Sports world rocked, shuts down amid pandemic concerns: around Central Georgia and Georgia, and nationally (updated)
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
It’s a 36-hour period no sports fan will ever forget.
A day after the NBA ended its season for at least awhile and colleges began making major adjustments for tournaments, the NHL and MLS made announcements, and baseball made adjustments. The XFL is off indefinitely.
Thursday was a full day of cancellations and postponements world-wide in sports.
Central Georgia schools and colleges should email The Sports Report at @centralgasports@gmail.com as soon as decisions are made for their spring sports participation and any schedule changes.
College basketball’s tournaments were cancelled, as was the rest of the NCAA championship season, winter and spring. The Players Championship was cancelled at the end of Thursday’s action, and golf is out for three weeks.
Central Georgia Tech’s visit to the national junior college men’s basketball tournament is on hold, the National Junior College Athletic Association announcing a postponement for Division I and II men’s and women’s basketball until tentatively April 20.
The Division III tournaments are underway, and will conclude early, on Friday.
The GHSA announced in a late afternoon Tweet that it was postponing state literary meets on Saturday and March 21, and it was recommending a suspension of spring activities until further notice.
“The regular season belongs to the schools themselves,” executive director Robin Hines said in a release. “We can only recommend that they suspend playing. The final decision will rest with the local school systems, but we hope they heed the Governor’s and the GHSA’s recommendations.”
That means the decision for regular-season competition is up to schools and school systems. The GHSA technically can only cancel or postpone championship events.
The literary meet is expected to be made up, and Hines the GHSA will follow the recommendation of Gov. Brian Kemp and suspend championship competition for two weeks, and issue an update on March 27.
The GISA has suspended all activity beginning Saturday through April 10.
The Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools is postponing events scheduled through March 21 with plans to reschedule.
The Southern States Athletic Conference, home to Middle Georgia State, is suspending action until March 25.
The Southern Professional Hockey League, home to the Macon Mayhem, is suspending the season, at least indefinitely, and “will continue to monitor” developments over the weekend.
In the state, Georgia Soccer is suspending all “affiliated soccer activities through April 30.”
The NASCAR race this weekend in Hampton will take place, but with no fans on hand.
The Southern Conference finally released a statement at 7 p.m., that competition has been halted until the end of March, but teams may practice, according to the Charleston Post & Courier.
The Bears were to host the Mercer Bears Classic softball tournament this weekend, and the baseball team was to welcome Bradley for three games starting on Friday.
The Linger Longer Invitational golf tournament at The Landing at Lake Oconee, co-hosted by Mercer, was scheduled for March 20.
Georgia College postponed Friday’s softball doubleheader and weekend baseball series with UNC Pembroke. That’s the only information from GC.
The SIAC said it is cancelling “all spring athletic and championship events” for the rest of the academic year, but that “all athletic related events including, but not limited to, practices and spring football exhibitions will be suspended until further notice.”
Here is a collection of regional school and conference announcements:
ACC: suspending competition until further notice
ASUN: suspending through at least April 5
Big South Conference: suspended through March 15
SEC: suspending regular-season competition until March 30
Sun Belt: suspended indefinitely
The NCAA cancelled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in mid-afternoon, not long after some schools – like Kansas and Duke - stated they were suspending all travel indefinitely.
An added surprise was the NCAA cancelling all springs sports championships as well.
But that doesn’t mean conferences can’t resume play and hold competition later.
For regular updates, to catch up with Thursday’s moves and stay updated with Friday’s announcements, follow The Sports Report’s Facebook page.
High Schools (as of Thursday night)
Houston County: postponed until March 27, and then re-evaluated
Jones County: cancelled for two weeks
Mary Persons: events suspended until March 27
Putnam County: operating as usual
Upson-Lee: County schools closed Friday through Tuesday, evens cancelled/postponed
Washington County: school closed through March 17
Colleges
GMC: suspended until March 30
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