NCAA Says Teams Only Need Five Healthy Players For March Madness

On Wednesday, the NCAA confirmed that March Madness can take place if the teams have five healthy players who are able to take to the court. In a series of explanations, it laid out the conditions for teams to safely play basketball in the upcoming tournament in Indianapolis.

Over the last several months, the organization has been conferring on how to continue March Madness in the best possible and closest-to-normal way. ESPN reports that the biggest alteration to the tournament this year is that all 68 teams will come to Indianapolis next week. Every March Madness game will be played in different parts of the city over the course of 19 days.

The coaches and players will undergo continual coronavirus testing, as well as participation in contact tracing efforts. The contact tracing methods include intense tracking, as players will wear equipment that monitors where they are and can keep a record of people they are near. This is reportedly said to help the tracking process if one of the people tests positive for coronavirus. Players will reportedly have their own rooms and each team will occupy individual floors at specific hotels during their time in the Hoosier state.

The bracket process is going to be done in the same way as usual, with the slate revealed on Sunday evening. After 6pm on Tuesday, there will be no replacement of teams if one of them comes down with the virus. The opponents the infected team was scheduled to play would just continue in the tournament as if they had won the game.

But NCAA senior VP of basketball Dan Gavitt said that as long as a team has five healthy players, it can compete. As long as they continue to win, the healthy players can hold the team up in the competition.

“We decided if they had five players eligible and healthy,” they could play, he said. “We wrestled with contingencies, and thought it was fairest for a team that earned its way, that even if it was compromised, they should have the opportunity to play rather than be replaced.”

When asked about the team’s coaching staff and what would happen if one of the staff members came down with the virus, Gavitt said, “Honestly, it’s probably something we should talk about as a committee.”

The past season has been out of the ordinary and team’s seasonal schedules affected the job of creating the bracket.

Committee Chairman Mitch Barnhart, the athletic director at the University of Kentucky, “said he was encouraged by the fact that all but six of the top 100-ranked teams had played at least 20 games this season.” However, he stated that very few of the teams have seen “normal” seasons.

“We’re looking at player availability,” Barnhart said. “We’re looking at who’s played games and missed games. We put another component on our monitoring sheet to take into account this unique circumstance.”

Last year, the NCAA March Madness championship was canceled for the first time in history since it was started in 1939. This year’s tournament, although it will be different than it was before the pandemic, might be a welcome reprieve for sports fans as the world begins to reopen.