Unprecedented events mean questions about sports have no answers
1:15 P.M. UPDATE--The SEC has announced it will halt all recruiting for the immediate future.
The answer to your questions is nobody knows. All of your questions. And anybody you could ask. As the sports world feels the full brunt of COVID-19, it is operating without a map. There's no precedent for this.
Let us be clear, the answers to all of these questions are incredibly trivial. Which games are played and who can watch them doesn't really matter. We're talking about human lives and potentially a high number of them. So we understand sports aren't all that important. But this is a sports site, you are sports fans, we cover sports. So these are the questions you have right now.
That's just 24 hours. Since that tweet, pretty much every major college basketball conference tournament has been cancelled (how's it going Big East?). The National Hockey League told teams early this morning not to hold morning skates or team meets and then suspended its season this afternoon. The Southeastern Conference suspended all competition in spring sports on its campuses through March 30. This comes after the Ivy League just ended spring seasons.
Nobody knows what any of this means. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is addressing media at the conference basketball tournament (or at least the building where it was going to be played) as I write this from Columbia. Mizzou Director of Athletics Jim Sterk will speak in about an hour.
Among the questions relevant for one or both of them are these:
*Will the NCAA Tournament be played?
*Will games that are on other campuses (softball plays at Iowa on March 25th, baseball is at SEMO on the 24th and 25th) continue as scheduled?
*If the seasons are over, does that mean Missouri's postseason bans in baseball and softball are served...even though there technically wasn't a post-season to miss?
*What happens to the eligibility of players who are in the early stages of seasons which basically won't have happened?
As I said, nobody knows the answers to any of these questions. It's not all that likely anyone will know them soon. We're in uncharted waters here.
I've requested statements from baseball coach Steve Bieser and softball coach Larissa Anderson. The baseball team was supposed to open the SEC season at Alabama tomorrow night and is traveling back. Softball was supposed to play at Auburn on Saturday. We know none of those games will happen, but how many others are gone?
The SEC won't hold any games prior to Monday, March 30th. That's the same day Mizzou is tentatively scheduled to resume in-person classes on campus following spring break. At this point, nobody knows if any of that will happen. For now, we're kicking the can 18 days down the road.
Spring football, for now, will continue in Columbia. PowerMizzou.com was told it is unaffected by the SEC ban on competition. The Tigers are supposed to practice at 3:30 on Friday afternoon, then again on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Until we are told otherwise, we assume those workouts will happen.
The Tigers have also been planning to host unofficial recruiting visits this weekend. Some schools (Ohio State and Vanderbilt among them) have ceased all recruiting activity, both on campus and on the road. Missouri has not for the time being.
"Coach (Eli) Drinkwitz has done a great job being prudent here and we're doing a great job of being proactive," recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Casey Woods said. "As long as there's open travel, we've got to recruit. That's the end game on this deal is making sure we do a great job with that. Now we are not going to be out of control.
"I think we're aware of it, I think we're being prudent with it, but we're still going to do our jobs right now."
For how long, nobody knows.