The Big 12 Cancels Remaining Winter and Spring Seasons; Suspends Fall Activities

Texas Tech announced that the Big 12 has canceled the remaining winter and spring sports seasons for concern of the novel coronavirus. Athletic director Kirby Hocutt made this statement:

“The safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, fans and staff will always be our top priority,” Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said. “This is an unprecedented situation we are facing as a nation. Athletics brings so many of us together and there is no better fan base than here at Texas Tech. We’re disappointed for our student-athletes, coaches and fans, but we understand the magnitude of this outbreak and its impact on society as a whole.”

Texas Tech announces that Texas Tech will refund all baseball and softball single-game tickets and pro-rated refunds for all baseball season tickets and annual seat contributions.

Regarding the partially lost seasons, that’s a bit more tricky. WatchStadium’s Jeff Goodman tweeted that student-athletes in spring sports may receive an extra year of eligibility. There’s a distinction between winter sports, like basketball, and spring sports, like baseball and softball.

The NCAA’s Council Coordination Committee has agreed to grant relief for the use of a season of competition for student-athletes who have participated in spring sports.

Committee will also discuss issues for winter sport student-athletes.

Players in spring sports get another year of eligibility.

NCAA looking into what to do with those who played winter sports.

This is great news, on some level, but this also creates its own issues because these seniors would return, playing time is obviously at a premium and even then, does this also create a situation where the freshmen and others that are looking to get more playing time go seek that playing time elsewhere. This result most likely won’t be all cotton candy and Snickers bars and even then, I’d add that some seniors may simply want turn professional (whether that’s playing sports or otherwise) and not come back.

The Big 12 also announced that team activities, whether they be organized or voluntary, as well as team meetings, have been suspended until March 29th, which means that football and possibly volleyball and soccer practices are to be halted until the end of the month.

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