How does the cancellation of March Madness affect how sports are viewed in 2020?
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00:00It's been eight days since college basketball was canceled at the peak of its season.
00:04Feels like 80, doesn't it? It's been an incredible, surreal time across the globe,
00:09across America, and March Madness is just one small part of it, but it feels pretty big for
00:15those of us who wait all year for that bracket to come out and for the tournament to start,
00:21and certainly for those in my position who cover the games. And without it, it's been
00:25a very, very strange time. Thursday and Friday in the United States, when the NCAA tournament
00:32starts, is as fun as it gets if you're a sports fan. When the brackets are out and you've made
00:37your picks and the games start at noon on Thursday, and you're watching wall-to-wall
00:42basketball from noon until two in the morning both days, and you may have called in sick for work or
00:48found some excuse to take off, you may have played hooky from school, and it's just a big celebration
00:55of a coast-to-coast sporting event unlike any other. And being without it has been really
01:00difficult. It's been a sad time. Obviously, there are more important issues out there,
01:06but having covered every NCAA tournament since 1990, every Final Four since 1991, really feels
01:14like there's an empty spot for me because I'm just not doing what I'm used to doing and what I love
01:19doing. I was there when No. 15 UAB beat No. 2 Iowa State a couple of years ago in Louisville.
01:28I was there when No. 14 Richmond beat No. 3 South Carolina in 1998. I've seen
01:34just about every upset you could see, tons of buzzer beaters. I was there when Ali Farokhbanesh
01:40in the second round took down No. 1 seed Kansas when he was a guard for northern Iowa taking a
01:47shot he shouldn't have even taken. We miss all those things. There's been a lot of talk on social
01:51media, you know, remembering your favorite games, your favorite players, your favorite moments.
01:56Keep that talk up because that at least keeps March Madness alive
02:00for those of us who are missing it badly right now.