The tip-off of the Indiana-North Carolina basketball game is seen at Simon Skjodt Assmbley Hall in Bloomington on Nov. 27, 2012. Staff file photo by Rich Janzaruk
Penny Caudill knows college basketball’s premiere event is coming to town in two months, but there’s little Monroe County’s health administrator can plan for right now.
“We have been contacted,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of details at this point. I think a lot of it is fluid.”
On Monday, the NCAA announced plans to have the entire Division I men’s basketball tournament, commonly referred to as March Madness, played in Indiana, with Indiana University’s Assembly Hall as one of the six host sites. Dates for each round of the tournament have been set, with the first four games scheduled to take place March 16 and 17.
It’s not yet known, as least publicly, which games each Indiana site will host. As for spectators, family members of players and coaches can attend. A decision on general fan attendance will be made at a later date, with consultation of local health officials.
“We don’t know where we’ll be in the middle of March in terms community spread,” Caudill said, referring to COVID-19.
Mitigating the spread of COVID-19 is why NCAA officials decided to keep the tournament contained to one state, as opposed to numerous host sites around the U.S., as is normally the case. They will follow the so-called bubble model employed by other sports leagues since the pandemic began, with teams staying in one locale for the duration.
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