NCAA makes contingency plans for tournaments

Turns out the top four teams left out of March Madness won’t have their bubbles burst quite yet.

Under a contingency plan released Thursday by the Division I basketball committees, those four at-large teams that don’t make the original field in the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments will be placed in order and serve as the replacement teams should any conference with multiple bids have a school that is unable to participate due to COVID-19 issues.

If the tournament begins without any withdrawals, the four would still be eligible to compete in the NIT.

The contingency plan only applies to the short period between the announcement of the brackets — March 14 for men and March 15 for women — and the start of games later that week. Once a tournament begins, any team whose opponent is forced to withdraw would automatically advance to the next round.

If there are COVID-19 issues with a qualifying school leading up to the NCAA Tournament selection, conferences get to designate a replacement team and it will be seeded in the bracket based upon its own body of work.

Single-bid conferences likewise can choose their replacement provided the team has gone seven days without a positive test.

Due to the pandemic, the entire men’s tournament will take place in Indianapolis and the surrounding area beginning with First Four games March 18 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The Final Four will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium with the championship game scheduled for April 5.