year, but now, their dreams of winning collegiate national championships – barring the NCAA granting them an additional year of eligibility – have been dashed.
Kollin Moore went 27-0 this season, but won't have the opportunity to complete his quest for a national title.
A total of eight Buckeyes were set to participate in the NCAA wrestling tournament, while 11 Buckeyes – five individuals on the women’s side and two individuals and one relay team on the men’s side – had already traveled to Albuquerque for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships before Thursday’s cancellation.
The women’s hockey team qualified for the eight-team NCAA Tournament and was set to play a quarterfinal game this Sunday after winning the WCHA title last weekend. Ohio State’s men’s hockey team – which was also expected to make the 16-team men’s NCAA Tournament – was set to play Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on Sunday.
Ohio State’s fencing team qualified the maximum of 12 fencers for the NCAA Championship for the first time in four years – and were one of only three schools to do so – but now those Buckeyes won’t get their chance to compete for a national title.
Ohio State’s pistol team, which won four national titles in the 2010s, will not get the chance to go for another this year. Neither will the synchronized swimming team, which has won three straight national titles and 32 in 42 years. Ohio State’s men’s and women’s gymnastics teams and members of the swimming and diving teams were also among those set to participate in postseason competitions later this month.
As for Ohio State’s spring sports – including baseball and softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s volleyball – they won’t even get to finish their regular seasons. The rowing team, whose first regatta wasn’t scheduled until March 28, won’t get to compete at all this season.
There’s already a petition circulating for athletes whose seasons were cut short to receive another year of eligibility, and Athlon Sports’ Bryan Fischer reported Thursday that the NCAA “will work through formal language re: eligibility for players in winter/spring sports over the coming days/weeks.” As of now, though, that’s not guaranteed – plenty of questions will have to be answered to make that happen, including how it would affect scholarship numbers for 2020-21 – and either way, they won’t be able to get back the opportunities they were set to have this year. (Update: The NCAA announced Friday that is moving toward granting another year of eligibility to spring sports athletes, while it is still working through winter sports athletes whose seasons ended early will also receive additional eligibility.)
None of that is to say the NCAA or Big Ten should have made any other decision than the ones they made Thursday. The COVID-19 outbreak has been classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and the United States looks as though it could be headed toward its largest public health crisis in the last 100 years. As universities around the nation (including Ohio State) canceled in-person classes and the governor of Ohio banned mass gatherings of over 100 people, sports organizations were left with little choice but to put all competitions on hold.
Ultimately, it became clear over the past four days that even limiting spectators from attending sporting events would not be enough to protect the health of student-athletes and others they might come in contact with as the virus continues to spread nationwide.
Our primary focus during this national health crisis is the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes, as well as our campus community and visitors. It is unfortunate for our student-athletes who have worked so hard, but they are all leaders and theyll persevere. https://t.co/0Ca3p5RglR
— gene smith (@OSU_AD) March 12, 2020
Even the acceptance of that reality, though, isn’t likely to ease the pain for the student-athletes whose seasons – and for some, their collegiate careers – came to an abrupt end on Thursday. Because they’ll always be left to wonder, with an unprecedented lack of closure, what could have been.
